Yes, the category is nebulous, but maybe it’s just a matter of mood and great writing. Here are our choices for the best noir fiction released in 2025.
Saint of the Narrows Street, William Boyle
(Soho)
Boyle continues filling out the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn with powerful, emotionally complex crime stories. In Saint of the Narrows Street, two sisters arrange for a terrible secret to be hidden, reverberating across the generations. Boyle’s work is always traced with melancholy and never shies away from the tough moral predicaments his characters face.
King of Ashes, S.A. Cosby
(Flatiron)
The ballad of the Carruthers family in central Virginia – and the unforgettable Carruthers Crematorium – sets the stage for one of the best entries yet in S.A. Cosby’s growing body of impressive work. The family business is teetering on the brink and the wolves are at the door, with Cosby subtly ratcheting up the tension to almost unbearable levels, all while handling the delicate emotional relations of the siblings and their fallen father with delicacy. Cosby is a storyteller coming into the height of his powers, and King of Ashes is a family crime epic that will have readers catching their breath for years to come.
El Dorado Drive, Megan Abbott
(Putnam)
The Bishop sisters of Grand Rapids Michigan are at the center of Abbott’s newest novel, which, as is always the case with Abbott’s work, slowly works its way under your skin and floods your system with an inescapable sense of dread. In this case, it’s the investment scheme the sisters are caught up in that inevitably turns dark. The Wheel is supposedly a way for women to support women – a social club, a gathering cause, a community. But as the figures grow and new recruits are brought in, the cracks begin to spread and pretty soon we’re in a land of noir, the air thick with desperation and regret. Abbott is a master of atmospherics, and her style would carry her through just about any story, but this one packs a special punch.
The Felons’ Ball, Polly Stewart
(Harper)
In this follow-up to Stewart’s acclaimed debut, The Good Ones, tension boils over at an annual birthday summit where a pair of old friends recount past misdeeds for a raucous and appreciative gathering. In The Felons Ball, Stewart paints a lively portrait of small-town secrets and generational entanglements. Stewart is proving herself a master of suspense.
Gray Dawn, Walter Mosley
(Mulholland)
For crime readers, a new Easy Rawlins novel is always one of the big events of the year. In the new installment, Easy is at the head of his own detective agency and thriving in 1970s LA. Mosley has more than earned his reputation as the ultimate craftsman – his language is precise, evocative, and poetic, and his stories challenge and satisfy in equal measure.
