Even lovers of noir and thriller literature will not be left empty-handed in these first weeks of 2025. If the plate is very rich in novels in January, the proposals that mix mystery, investigations and mysteries to be solved are varied and ready to amaze readers of all ages.

In strict order of release, the first work to fill the bookshop shelves will be Butterfly by Martta Kaukonen, the Finnish author’s debut novel, out on January 10th by Longanesi. The narrative figure is significant: the writer in fact tries to amaze the reader by narrating the relationship between a therapist and her patient through the disturbing point of view of a serial killer.

On January 14th it will be the turn of a quartet of works that are already creating great anticipation among the Italian reading public. Neri Pozza continues on his journey of rediscovering Michael McDowell – thanks to the enormous success achieved by the saga of Blackwater – publishing Katiea gothic thriller that the American author himself judged to be his “cruelest novel”. After Mary Love and Elinor Dammert and the ferocious Lena Shanks de The togolden gheethe American author’s narrative corpus is enriched with an evil protagonist who alternates between divination sessions, cabaret shows and hammer blows. A news story that actually happened between the two World Wars, which shocked Europe due to the brutality of the crimes and an unprecedented reversal of roles – women who kill men and take revenge – is the theme around which it orbits Nagyrév’s midwifehistorical true crime by Sabrina Zuccato, published by Marsilio.

The same day it will be released by Einaudi Let those who are innocent tremble by Barbara Frandino, a family noir which – writes the publisher – “allows us to glimpse the minimum distance between who we are and who we could be”. Miss Bee & the Winter Prince it is instead the second chapter of the events featuring Beatrice Bernabò, a new heroine born from the pen of Alessia Gazzola, published by Longanesi. A ‘whodunit’ novel, which combines the suspense of Agatha Christie and the atmospheres of TV series such as Downton Abbey And Bridgerton.

It will be released by Mondadori on January 21st. Seven lives like booksnew volume of the yellow series by Serena Venditto dedicated to the cat Mycroft and the four roommates of via Atri 36; late eighteenth century, Wales, a fascinating and engaging mystery are instead the coordinates of The key to the shadowshistorical mystery by Susan Stoke-Chapman – writer translated in 18 countries around the world – published by Neri Pozza. Also for Neri Pozza, on January 28th, Tullio Avoledo’s latest work will be released in bookstores: How to kill a gentleman. Set between Milan and Friuli, the protagonists – a lawyer and his partner – set out to find the man with the briefcase to solve a murder. To be released by Mondadori on January 28th and already optioned for cinema, it is finally Daniele Soffiati’s first thriller. The judge of the damned is a dizzying work full of twists and turns, which revolves around the search for a killer and the eidetic skills of an Italian FBI criminologist.

Butterfly (Longanesi)

(Martta Kaukonen; release date: January 10). Clarissa Virtanem is Finland’s most famous psychiatrist. He is a sort of celebrity who can boast an impeccable CV and highly followed television appearances. This is why Ira, a young twenty-year-old, decided to knock on the door of his studio. The reason is common: he has obsessive compulsive disorder that he can’t get rid of.

Clarissa agrees to treat her but, once the secrecy of the therapist-patient relationship is established, Ira confesses the truth: her real disorder is serial murder and she wants Clarissa to help her. But something in Ira’s words is off. The boundaries of the relationship between the two women blur and the planes of reality and lies come dangerously into contact.

Katie (Neri Pozza)

(Michael McDowell; release date: January 14). 1871. When the penniless and intrepid Philomela Drax receives a letter from her rich grandfather, in which the latter writes that he fears for her life because of an unscrupulous family, the Slapes, her granddaughter rushes to her rescue. But time is running out, because Katie Slape, a cruel woman with the gift of clairvoyance and a certain ability to deliver hammer blows, is about to prevail.

From the dusty streets of a New Jersey village to the glittering sidewalks of Saratoga and all the way to the docks of New York, Philo pursues Katie. Or is it the opposite? No one can escape Katie’s fury.

The midwife of Nagyrév (Marsilio)

(Sabrina Zuccato; release date: January 14). Zsigmond Danielovitz is tasked with investigating the body of an elderly peasant woman. Behind the eyes of the inhabitants of Nagyrév, a small remote village in Hungary, it doesn’t take them long to see something sinister. Danielovitz soon realizes that the woman’s death is the link in a long chain of disappearances and accidents that have involved the small reality for some time.

A key figure in the narrative is the midwife Zsuzsanna, often labeled a ‘witch’ by her fellow citizens, an example of an emancipated woman to whom many ‘sisters’ ask for help in solving the problems they have at home.

