Audiobook lovers don’t have to feel neglected anymore. Thanks to Audible’s ever-growing archive of audiobooks, there’s something for every reader, whether it’s the classic mysteries of Agatha Christie or modern espionage and paranormal thrillers. Just proceed with caution–perhaps with one ear bud out–so that when your cubicle-mate taps you on the shoulder you don’t let out an embarrassing, blood-curdling scream. From gripping tales by Louise Penney and Walter Mosley to Alex Michaelides and Ruth Ware, here are the best mystery audiobooks available now.
Louise Penny
Actor Robert Bathurst, who played Downton Abbey’s Sir Anthony Strallan, lends his voice to the latest of Louise Penny’s acclaimed mysteries. This time investigating a deeply personal mystery, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache must get to the bottom of a violent attack on his billionaire godfather Stephen Horowitz. While the investigation takes him through Paris’s most alluring and intriguing sights, it is what Gamache finds within Stephen’s very own apartment that proves to be the most startling discovery of all. Raising more questions and revealing a danger closer than he imagined, Gamache must quickly unravel his godfather’s past, his family’s lies, and his own place in it all.
Related: 14 Charming British Mystery Shows for Your Binge-Watching Pleasure
The Silent Patient
Read by Jack Hawkins and Louise Brealey, who played Sherlock’s Molly Hooper, The Silent Patient is a mind-bending psychological thriller. After Alicia Berenson shockingly murders her husband and shatters her seemingly perfect life, she never speaks a word again. Her infamy grows with her silence, captivating the public and intriguing criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber. But when Theo finally gets the chance to work with Alicia, his attempts to reveal the truth about her mysterious case expose much about himself, in a search for answers threatens to envelop him entirely.
Related: 13 Chilling Thrillers to Read If You Loved Alex North’s The Shadows
One By One
Called the “the Agatha Christie of our generation” by New York Times best-selling author David Baldacci, Ruth Ware’s One By One tells of a mystery set in an isolated ski chalet in the French Alps. Beginning as a luxurious company retreat, things begin to go awry when a stakeholder offers the group a hotly-contested buyout option. While tensions build over the potential deal, a storm and avalanche on the mountain leaves one employee missing and the rest snowed. And mysteriously enough, the disappearances don’t end there, as one employee after another continues to vanish.
Related: 11 Authors Like Agatha Christie
Trouble Is What I Do
Known for his role on The Wire, Dion Graham reads famed mystery writer Walter Mosley’s Trouble Is What I Do. When tasked with delivering a letter containing revelation about a wealthy socialite’s Black lineage, gritty P.I. Leonid McGill gets more than he bargained for. The sleuth’s simple task spirals into a far more elaborate job, as McGill must outsmart assassins, protect his lovable and elderly client, and earn the trust of the city’s elite with his usual style in a mystery that dazzles as only Walter Mosley’s can.
Shadows In Death
Under the name J.D. Robb, celebrated writer Nora Roberts brings a whole new twist to her In Death series. Lt. Eve Dallas is investigating a murder in which the victim’s husband is a prime suspect. Upset over his wife’s infidelity and standing to gain financially, he has some compelling motives to hire a hitman. But the case is more complex than it seems. Eve’s husband Roarke spots Lorcan Cobbe, a dangerous assassin and his own half-brother at the crime scene. On edge by his presence, Eve and Roarke hunt to find the deadly killer and get to the bottom of the mysterious web of connections.
Then She Was Gone
Ten years after her daughter Ellie’s disappearance as a teenager, Laurel Mack is still struggling to repair her shattered life. But when she meets Floyd in a cafe, she begins to move on from the tragedy that left her broken for a decade. As their relationship grows, Floyd breathes new life into Laurel’s ordinarily numb routine. But when Laurel meets Floyd’s daughter Poppy–who looks jarringly like Ellie–Laurel’s questions begin to pile up.
Eye of the Needle
Adapted for the screen in a 1981 film, starring Donald Sutherland and Kate Nelligan, Eye of the Needle is a classic spy thriller, from legendary novelist Ken Follett. A renowned and ruthless Nazi spy comes across intelligence that could change the entire course of WWII. Aware of the Allies’ greatest deception, only a forlorn Englishwomen can stop the deadly German spy, in a tale filled with deceit, desire, and gripping suspense.
