Six More Mysteries I Loved Reading Last Year
- The Bossy Bookworm
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
Six More Favorite Bossy Mystery Reads
I love looking over my favorite reads from the past twelve months in every genre. Something about the post-holiday cold gray of January lends itself to stories that chug along and keep me guessing. I've been in a mystery-reading mood lately, and I thought you might be too, so I'm sharing more mystery reads I've enjoyed for you to check out.
You can explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year, you can read about Six Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Reading Last Year here, and you can find Bossy reviews of many other mysteries here.
If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think!
What are some of your favorite mystery reads, whether from the past year or beyond?
01 Nine Liars (Truly Devious #5) by Maureen Johnson
The fifth in Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious young adult mystery series showcases Stevie Bell's instincts, doggedness, and ability to uncover the truth, this time in London while she and her friends visit Stevie's long-distance boyfriend David and investigate a decades-old double murder in a group of Cambridge friends.
In the fifth in Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series, skilled amateur high school sleuth Stevie Bell is in denial about her senior-year to-do list. She is overwhelmed about applying to college, and she doesn't have the funds to imagine that next step as a realistic prospect.
When she and her friends get an opportunity to visit their former classmate (and Stevie's long-distance boyfriend) David in London, they cook up detailed research plans and immersion in the history and culture so their headmaster will approve the plan.
The mystery's resolution isn't too easy, and Stevie leans on procedure, dogged determination, and her intuitive hunches to force a dangerous confrontation and to offer revelations about who is to blame and why.
Stevie relies upon her friends for emotional support and for sleuthing assistance, and I liked the continued focus on the tight, complementary group of friends. But the novel doesn't wrap up Stevie's situation regarding college plans nor her long-distance relationship with David. A cliffhanger leaves her furious with him, betrayed, and at a loss regarding her future yet again.
Maureen Johnson is the author of the six-book Truly Devious young adult mystery series: Truly Devious, The Vanishing Stair, The Hand on the Wall, The Box in the Woods, this book, and The Velvet Knife.
For my full review, please check out this link.
02 The Hallmarked Man (Cormoran Strike #8) by Robert Galbraith
I feel compelled to see this series through to its end. The Robin-Strike tension is finally spoken aloud, although not resolved, and the mystery twists to involve personal histories, secrets, and, ultimately, dark, devastatingly horrifying characters. I was hooked for the 31 hours of the audiobook.
In The Hallmarked Man, dismembered body and Freemason symbols are found in a silver vault. Cormoran and Robin's newest client wants them to figure out whether or not the corpse is the father of her newborn baby.
Things are already messy. The silver shop is next to a Freemason's Lodge with a broad reach, law enforcement is trying to keep the agency from succeeding in solving the case, some of their witnesses are tied to Strike's ex-girlfriend Charlotte, and the more suspects they consider, the more nefarious plots they uncover.
Regarding the mystery: The dismembered corpse mystery leads to a whole host of even more dark, disturbing crimes and collective mental illness and abuse. The reveal was truly horrifying.
The book teases around Cormoran and Robin's star-crossed attraction (again), but ultimately the issue is brought up head-on (though not resolved).
You can click here to check out my reviews of Cormoran Strike books 1 through 4, book 5, book 6, and book 7.
You can read my full review by clicking this link.
I support transgender rights and therefore am uncomfortable with some of views expressed by J. K. Rowling (Robert Galbraith is the pen name she uses for the Cormoran Strike series).
03 Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
Mysteries abound within McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore, but the story is largely an atmospheric story of isolation and loss set against the drama of climate change, tragedy, and finding the will to trust again.
The description of Charlotte McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore immediately ticked several of my reading-interest boxes--the setting is an isolated island (Antarctica is the closest land mass), the climate is cold (check out these other Bossy reviews of titles with cold settings), and climate change and shifting weather patterns are bringing matters to a head.
When a mysterious woman washes up half-dead on the remote island of Shearwater, home of the world's largest seed bank and formerly a research hub, she finds only Dominic Salt and his three children manning the lighthouse. The lonely, broken characters reach out to each other. Although hesitant because of past hurts, they begin to form intense bonds.
