Fantasy, mystery and psychological thriller series dominate book sales, as adult colouring also makes a comeback
Fantasy, mystery and psychological thriller series dominate the UK’s bestsellers list for 2025, topped by Richard Osman’s The Impossible Fortune. The fifth book in his Thursday Murder Club series secured the top position at 391,429 hardback sales.
Adult colouring also had a resurgence this year: colouring books aimed at all ages made it into the top 20 chart, according to analysis by NielsenIQ BookData.
Coming in behind Osman is Freida McFadden with the 2022 psychological thriller The Housemaid (the follow-up, The Housemaid’s Secret, also appears in the top 20), and in third place is Suzanne Collins’ prequel to The Hunger Games, Sunrise on the Reaping.
In literary fiction, the One Day author David Nicholls makes the top 20 with his romance You Are Here, along with Elif Shafak’s There Are Rivers in the Sky. In self-help, The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins and her daughter has continued to dominate, shifting 218,919 copies in hardback this year.
