Book of the Year - Crime & Thriller
Book of the Year - Crime & Thriller Winner and Shortlist
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This year’s shortlist finds the biggest crime mega brands rubbing shoulders with two exciting debuts, from a TV screenwriter and a former barrister respectively. The books run the gamut from cosy crime to edge-of-your-seat thrillers; our judges are promised a wild ride.
Winner
A Case of Mice and Murder
Sally Smith
Raven Books
A Case of Mice and Murder, Sally Smith’s “exquisitely written” murder mystery, set in London’s Inner Temple, was singled out by the judges as a “standout in this category”. The panel agreed that Smith’s creation, Edwardian barrister Gabriel Ward KC, was a new “memorable sleuth” on the crime and thriller shelves.
Raven Books set out to make Smith’s debut a hit, executing Bloomsbury’s biggest paperback campaign of the year. In a “tremendously successful” marketing campaign, the team created their first-ever television book trailer and executed a Daily Mail website takeover. They put author care at the heart of their publicity strategy, deferring to Smith’s wish that her legal career not be used to publicise the book. However, appearances at Capital Crime and Bloody Scotland festivals made Smith a new talent to watch. The panel agreed that A Case of Mice and Murder represented “everything we want to foster in great British crime writing”.
The Shortlist
A Case of Mice and Murder
Sally Smith
Raven Books
Raven Books’ first ever cosy crime series launched with A Case of Mice and Murder, a debut introducing Edwardian barrister Gabriel Ward KC. The distinctive cover was inspired by photographs taken by the designer on a visit to Inner Temple. The marketing campaign was one of Bloomsbury’s biggest of the year, reaching more than seven million people, including a full digital takeover of the Daily Mail, and the publisher partnered with book club app Novellic to create a shareable reading guide to the series.
Death at the White Hart
Chris Chibnall
Penguin Michael Joseph
From the pen of award-winning screenwriter Chris Chibnall, Death at the White Hart is set in the picturesque village of Fleetcombe and tells of a tight-knit community hiding dark secrets. The publisher focused first on building regional support in Dorset and the South West, the author’s home and the setting for both his hit TV series Broadchurch and the book; a launch-day segment filmed against the Broadchurch cliffs was picked up by BBC Breakfast. Stocked by retailers from supermarkets to indie bookshops, Death at the White Hart was the bestselling crime debut of 2025.
The God of the Woods
Liz Moore
The Borough Press
With modest sales of US author Liz Moore’s previous books in the UK, the publisher prepared to break out her latest literary thriller by treating it like a debut. A cinematic trailer captured the thriller energy and the stunning Adirondack setting, and was repurposed for Meta and Amazon advertising, with a “huge” outdoor campaign across train stations and TfL. The God of the Woods ended the year with sales up 1,932% against the previous paperback.
The Impossible Fortune
Richard Osman
Viking
How to keep the fifth book in a series feeling as fresh as the first can sometimes be a challenge, but not so for Viking. Harnessing the release of the star-studded The Thursday Murder Club film on Netflix, collaborations with TikTok creators translated the film buzz into book discovery for younger readers, while a spot on The One Show sofa for Richard Osman drove over 1,000 sales in a single hour. The Impossible Fortune was the bestselling book of 2025, spending 13 weeks in the Overall Top 10.
The Secret of Secrets
Dan Brown
Bantam
One of the biggest names in thriller-writing, Dan Brown returned after an eight-year hiatus with The Secret of Secrets, the sixth novel to feature Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. Bantam produced a slick, modern package, which reminded his core readership of The Da Vinci Code while also introducing his work to a new, younger audience. It is no secret that the thriller hit number one in the charts and then spent 17 consecutive weeks inside the Top 10.
The Tenant
Freida McFadden
Poisoned Pen Press
With no fewer than nine thrillers in the Official UK Top 50 of 2025, Freida McFadden is dominating the genre and with The Tenant she enjoyed the strongest opening-week sales of her career, to date. Tapping into BookTok and digital-reading communities, influencer mailings were sent to carefully selected content creators with a combined reach of over 813,000 followers. Partnering with true crime podcast They Walk Among Us, 60-second ads targeted a clued-up, genre-specific audience.
