Your Guide to April’s New Mystery, Thriller, and True Crime Books
Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone.
12 New Mystery, Thrillers, & True Crime for April 2025
This month’s selection has a wide range of tropes, genres, subgenres, moods, and themes: Vera Wong is back with all her meddling and sleuthing; there’s a lawyer-led intelligence agency thriller; a landlady hires tenants to solve a murder; a twin takes her dead influencer sister’s identity; an autistic travel writer turns sleuth with his new crush; The Golden Girls star in a cozy murder mystery, and more.
All the Best April Historical Fiction
Whether or not April brings showers this year, as the saying goes, it’s certainly bringing a lot of great historical fiction. There’s no real rhyme or reason or common theme to the books coming out this month. There are mysteries and retellings (including a new Robin Hood retelling! add it to the list) and historical fiction that runs the gamut from literary to romantic. The only thing all these books have in common is that they sound incredible. Sorry in advance for what I’m about to do to your library holds list and TBR. For what it’s worth, though, I do this to myself, too. Every month I’m just adding more books to my never-ending TBR. At least we’re in this together, right?
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7 New Nonfiction Book Releases of April 2025
Of course, as a fan of true stories, nonfiction is always at the top of my to-be-read pile, and April is full of incredible new releases! I could start with Maggie Smith’s new essay collection for writers, which is full of excellent advice for the creative life. Or I could read a memoir by one of my favorite celebrity chefs, Kristin Kish. Or maybe I’ll check out the new vegetarian cookbook that features 80 recipes on the perfect combination of rice and dal. Or what about the new essay collection by one of today’s greatest writers and thinkers, Viet Thanh Nguyen?
It’s Raining Manga (Hallelujah) in April’s New Releases
Below, you’ll find everything you need to pick up these exciting new titles, including buy links and the release dates as they were reported at the time of writing. And yes, there are several manga and manga-adjacent titles for you to consider — I made sure I earned that song reference! — including both the end of one series and the debuts of several others. You can also check out the continuation of established non-manga series and standalone adventures that deal with important issues like religion and acceptance in tones ranging from adorable to heartfelt.
100 Years of Gatsby, Old Sport!
January 16, 2025, marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The New York Public Library celebrated with a party, following a special performance of the Broadway musical adaptation of the novel. Simon and Schuster recently released a new audiobook with an introduction by Jesmyn Ward.
The novel’s theme of reinventing oneself is timeless. The ideas of living a lie by reinventing yourself and wealth making people callous are equally resonant today. How did this novel become so influential, especially on other American novels, and a fixture on high school syllabi? Was it always a bestseller? What aspects of Gatsby hold up, and which ones have aged terribly?
