New December Mystery & Thrillers To End 2025 With

For fans of humorous mysteries, past and present chapters, and the threatening-note-from-a-dead-person trope!

Kirby Cornell lives in a sleepy town known for a mass killing spree 30 years ago and is stuck in a dead-end job when she receives a WhatsApp message with a threat: “Everyone in the group chat will die”. It’s clear the message is from Kirby’s past roommate Esme, but Esme is dead…

For fans of Chicago-set procedurals!

Detective Harriet Foster is grieving and only two months out from her most recent case when she is thrown into having to focus on a new danger. A recent party drug called Edge appears to be tainted and it’s already killed five people. If she doesn’t find out who is behind it, there will be more deaths.

If you want to start at the beginning of the series, pick up Hide.

For fans of series that follow different employees at an organization, road trips, and mixed-genre mysteries!

S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences) is the organization that handles the work of helping death with retrievals, which is where Nora Bird works. When her new case reveals her twin brother has been marked to die in a car accident, she gets him and his parrot into her car and off they go, hoping to escape death. But this escape will lead them to where their father grew up, presenting more mysteries than they’d imagined.

The books in the series are standalones, but if you’d like to read the first book, pick up A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer!

For fans of puzzles and cozy mysteries set in a bookshop!

This book combines two different book formats: puzzle search games and a cozy mystery. Abby Jones owns a bookstore in Cranberry Creek and has finally started to settle into life in the quaint town and make friends. She has to put her sleuthing cap on when the local bakery owner is accused of poisoning a critic!

If you’d like to read and solve the puzzles starting at the beginning of the series, pick up Murder Among the Stacks.

For fans of historical mysteries and reporter leads based on a real person!

As the lifestyle columnist for Gotham Magazine, Freddie Archer spends her nights in speakeasies, attending shows, and rubbing elbows with bootleggers and artists. That’s why Detective Sullivan with the NYPD shows up at Freddie’s job with questions about the woman last seen with bootlegger Jake Haskell, before he was murdered. This won’t be the last murder to cross Freddie’s path, and soon she’s working on a list of suspects which obviously puts her in the danger zone…

For fans of historical gothic stories, novellas, and atmospheric suspense!

Set in South Africa in the 1920s, Soraya Matas accepts the job of Mrs. Hattingh’s personal maid only to discover that there are spirits in the dilapidated home. The more time that passes, the more restrictive Mrs. Hattingh is, but Soraya needs the money so she stays. But things aren’t as they seem.