BPL’s 2025 Big Borrows (so far!)

Mystery readers love the Chief Inspector Gamache series by internationally acclaimed Canadian novelist Louise Penny. Her 19th novel in the series, The Grey Wolf, tops our list with 342 loans so far. With readers eagerly anticipating Penny's 20th Gamache novel later this fall, we expect this enthusiasm to continue. (Yes, we'll order it when it becomes possible!) 

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is savouring a peaceful morning in the hidden village of Three Pines when a single phone call shatters everything. A cryptic message, a missing coat, and a chilling murder pull Gamache and his team into a tangled web of secrets. As friends begin to act like foes and old enemies seem oddly helpful, the stakes grow ever higher. Their frantic chase across borders leads to a terrifying truth that could devastate even the quietest corners of Québec.

Borrow The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

Readers borrowed Liane Moriarty's psychological thriller, Here One Moment, 307 times since January. Released in September 2024, Moriarty, who has sold over 20 million books worldwide, never fails to enthrall her legions of fans.

Passengers on a routine flight expect nothing more than slight turbulence and a safe landing—until a mysterious woman tells them exactly when they’ll die. For most, the news is far off and almost laughable, but for six people, their time is frighteningly near. As her eerie predictions begin to come true, panic sets in. Would you change your life if you knew exactly how much of it you had left?

Borrow Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

While interest in Kristin Hannah's The Women may have rallied in May when Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group announced they secured the film rights to the story (with Tom Cruise developing, producing, and starring in the motion picture), the fact remains that it's a compelling, beautifully written novel. The Women was a top pick of 2024 with 635 loans on the regular print edition, and has 301 borrows so far in 2025.

Frankie McGrath is a sheltered California nursing student in 1965 who shocks her family by enlisting to serve in Vietnam. Thrust into a chaotic war zone, she finds herself grappling with loss, trauma, and unexpected strength. But coming home is almost harder—America is divided, and so is her heart. A stirring story of one woman’s search for meaning in a country that seems to have lost its own.

Borrow The Women by Kristin Hannah

The Waiting, book 6 in the Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch Novel series, by crime fiction novelist Michael Connelly earned fourth place on our list with 243 loans.

A break in a decades-old case reveals the Pillowcase Rapist may have a son—and Detective Reně Ballard is determined to close in. But when her badge and gun are stolen, she has to work off the books, calling on the legendary Harry Bosch and even Bosch’s daughter, now on the force herself. As personal stakes collide with cold cases, they uncover haunting secrets that could rewrite the city’s history. Danger looms from every shadow as Ballard risks everything for justice. 

Borrow The Waiting by Michael Connelly

We can confidently say that Burlington readers love books by Freida McFadden, whose twisty thrillers rank #5, #6, and #9 on our big borrows list! McFadden's fast-paced, suspenseful thriller, The Boyfriend, joined BPL's collection in October 2024 and has remained popular with readers since, with 238 loans so far in 2025.

Dating in New York is a nightmare, but Sydney finally thinks she’s found the one: a handsome, attentive doctor. Then a string of murders hits close to home, and the killer’s twisted pattern becomes alarmingly familiar. Is Sydney’s perfect boyfriend hiding a monstrous secret? She’d better find out before she becomes the next headline.

Borrow The Boyfriend by Frieda McFadden

Just a few months after the release of The Boyfriend, Freida McFadden's The Crash was published in late January 2025, with 231 borrows since then.

Eight months pregnant and fleeing her problems, Tegan drives straight into a Maine blizzard—and straight into trouble. Stranded with a broken ankle, she’s grateful when a kind couple offers her shelter. But their cozy cabin starts to feel like a trap, and Tegan realizes she might be fighting for her life—and her baby’s—before the storm ever ends. Survival means facing terrifying truths and making impossible choices.

Borrow The Crash by Freida McFadden

Kate Quinn's The Briar Club has been a top pick for fans of historical fiction and mystery since its release last July, and ranks 7th with 223 borrows in the first half of this year.

At a shabby women’s boardinghouse in 1950s Washington, D.C., secrets simmer behind every door. Newcomer Grace draws her neighbours—an elegant socialite, a cop’s daughter tangled with a gangster, a faded ballplayer, and a fervent anti-Communist—into unexpected bonds over attic dinners and sun tea. But Grace’s own past is darker than they know. When violence strikes, these women must decide where their true loyalties lie in a city thick with paranoia.

Borrow The Briar Club by Kate Quinn

When Sony Pictures Television acquired the rights to Liz Moore's true crime-inspired novel around the time it was originally published in July 2024, the buzz helped put The God of the Woods on the To-Be-Read list of many crime fiction and mystery fans—with 218 borrows in 2025 already. We expect loans to remain strong in anticipation of the TV adaptation, so don't wait to place your hold!

A teenage girl vanishes from summer camp in 1975, reopening wounds for a powerful family who lost another child years before. As the frantic search stretches across the lush, haunted landscape, buried secrets begin to surface. The tragedy ripples through the lives of a grieving mother, a local teen trying to fit in, and an outsider chasing the truth. In this layered mystery, the question isn’t just what happened, but what the past refuses to let go.

Borrow The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Freida McFadden strikes again! This time with 208 borrows of her gripping psychological thriller, The Housemaid is Watching, the third book in her Housemaid series.

At last, she has it all: a beautiful house, a quiet street, and a fresh start for her family. But unsettling neighbours, shadowy figures, and an icy maid across the street suggest danger is closer than it appears. As old secrets creep back, she starts to wonder if this perfect home is actually a deadly trap. Maybe the past is never really behind you, especially on this eerie suburban block.

Borrow The Housemaid is Watching by Freida McFadden

Intermezzo by Irish novelist Sally Rooney takes 10th place on our top borrows list with 203 loans of the physical book so far this year.

Brothers Peter and Ivan struggle in the wake of their father’s death—Peter masking his pain behind his legal career and tangled love life, Ivan drifting through chess tournaments and awkward silences. When Ivan meets Margaret, a woman carrying scars of her own, their lives entangle in unexpected ways. It’s a tender, searching look at grief, desire, and how much a heart can hold before it breaks. A quietly powerful story of brothers finding their way through loss and love.

Borrow Intermezzo by Sally Rooney