Related: 13 Riveting Reads for Mystery Fans and History Buffs Alike
Walk the Wire
In the latest in David Baldachi’s Memory Man series, Amos Decker, an FBI detective with a flawless memory, is called to investigate a murder that is strange from the start. The already autopsied body of Irene Cramer is left out in London, North Dakota. A teacher at a religious school by day and a prostitute by night, Irene is just the beginning of the mysteries in the North Dakota town, swirling with government secrets, a peculiar religious sect, and all types of shady individuals brought to the area by its fracking boom. And after another murder is committed, Amos must work quickly to untangle the town's strange workings.
The Alienist
Now a television series on TNT, Caleb Carr’s historical fiction novel takes place in 1896 New York, where the city’s gilded age hides the tarnish of its violent underbelly. When a boy prostitute is found brutally murdered underneath the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, Dr. Lazlo Kreizler, the alienist (an early term for criminal profiler) calls on the help of his friend, reporter John Schuyler Moore. Together with Sara Howard, a secretary in the police department, the three uncover some alarming truths about the murder as they work together to build a profile of a depraved killer.
Red Sparrow
Now a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, Red Sparrow is a thrilling modern take on the classic spy novel. Dominika was inducted into serving Russian intelligence as a “sparrow,” a female seductress/spy, against her will. Then, the powers-that-be order her to go head-to-head with the CIA’s point man in Russia. Will Dominika take the opportunity to become a double agent for the CIA to pay back the government that forced her into life as a sparrow?
Alias Grace
From the author of A Handmaid’s Tale, Grace Marks has been accused of the murder of her employer and his housekeeper/mistress. Though she claims to have no memory of the crimes, Grace is convicted and sent to jail. A sympathetic doctor interested in mental illness hopes to discover the truth behind Grace’s predicament, but finds himself ill prepared for the reality that the charming, if odd, young woman may in fact be a cold-blooded killer. The newly re-released audiobook features Sarah Gadon, who plays Grace in the Netflix series, reading the twisty tale.
The Woman in the Window
In the vein of Paula Hawkins’ runaway bestseller, The Girl on the Train, A.J. Finn’s The Woman in the Window is a twisted tale of obsession. Anna Fox suffers from agoraphobia–a fear of wide-open spaces–so she rarely ventures out of her house, where she lives alone. When a family moves in across the street, in her loneliness and boredom she believes she witnesses a crime. Can Anna believe her own eyes, or has her illness warped her mind?
Related: 8 Books Like The Girl on the Train
The Ghost Notebooks
Newly engaged, Nick Beron and Hannah Rampe have embarked on a new life in upstate New York, away from the hustle and bustle of the city as caretakers of a historic museum. Their hopes for peace and quiet are quickly dashed, though, when they hear strange things at night, and one morning, Nick awakes to find Hannah vanished into thin air. In order to find her, Nick will have to search the dark history of his new home and its original owner … who may not have ever left.
Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Stories
Who better to read four new stories inspired by the character of Sherlock Holmes than the actor who has portrayed him the most memorably (or at least, most recently)? Benedict Cumberbatch reads these four stories inspired by the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, written by John Taylor. As Watson helpfully explains, these four cases were found in Holmes’ archive and have yet to see the light of day—a fun and thrilling expedition for any die-hard Sherlock fan.
Related: The 8 Best Sherlock Episodes to Jump-Start Your Obsession
Murder on the Orient Express
Actor Dan Stevens, best known as Downton Abbey’s Matthew Crawley, reads Agatha Christie’s classic mystery Murder on the Orient Express, recently adapted into a movie once more with an all-star cast including Daisy Ridley and Judi Dench. When a millionaire turns up dead in his train car, luckily Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot is onboard and points out that the suspect is most definitely still on the train, stalled by a snowdrift. The only question: Can Poirot identify the murderer before he strikes again?
Featured photo: StockSnap / Pixabay