Let those who are innocent tremble (Einaudi)

(Barbara Frandino; release date: January 14). When a man’s body is fished out of the river, Nico is certain he knows who it is. For a very simple reason: he was the one who killed him. Or at least that’s what he thinks. In an attempt to reconstruct the facts, to absolve himself or condemn himself, he finds himself digging into his family’s lies and looking for the origin of their unhappiness, which like a disease has spread and infected everything. Even desires.

Maybe it all started when his father, an engineer in search of thermodynamic happiness, started filling the house with objects that he himself wanted to invent. Or when his mother, with a degree gathering dust in a drawer, dreamed of getting lost in the books she loves and disappearing forever. Or the precise moment Nico looked at his uncle and feared he looked like him. The certainty soon becomes only one: everyone would have a motive for that death, because everyone has something to hide.

Miss Bee & the Winter Prince (Longanesi)

(Alessia Gazzola; release date: January 14). Derbyshire, December 1924. It’s a cold Christmas at Alconbury Hall, the country residence of the noble Lennox family. So cold that not even generous doses of sherry can warm the mind and heart of Lady Millicent Carmichael, as she dictates her unseemly memoirs to the new secretary who goes by the name of Beatrice Bernabò, known as Miss Bee, who, however, could not have heart and mind warmer, indeed, incandescent.

Perhaps thanks to the splendid atmosphere of Alconbury Hall, with the fireplaces lit and crackling and the elegant dinners, or more probably thanks to the viscount, the charming Julian Lennox. However, behind the convivial facade, there are intrigues and suspicions that culminate in a theft, an attempted murder and a disappearance. It will be Miss Bee who will reveal the mysterious tangle of secrets and deceptions.

Seven lives like books (Mondadori)

(Serena Venditto; release date: January 21). In a semi-deserted Naples in the aftermath of the Christmas holidays, Malù, an archaeologist with a passion for crime novels, has a big problem to face: her PhD is finished and the university no longer has funds. Basically, she is unemployed and penniless.
With the help of his roommates he finds a job in a used bookshop, Second Chance.

One day she comes across a copy of the Woman in whiteWilkie Collins’ masterpiece. And leafing through it he notices that some pages are soaked in fresh blood. Her instincts tell her that something very bad happened where the book comes from. Now it’s up to her and the company of her “Irregulars” – including Mycroft the cat – to find out where the bloody volume came from, how it got there and who the victim is.

The key to the shadows (Neri Pozza)

(Susan Stokes-Chapman; release date: January 21). Meirionydd, Wales, 1783. Henry Talbot is forced to accept a job as a doctor in a remote village in Wales, a place where he cannot speak the language and where people are still tied to an archaic world, governed by superstition. When Henry discovers that his predecessor died under mysterious circumstances, and begins to notice a strange symbol appearing in the most unusual places, he sets out to find answers.

His explorations lead him to cross paths with the lady of the manor, Linette Tresilian, a reserved and irritating young woman who seems to know nothing of the numerous magic books that crowd the shelves of the family library. Linette, fatherless and with a mother who shows signs of mental imbalance, however, has her own theory about what really happened in the village and decides to help Henry.

How to kill a gentleman (Neri Pozza)

(Tullio Avoledo; release date: January 28). The lawyer Vittorio Contrada has changed his life. After following in his father’s footsteps for years in search of money, business and customers-chickens to pluck, he decided to redeem himself. Now he has a ramshackle studio in a very remote area of ​​Milan and only follows pro bono and pro environment cases. One evening a man entered his study to entrust him with a briefcase. It’s a shame that shortly afterwards the man died in unclear circumstances and that the Contrada office was completely ransacked during the night.

Vittorio and Gloria, his determined and foul-mouthed partner, the only one who seems capable of standing up to him, set out on the trail of the man with the briefcase. The investigations will take them to a mountain community in Friuli, which is fighting to save the territory at the mercy of industrial powers much larger and more dangerous than they can imagine.

The Judge of the Damned (Mondadori)

(Daniele Soffiati; release date: January 28). In Trenton, New Jersey, it comes as a shock to everyone when Scott Hicks is found dead in his house, his face swollen, ravaged by hundreds of wasp stings. Few knew that the psychiatrist was allergic, but his killer certainly knew it. Because it is murder, there is no doubt: Hicks had his face sprinkled with vinegar and sugar, a perfect mixture to attract wasps and thus give him a lethal anaphylactic shock.

Sean Brennan asks for help from two former FBI colleagues, the Italian criminologist Francesca Martini and the special agent Nicolas Frost. Francesca, in particular, has a special ability: eidetism. He knows how to create mental images with a vivid reality character. Combined with the study of the psychology of memory, this talent allows her to reconstruct the mechanics of the murders starting from the crime scene.