New Reviews: Mystery & Suspense

Narrator Kris Dyer's skilled delivery makes Elizabethan London--the privileged few, vast destitute, and Catholic heretics--come alive in a fact-based story. Listeners will meet Nicholas Shelby, a grieving physician who has taken to drink after the death of his wife and baby. After encountering a poor, crippled child who appears to have been murdered, Dyer's unwavering and... Read More

Narrator Jack de Golia provides just the right tone of incredulity in this sparkling audiobook. Will and his wife, Beth, are gobsmacked when their son, Will, and their dog, Indy, run into a rip in space-time that pops up in their yard. Suburban dad Will bravely charges after them into the rift, where he encounters casualty cops and zombies and traipses through a cosmic... Read More

This audiobook opens in 1924 as Poppy Denby goes to Northumberland for her father's 60th birthday. She soon ends up serving as press agent for the famous painter Agnes Robson as reporters dig into Agnes's past. When Agnes is murdered while attending an exhibit of her paintings, Poppy quickly gets involved in the hunt for the killer. Narrator Helen Keeley returns for her fourth... Read More

Narrator Erica Sullivan has the benefit of Rozan's well-written plot. In the 13th installment in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, Smith takes center stage, with his partner in a supporting role. Sullivan successfully conveys the personalities of the female characters and effectively uses pace and tone to amp up the drama. However, she is less effective in credibly voicing male... Read More

With vivid descriptions; sharp, authentic dialogue; and a compelling plot, this audio mystery, set in Boston in 1985, is worth the listen. Narrator Keith Sellon-Wright pulls listeners in with his portrayal of former Army Special Forces soldier Andy Roark. Now an investigator, he's trying to figure out what comes next in his life. Sellon-Wright portrays him as smart, dedicated,... Read More

Stina Nielsen, Ryan Jordan McCarthy, Paul L. Coffey, and Kirsten Leigh narrate the next installment in the Vanished series. With its power over death, the bell cannot fall into the wrong hands--but its whereabouts are unknown. Many are searching for it, including members of a mystical society. Once found, they must fight to keep it--and the world--safe from destruction. The... Read More

This is just the type of tense, fast-paced story that listeners expect from the Kendra Michaels series. Once again, Elisabeth Rodgers masterfully portrays Kendra, an FBI consultant, and Jessie Mercado, her close friend and security advisor. Rodgers also ably voices the male characters, including Kendra's love interest, DOJ Special Agent Adam Lynch, who seems to show up at just... Read More

Michael Boatman returns to narrate the 15th audiobook in Mosley's Easy Rawlins series. Boatman masterfully voices the numerous characters from various races and backgrounds, male and female, young and old. Rawlins reluctantly takes on the case of a disturbed white Vietnam veteran who is convinced he stabbed a Black man. Rawlins's persistence to uncover the truth leads him to... Read More

Troy Duran commendably narrates a story that is gritty and brutal but also tender and heartwarming. Listeners meet Freddy Gordon, who invites a childlike, mute man who sits outside his restaurant to come in. As the man eats, Gordon notices his fascination with an arcade game machine prize, which he wins, earning the nickname "Crocodile." Duran sensitively portrays an array of... Read More

The author creates an even more engaging protagonist, portrayed by Joel Froomkin, in this somewhat sad installment in her John Pickett series. The reformed Pickett, once a pickpocket in Regency London, now wants to change jobs because being a Bow Street Runner endangers his wife, Julia. Then, Runner Maxwell sees a boy who strongly resembles Pickett with two older men who murder... Read More

Graeme Malcolm brings an English accent and a fine performance to this Danish mystery. People are dying, drained of their blood through tiny cuts. The victims' other commonality is Butterfly House, a facility for teens with mental health issues. Detective Jeppe Kørner is assigned to the case; his partner, Anette Werner, is at home with a new baby and is thoroughly bored.... Read More

Author Lonnie Busch and narrator Sarah Mollo-Christensen deliver a cryptic thriller featuring Michelle and Cliff Stage, who buy a secluded cabin in the mountains of North Carolina, only to get caught in a mysterious time warp. Mollo-Christensen strongly expresses Michelle's confusion when she realizes her husband has vanished one night while searching for an inexplicable light... Read More

Narrator Jayne Entwistle's sweet, flexible voice transforms as needed from bubbly, young American or gruff, old American to self-effacing German and passing Brit in this fifth outing for amateur sleuth Henrietta and her police inspector husband, Clive Howard, in 1930s Chicago. In the midst of investigating a thieving spiritualist, Clive and Henrietta agree to help Gunther, a... Read More

Listeners are treated to three major con games as Elizabeth Miles and her grifter family mete out justice to malefactors who have escaped the legal consequences of their sins. As narrated by Kate Forbes, this audiobook will immerse listeners in the New York City of 1920 and the Knickerbocker set of social elites. Despite the complexity of multiple con jobs, the narration... Read More

If you're in the mood for a witty, engaging British police procedural, listen to this 22nd addition to the DCI Bill Slider series for a real treat. Narrator Mark Meadows masterfully differentiates the large cast of police investigators and suspects. Listeners will accompany Slider and his team through London as they dig into the life of murder victim Erik Lingoss, a personal... Read More

Narrators Brittany Pressley and Kyf Brewer shine in the latest thriller in the Atlee Pine series, which brings together two of David Baldacci's well-known characters, FBI agent Pine and military investigator John Puller. Pressley portrays Pine as passionate, dedicated, and intelligent. Brewer's Puller is sharp, committed, and driven. Both narrators also capture a large cast of... Read More

