Sydney Graves Stands Out in Recent Batch of Thrillers
The Guardian’s list of the top crime novels of 2025 showed me that I don’t read enough British or Irish books in this genre. So in the fall and early winter, I dove into a few of the novels cited by the venerable British newspaper, which had no American novelist in its list of the year’s top thrillers.
My reading list included The Good Liar by Denise Mina and The Bureau by Eoin McNamee. I’ve recently become a John Banville fan, so I tossed in the latest volume of his Quirke series, The Drowned, to complete my bout of Anglophilia.
I’ll start by saying that it’s a joy to read these authors’ prose. The biggest difference between English-speaking crime novelists on the two sides of the Atlantic is that the British/Irish contingent wins hands down as stylists over their American counterparts.
But what I also noticed was that the electrifying prose papers over some cracks in the European books’ foundations. The elements needed to really draw in readers, like a core of sympathetic characters, a slow drip of imaginative clues and a sizzling, logical conclusion, were too often absent or weak in these novels.
I’ve selected six recent novels in this batch of reviews, evenly divided between the two sides of the ocean. Here they are, starting with the best.
The Arizona Triangle
By Sydney Graves
Sydney Graves is the pen name of the Arizona-based literary novelist and PEN/Faulkner Prize winner Kate Christensen, and The Arizona Triangle marks her first foray into crime fiction. It’s an impressive debut, marred only by a problematic ending. Nearly forty, private investigator Justine “Jo” Bailen works for an all-female agency in Tucson when she learns her estranged childhood friend, Rose, has gone missing. Drawn back to her hometown, Jo confronts old wounds, including a former boyfriend now tied to the case. The novel grips throughout, but the killer’s late, unconvincing explanation for the murders undercuts an otherwise excellent read.
The Proving Ground
By Michael Connelly
The Proving Ground, Michael Connelly’s eighth Lincoln Lawyer novel, highlights two of the author’s enduring strengths: meticulous research and an underrated talent for writing about technology. The plot centers on a lawsuit blaming an AI chatbot for influencing a teenage murderer, allowing Connelly to explore both courtroom procedure and the risks of emerging tech with intelligence and restraint. While the story lacks the tension and polish of his best work and contains some continuity slips, it remains a solid, engaging novel. Notably, Connelly’s recent Mickey Haller books now outshine his Bosch series. (You can read my longer review here.)
The Good Liar
By Denise Mina
Both The Guardian and New York Times rated this as one of the best crime novels for 2025, and I really liked it . . . to a point. The Good Liar tells the tale of blood spatter expert Claudia O’Sheil, whose evidence helped to put a killer behind bars – or so everyone believes. When O’Sheil learns her evidence was flawed, she has to decide whether to come clean, ruining not only her career but also disgracing friends and colleagues. I wouldn't rate this novel as the best of the year as it got confusing at times with too many characters and the murderers reveal their complicity when they didn't have to. But the good parts are truly wonderful. The prose is splendid, and Mina's knowledge of police and legal procedure lends the novel an air of credibility. I love her portrayal of modern British aristocracy (Please excuse the oxymoron.) and the troubling dynamic within O’Sheil’s family.
The Secret of Secrets
By Dan Brown
Dan Brown’s The Secret of Secrets is an entertaining but deeply implausible entry in the Robert Langdon series, demanding a near-total suspension of disbelief. While the novel’s central premise and several key plot points strain credibility, it remains a well-researched, fast-paced technothriller. Brown’s affection for Prague enriches the setting, and his detailed exposition on science and symbolism is both a strength and a weakness. With firmer editing and fewer excesses, it could have been a much stronger novel. (You can read my longer review here.)
The Bureau
By Eoin McNamee
McNamee writes splendid noir prose -- imaginative, uncompromising and pure grit. The problem is his lean, hard style leaves no room for character development, and there are no characters that the reader can latch on to and root for. I found the timeline confusing, and the characters were so similar in temperament that I often had trouble understanding who was who and how they fit into the plot. The Bureau boasts wonderful sentences but a shaky story.
The Drowned
By John Banville
I found Book 4 in John Banville’s Quirke series to be disappointing. I loved the first Quirke novel, and I jumped to No. 4 as it had just come out. But it felt like Banville wanted to drift away from thrillers and back to his more familiar territory of literary fiction. Problem is this novel suffers the fate of so many “literary thrillers” – not artistic enough to be literary nor thrilling enough to be a thriller. The novel suffers from too many coincidences, too much introspection, and WAY too much backstory. Banville can do much better than this.
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Peter Moreira’s latest novel is the technothriller Presidio Biotech. He is also the author of The Haight Mystery Series — retro mystery novels set in San Francisco in the late 1960s. Go to my home page to join my mailing list and receive a free prequel novella.
