Curious about which fiction books were the most sought-after from your local library’s shelf last year?
The results are in, right down to the number of times these titles were loaned!
If you haven’t heard of or read any of these titles yet yourself, their popularity certainly indicates that they’re worth popping on your to-read list for 2025.
#1: What Happened to Nina? By Dervla McTiernan
Also available as an eBook (BorrowBox), eAudio (BorrowBox), eBook (Libby).
Young, fun and deeply in love. Until they leave for a weekend at his family's cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home. What happened to Nina? Nobody knows. Simon's explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn't add up. Nina's parents push the police for answers, and Simon's parents rush to protect him. They hire expensive lawyers and a PR firm that quickly ramps up a vicious, nothing-is-off-limits media campaign. How far will his family go to keep him safe?
Borrowed 530 times!
#2: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Also available as Audio (MP3), Book Club Kit, eAudio (Libby), eAudio (BorrowBox), eBook (BorrowBox).
The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie's car business is going under, but instead of doing anything about it, he's out in the woods preparing for the actual end of the world. Meanwhile his wife Imelda is selling off her jewellery on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attentions of fast-talking local wrongun Big Mike. Their teenage daughter Cass, usually top of her class, seems determined to drink her way through the whole thing. And twelve-year-old PJ is spending more and more time on video game forums, where he's met a friendly boy named Ethan who never turns his camera on and wants PJ to run away from home.
Borrowed 440 times!
#3: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Also available in Large Print, eAudio (Libby), eAudio (BorrowBox), eBook (BorrowBox) .
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with - of all things - her mind. True chemistry results. A few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking ('combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride') proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.
Borrowed 419 times!
#4: Lola in the Mirror by Trent Dalton
Also available as eBook (BorrowBox), eAudio (BorrowBox), Audiobook (MP3), Audiobook (CD).
Mirror mirror, on the grass, what's my future? What's my past? A girl and her mother have been on the run for 16 years, from police and the monster they left in their kitchen with a knife in his throat. They've found themselves a home inside a van with four flat tyres parked in a scrapyard by the edge of the Brisbane River. The girl has no name because names are dangerous when you're on the run. But the girl has a dream. A vision of a life as an artist of international acclaim. A life outside the grip of the Brisbane underworld drug queen 'Lady' Flora Box. A life of love with the boy who's waiting for her on the bridge that stretches across a flooding, deadly river.
Borrowed 417 times!
#5: The Accident by Fiona Lowe
Also available as eAudio (BorrowBox), eBook (BorrowBox), Audiobook (MP3)
Freya thought she could relax when Ryan's best mate Jamie got engaged to her best friend Hannah. Two couples, four friends - what could be better than that? But a day before the wedding, Freya is torn between keeping the peace or blowing it up. Hannah's perfect wedding is hours away and she's daydreaming of a honeymoon in Tahiti and starting the family she longs for when she hears the first-responder sirens. Is it a grass fire? Worse? And why aren't Ryan or Jamie answering their phones? When a car veers off the road with devastating consequences, the small wheatbelt town of Garringarup is left reeling, but no one's world is more shattered than Hannah and Freya's. As disturbing details surrounding the accident emerge and questions pile up, ugly secrets rise to the surface. Mystery, lies and scandal - it's soon obvious nothing is as it seems in this small town.
Borrowed 414 times!
#6: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
Also available as Large Print, eBook (BorrowBox), eBook (Libby), eAudio (BorrowBox), Audiobook (MP3), Audiobook (CD).
Shocking news reaches the Thursday Murder Club. An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing. As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home. With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die.
Borrowed 390 times!
#7: The Seven by Chris Hammer
Also available as eBook (Libby), eBook (BorrowBox), Audiobook (MP3)
Yuwonderie's seven founding families have lorded it over their district for a century, growing ever more rich and powerful. But now—in startling circumstances—one of their own is found dead in a ditch and homicide detectives Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan are sent to investigate. Could the murder be connected to the execution of the victim's friend thirty years ago—another member of The Seven—or even to the long-forgotten story of a servant girl on the brink of the Great War? What are the secrets The Seven are so desperate to keep hidden? With the killer still on the loose and events spiralling out of control, the closer Ivan and Nell get to discovering the truth, the more dangerous their investigation becomes. Can they crack the case before more people die?
Borrowed 380 times!
#8: After that Night by Karin Slaughter
After that night, everything changed... Fifteen years ago, Sara Linton's life changed forever when a celebratory night out ended in a violent attack that tore her world apart. Since then, Sara has remade her life. A successful doctor, engaged to a man she loves, she has finally managed to leave the past behind her. Until one evening, on call in the ER, everything changes. Sara battles to save a broken young woman who's been brutally attacked. But as the investigation progresses, led by GBI Special Agent Will Trent, it becomes clear that Dani Cooper's assault is uncannily linked to Sara's. And the past isn't going to stay buried forever.
Borrowed 368 times!
#9: Foul Play by Fiona McIntosh
Also available as eAudio (BorrowBox), eBook (BorrowBox), Audiobook (MP3)
Superstar footballer Luca Bruni is being blackmailed for a night of lust he swears he didn’t participate in...except the ransom photo denies that. A media darling on and off the field, he has powerful charisma, a perfect home life he’ll do anything to protect, and more money than he knows what to do with. He’s determined to defy the extortion racket. When Detective Superintendent Jack Hawksworth learns that the cunning mastermind behind this crime has already swindled a dozen of the world’s most highly prized male athletes, he is instructed to keep the situation from escalating and prevent a media frenzy. Intrigued by the creativity of the crime and the shockwaves it is creating; Jack begins a journey into a case that has tentacles far more wide-reaching that he ever imagined – and far more deadly.
Borrowed 367 times!
#10: Sanctuary by Gary Disher
Also available as eBook (BorrowBox), eBook (Libby), Book Club Kit, Audiobook (MP3)
Grace is a thief: a good one. She was taught by experts and she's been practising since she was a kid. She specialises in small, high-value items - stamps, watches - and she knows her Jaeger-LeCoultres from her Patek Philippes. But it's a solitary life, always watchful, always moving. It's not the life she wants. Lying low after a run-in with an old associate, Grace walks into Erin Mandel's rural antiques shop and sees a chance for something different. A normal job. A place to call home. But someone is looking for Erin. And someone's looking for Grace, too.