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Audiobooks » Best Audiobook Thrillers

Browse book recommendations:

Audiobooks

  • Best Audiobook Thrillers
  • Best Audiobooks for Kids
  • Best History Audiobooks
  • Great Actors Read Great Books
  • Great Audiobooks Narrated by Their Authors

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
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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.

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Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
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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

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The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths
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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

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Prime Suspect by Lynda La Plante
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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

 

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The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
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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

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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
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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

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Cast, in Order of Disappearance by Simon Brett
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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

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The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
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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

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The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
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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

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The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn
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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

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