John David Mann's 3 favorite reads in 2025

What an original, fascinating, unlikely hero, and what a compassionate lens the author writes with! The ending is something that will stay with me forever -- even now, many months since reading it, I could recite it word for word, it has so emblazoned itself on my soul.

I adore everything Bob Crais writes; he is a lovely human being in person, and it shines through all his writing, no matter how dark the subject matter. The Big Empty was especially bold; he took on some awfully dark topics, and wrote them with such poignant care and sensitivity. Powerful stuff.

This was my first experience reading Chris's stuff, and the moment I put it down I bought and read every Pavone novel (there are only a half dozen or so, so it's a highly doable thing). There are plenty of reasons to love his stuff, but for me the #1 reason is the sheer audacity and gorgeousness of his paragraphs -- his descriptions, especially, of scenes, of eras, of the essence of social moments, of social strata and the slices of humanity he looks at -- it's like a master class in narrative prose on every page. Frequently I'll read a paragraph and then stop to let the thing soak in. It's like I cannot read any further until I've fully digested the glorious virtuosity of the dang paragraph I just read! Truly a joy.

Of his other books, The Expats (his debut novel) was a fantastic read, probably my next favorite on his backlist, and I also thoroughly enjoyed The Accident. But there's not a lemon among 'em. (His Substack, "A Working Novelist," is also thoroughly enjoyable.)