There's few greater delights in life than a brilliant audiobook thriller. A mundane commute becomes an exciting hour to look forward to and you can't wait to go for a run so you can plug in your AirPods, shut out the world, and find out what happens next. Below, some of our favourite audiobooks in the thriller category.
Kolymsky Heights
by Lionel Davidson
Kolymsky Heights was described by British fantasy writer Philip Pullman as “the best thriller I’ve ever read.” We’re not sure how many thrillers Philip Pullman has read, but we’ve read a lot, and agree that it’s a good one. The audiobook is read by South African-born narrator Peter Noble, who does a brilliant job of conveying the strangeness of the main protagonist and, before he appears, the opening scenes set in Oxford.
Lethal White
by Robert Galbraith
Lethal White is the fourth book in one of the best detective series currently out there, Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike books. Strike is a British war vet who returns home from Afghanistan—having lost a leg in a bombing that killed many others—and sets up a detective agency in Fitzrovia. He is soon joined by Robin Ellacott, who starts out as a temp but quickly gets promoted and ends up running the agency with him.
Robert Glenister, a British actor, is the narrator and he does the audiobooks brilliantly, effortlessly changing from character to character in dialogue (Strike himself sounds like Hagrid in Harry Potter, which works). It’s probably worth reading the series in order, starting with The Cuckoo’s Calling. However, Lethal White is our favourite so far.
Narrator: Robert Glenister
Length: 22 hours and 30 minutes
The Stranger Diaries
by Elly Griffiths
***Winner Best Novel 2020 Edgar Allan Poe Awards***
The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths is Gothic tale set in modern England, the main protagonist an English teacher with a teenage daughter and a dog. Looming behind the plot are the writings of RM Holland, a fictional Victorian writer of ghost stories (presumably based on MR James). It’s that Victorian creepiness that makes the audiobook so good, and all in all, pretty scary.
Narrator: Anjana Vasan, Andrew Wincott, Esther Wane, Sarah Feathers
Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
Prime Suspect
by Lynda La Plante
Prime Suspect started as a TV series, starring Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison. It was so successful that screenwriter Lynda La Plante has, ever since, made a career as a bestselling novelist as well. These are gripping books and we’ve included them just in case you didn’t know about them.
Narrator: Rachel Atkins
Length: 8 hours and 19 minutes
The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins has sold millions of copies, been translated into umpteen language and made into a movie. There’s a reason for that: it is a really good thriller. It was Hawkins’s first novel, and has that semi-autobiographical feel to it that comes out in many first time novels. If you haven’t read it yet, it does also make a good audiobook, with multiple narrators.
Narrator: Louise Brealey, India Fisher, Clare Corbett
Length: 10 hours and 57 minutes
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
Gone Girl, the bestselling thriller by Gillian Flynn, is a lot of fun to listen to as an audiobook. The plot does degenerate somewhere along the line, but by then you’ve had so many hours of suspenseful listening already, it’s hard to be too exasperated with the author for not holding it together.
Narrator: Julia Whelan, Kirby Heyborne
Length: 19 hours and 18 minutes
Cast, in Order of Disappearance
by Simon Brett
Published in 1975, Cast, In Order of Disappearance is the first book in the series featuring one of the funniest anti-heroes in crime fiction, the seedy, alcoholic, out-of-work (mostly) actor Charles Paris. Simon Brett (who’s been on Five Books recommending his favourite whodunnits) continues to write the occasional book in the series just because they remain so popular. The audiobook is actually a BBC dramatisation starring Bill Nighy, an excellent choice for the louche actor he portrays.
Note: if you take your thrillers very seriously, this is not the book for you.
Narrator: Bill Nighy, Martine McCutcheon, Suzanne Burden, full cast
Length: 1 hour and 52 minutes
The ABC Murders
by Agatha Christie
There’s nothing quite like an Agatha Christie when it comes to listening to a whodunnit as an audiobook, and because they were written in the 1930s, they’re good for listening to with children as there is no swearing or graphic violence. Often it’s actors we’ve got to know on TV or in movies who narrate them. The ABC Murders works particularly well as an audiobook, performed by Hugh Fraser (who played Captain Hastings, Hercule Poirot’s sidekick, in the TV series).
Narrator: Hugh Fraser
Length: 6 hours
The Moonstone
by Wilkie Collins
Viewed by TS Eliot as the inventor of the modern English detective novel, Wilkie Collins’s books remain some of the best mysteries ever written. Opinions vary whether The Moonstone or The Woman in White is better, one thing is for sure: if you like one, you’ll want to read the other. The audiobook of The Moonstone is really nicely performed by the English character actor Peter Jeffrey (1929-1999).
Narrator: Peter Jeffrey
Length: 18 hours and 45 minutes
The Woman in the Window
by A. J. Finn
You have to have just a little patience with The Woman in the Window, which starts off somewhat irritating because it reads like a combination of Rear Window and The Girl on the Train. Hang in there and you’ll find it’s really an excellent thriller with exciting plot twists.
Narrator: Ann Marie Lee
Length: 13 hours and 42 minutes
