Kerry Schafer's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Stephanie Plum is down on her luck. She's lost her job, her car's on the brink of repossession, and her apartment is fast becoming furniture-free.

Enter Cousin Vinnie, a low-life who runs a bail-bond company. If Stephanie can bring in vice cop turned outlaw Joe Morelli, she stands to pick up $10,000. But tracking down a cop wanted for murder isn't easy . . .

And when Benito Ramirez, a prize-fighter with more menace than mentality, wants to be her friend Stephanie soon knows what it's like to be pursued. Unfortunately the best person to protect her just happens to… show more.

'A SKILLFUL TRIUMPH' Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist - 'IRRESISTIBLE' Emma Donoghue, author of Room

New York, 1895. It's late on a warm city night when Sylvan Threadgill, a young night soiler who cleans out the privies behind the tenement houses, pulls a terrible secret out from the filthy hollows: an abandoned newborn baby. An orphan himself, Sylvan was raised by a kindly Italian family and can't bring himself to leave the baby in the slop. He tucks her into his chest, resolving to find out where she belongs.

Odile Church is the girl-on-the-wheel, a second-fiddle act in a… show more.

A hugely complex and entertaining novel - Star Pick*, The Times Crime Club

Elizabeth George delivers another intelligent, intricate mystery - New York Times

Superlative . . . This is a memorable addition to [the Inspector Lynley] series - Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review)

Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers and Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley are back in the next Lynley novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Elizabeth George.

A Nigerian born detective sergeant working for the Metropolitan Police is found unconscious in her own flat and ends up in hospital where she dies of her injury. The post-mortem reveals that the… show more.