There are mysteries at the center of the story, but for me this was a captivating, atmospheric dive into the pressures, pain, and hope within extreme isolation, the power of external forces, and the push to protect each other at all costs. I was intrigued throughout.
For my full review of Wild Dark Shore, please check out this link.
Charlotte McConaghy is also the author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves
Wild Dark Shore was one of My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads.
04 We Are All Guilty Here (North Falls #1) by Karin Slaughter
I like a story driven by a female investigaor of a main protagonist, and in this small-town mystery and tragedy, officer Emmy Clifton comes into her own. The situation quickly becomes dark and twisted, and Slaughter builds tension without red herrings or manipulation.
In Karin Slaughter's We Are All Guilty Here, Emmy Clifton is a police officer for whom the job is all in the family--her aging father is the sheriff.
It's the Fourth of July, and all hands are on deck with the police for the town's fireworks, crowd control, public nuisances, traffic snarls, and who knows what else.
So when Emmy's best friend's teen daughter Madison brushes her off, then shows up, needy and asking for help, Emmy doesn't have time for the drama.
But when Madison and her best friend go missing that night, Emmy realizes the girls have been keeping dark secrets and tangling with sinister figures.
Slaughter doesn't rely on red herrings, and she adds in unexpected losses that complicate the truth-finding process. I didn't predict the identity of the bad guy, and while the interconnectedness of those at fault seemed like a little bit of a stretch, like calls to like, and it seems plausible that damaged, sick individuals would be drawn to each other.
For my full review, please check out We Are All Guilty Here.
05 The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker
Walker offers an unreliable main protagonist, her dedicated new psychiatrist, increasingly inexplicable and complicated occurrences, and speculation about unfathomable possibilities in this novel about memory, connection, love, and wonder.
Jane is a young single mother and a librarian at the New York Public Library. She has a perfect memory: she's able to recall events, surroundings, and information down to the finest detail. But just after she visits a psychiatrist, Dr. Byrd, Jane goes missing. She is found face down and unconscious in Prospect Park, with no memory of what has occurred.
Dr. Byrd begins to believe Jane is suffering from dissociative fugue, a rare condition that could account for her ability to act and function but recall no memory of doing so.
The Dr. Byrd-Jane chaste yet deep connection made me feel uncomfortable because of their doctor-client relationship and even more so because of the complications of her intensely acted-out perceived mental illness. Yet the promise of their ongoing link is one of the only ways in which the novel's characters are satisfactorily "settled" for a future by the end of the novel.
For my full review, please check out The Strange Case of Jane O.
Please click here for more Bossy reviews of books about memory.
06 Heartwood by Amity Gaige
Amity Gaige's Appalachian Trail-set novel offers several of my favorite elements: a Maine setting, a missing-person storyline, an unforgiving wilderness, and a strong woman succeeding in a male-dominated field. This mystery hit the spot for me.
But the nonbeliever is in a bind, because without God, who forgives? Human beings are pretty unforgiving. The law certainly isn’t forgiving. Forgiveness needs a messenger.
Amity Gaige's Heartwood offers the story of Beverly, a dedicated Maine State Game Warden who has fought for years for an amount of respect to match her commitment and ability, and Valerie, an Appalachian Trail hiker who has gone missing 200 miles from her final destination.
Wheelchair-bound Lena, who is following the search from afar, Valerie, and Bev are inexorably connected, and Valerie's survival depends upon the other two women's bravery and relentlessness. Meanwhile, the novel explores imperfect parenting, compounding mistakes by clinging to fear or regret, and against-the-odds second chances. Forgiveness is a concept that emerges again and again here.
I love a Maine setting, a missing-persons story, and a tale of brave women thriving in a traditionally male career. This story is so intriguing, I had trouble putting it down.
Amity Gaige is also the author of O My Darling, The Folded World, Schroder, and Sea Wife.
Check out the titles at the links here for more missing person stories and for more books set in Maine.
For my full review of this book please see Heartwood.
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