Summer books catch-up: 20 of the best novels so far in 2025 

Looking for a book for beach or a shady spot in your garden? Richard Fitzpatrick offers his fiction picks for the first half of the year 

John Connolly's Children of Eve; Theo Dorgan's Camarade; Joseph O'Connor's The Ghosts of Rome

1. The Children of Eve by John Connolly

 There are few more enjoyable crime series characters than Detective Charlie Parker, John Connolly’s former cop whose cases invariably find him knee-deep in the supernatural in picturesque Maine. This time out of the traps, he’s tasked with finding an ex-soldier on the run who has apparently abducted the children of a mob boss.