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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Crime
by Barry Forshaw
The Woman Who Laughed by Simon Mason (Quercus/riverrun)
If you’re thinking that the dreaming spires of Oxford have been overused as a locale for crime fiction, think again. Mason’s narrative focusing on the murder of a sex worker translates the ethos of Georges Simenon’s Maigret into an English setting: concise, richly characterised with plotting of high-tensile steel.
King of Ashes by SA Cosby (Headline/Flatiron Books)
There is something of a miniboom in socially committed, trenchant Black American crime fiction (for example, Attica Locke) at present; Cosby is a shining light in this cadre. With echoes of The Godfather, this is an excoriating Southern family drama, with financial wizard and eldest son Roman confronting impossible compromises.
Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell (Century/Atria Books/Cornerstone)
Those complaining that modern crime fiction has lost the storytelling grip of the past should tackle the new Lisa Jewell. As in her previous 22 novels, she has the measure of the psychological thriller. Her protagonist, Ash, invites a seemingly perfect man into her life, with (of course) dangerous consequences.
A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor (Hemlock Press)
Taylor’s position at the apex of historical crime writers is reinforced. This page-turner is set in a secluded school for girls away from the violence of the second world war. Teacher Annabel Warnock may have fatally fallen from a clifftop walk, but is spectrally pursuing her killer among students and staff.
The Secrets We Keep by MR Mackenzie (Madhouse)
Scottish writer Mackenzie continues to deserve all the praise he gleans for his weighty, well-crafted thrillers that bristle with colour and invention. The tenacious Anna Scavolini, as adroitly characterised as ever, returns to a febrile Glasgow from Italy to investigate the death of a former university colleague.
Summer Books 2025
All this week, FT writers and critics share their favourites. Some highlights are:
Monday: Business by Andrew Hill
Tuesday: Environment by Pilita Clark
Wednesday: Economics by Martin Wolf
Thursday: Fiction by Maria Crawford
Friday: Politics by Gideon Rachman
Saturday: Critics’ picks
Thrillers
by Adam LeBor
Red Water by Jurica Pavičić (Bitter Lemon)
This outstanding crime thriller, deservedly garlanded with awards, is set against the backdrop of the Yugoslav wars of the early 1990s. When 17-year-old Silva disappears from her home on the Dalmatian coast her dark secret life is soon revealed. But still her brother searches for her for decades in this moving story of loss and longing.
A Spy at War by Charles Beaumont (Canelo)
This accomplished and notably timely second novel is shot through with convincing menace as it moves seamlessly between Whitehall and the battlefields of Ukraine. Beaumont is a skilled guide to the murky interface between the corridors of power and the human consequences of the decisions that unfold there.
The Doorman by Chris Pavone (Aries)
Pavone’s engaging tale unfolds in a high-end apartment block on Manhattan’s swish Upper West Side. Its glamorous lobby and polished corridors may seem tranquil. But behind the facade they are home to passion, fury, adultery and deception. The devoted doormen keep guard over their residents — until murder, robbery and chaos erupt.
The Seventh Floor by David McCloskey (Swift/WW Norton)
Artemis Procter, a high ranking CIA officer, is brutally dismissed from the agency despite years of valiant service. This may be because the Russians have a mole in the highest reaches of the CIA. Procter quickly teams up with fellow officer Sam Joseph to go off-the-books and track down the bad guys in this compelling tale.
The Oligarch’s Daughter by Joseph Finder (Head of Zeus/Harper)
Finder steps deep into the uber-rich world of Russian oligarchs living the high life in the US — and the dark secrets that lay behind their mansions and mountains of money. Finder’s trademark is a complex conspiracy that drives the story and once again he delivers the goods with style.
Tell us what you think
Will you be taking any of these books on your summer holiday this year? Which ones? And what titles have we missed? Let us know in the comments below
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