When Minneapolis private investigator Nils Shapiro accepts an assignment in L.A., he expects to find a quick answer to the question of what 30-year-old Ebben Mayer is spending his inheritance on in the movie business. Narrator Bronson Pinchot enlivens Shapiro's breezy witticisms with the tone of a guy who doesn't take himself too seriously but insists that his own sense of... Read More

The race to locate an electrical engineer who mysteriously disappears at San Francisco Airport is the focus of this entertaining audiobook. But it is narrator JD Jackson's fast-paced narration that makes the latest Seth Walker mystery so enjoyable. Author Joseph Reid has written two stories, one about Walker's search, in his current job as an air marshal, for the missing man,... Read More

Julian Rhind-Tutt's melodious British accent cloaks this enigmatic tale with bone-chilling terror as the Devil, known as "Old Tom," stalks the United East India Company's galleon SAARDAM on its eight-month voyage from Indonesia to Amsterdam in 1634. Samuel Pipps, detective, is being transported to Amsterdam, to be tried. Also aboard are Pipps's assistant/bodyguard, Arent Hayes,... Read More

JD Jackson's gruff and gritty "beer-for-breakfast" voice is perfect for book-loving "Dewey Decimal," who lives in a world a bit too close to our current situation for comfort. He does what he must to survive in a world ravaged by a virus that has killed millions, a collapsed economy, and terrorism. He does what he must, and if that means being the amoral hired muscle of an... Read More

Mix an excellent story with great characters, and then add audiobook narrator Jeff Harding, who provides a pitch-perfect narration, and it is easy to see why the latest Charlie Parker mystery is so entertaining. Set during the Clinton administration, Connolly's latest thriller focuses on rural Arkansas, where young women are being brutally murdered. A former New York detective,... Read More

Narrator Kathleen McElfresh begins this fast-paced thriller in Boston, where art dealer Portia Malatesta is determined to solve the recent art heist from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. McElfresh provides understated voices for an array of characters, ranging from Portia's family to the Mafia underworld. When Portia develops a theory of criminal profiling based on the... Read More

Author/narrator Ann Lambert's sequel to THE BIRDS THAT STAY grabs attention from its beginning, when the first blizzard flakes are falling on Montreal, to its chilling conclusion. DI Romeo Leduc and Professor Marie Russell search for the person who murdered several homeless people. When a murdered girl's body is found with a photo in her pocket bearing Leduc's phone number,... Read More

Two accomplished crime novel authors and one talented narrator collaborate to produce an arresting listening experience introducing ex-Army criminal investigator Rachel Hatch. Rachel returns to her Colorado hometown to look into the bizarre circumstances of her sister's death. Rachel is one tough heroine, and narrator Marnye Young gives her a resolute voice that is, at the same... Read More

Michael Kramer returns to narrate the fourth audiobook in the Butcher's Boy series. Michael Schaefer, a retired hit man, has been enjoying the good life in England with his aristocratic wife. But one Mafia boss, who has a long memory and a particular grudge against him, seeks revenge. Kramer's voicing of Schaefer is easy to listen to and conveys the personality of this smart,... Read More

With a voice like a film noir femme fatale, narrator Kirsten Potter takes listeners through the frequent twists and turns of forensic expert Maggie Gardiner's latest murder case. Her investigative partner, Jack, is also a serial killer who views it as his mission to bring justice to those who have escaped it through other means. Now Maggie has to solve a case to protect Jack... Read More

This audiobook is the fourth police procedural in the Ellery Hathaway series. Ellery, who as a youth was the victim of a sadistic madman, is now a police officer in Boston and a fierce champion of crime victims. Danielle Gensler portrays Ellery as strong yet vulnerable, her voice both resolute and compassionate. Ellery is the lead detective in the case of a missing preteen who... Read More

Narrator Susan Ericksen returns the listener to the world of New York City police detective Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, in this series, which takes place 40 years in the future. Eve's investigation of the murder of a sculptor leads to a sinister cult-like group. Roarke is Irish, and Ericksen gives him a slight brogue. Eve has a no-nonsense tone, and the... Read More

Narrator Simon Vance grabs listeners' attention and doesn't let go until the final credits of the 23rd Inspector Rutledge mystery by Charles Todd (a pseudonym for a terrific mother-and-son writing team). Rutledge is out of favor with his boss, again, and is sent to a remote Welsh village to investigate the death of an unidentified man who fell or was pushed into a river. As... Read More

It's not uncommon for an audiobook to have a plot that challenges the listener's sense of realism but still succeeds because of the narrator's compelling performance. This entertaining work, ably narrated by Braden Wright, fits that description. Riley Wolfe, a world-class thief, must steal a fresco from the Vatican or face certain death. As the suspense builds, Wright's precise... Read More

Lex was known as Girl A after her escape from her abusive parents. Listeners join Lex when, years later, her mother dies in prison. As the executor of her mother's will, Lex is forced to face her past once again. Ell Potter's strong yet subtle narration helps to build the tension in this story. The narrative shifts time frames, and Potter's characterization helps to distinguish... Read More

This audiobook is a chilling psychological thriller that explores the ways grief, loss, and fear can change a person and make them question who they are. The story is told from the perspective of Jane, who has recently relocated after the death of her daughter. When her new community starts experiencing abductions and murders, Jane is forced to ask herself if she could be... Read More

Rosalyn Landor's narration helps build believable characters and an atmosphere full of tension. Listeners join troubled Simon Brandon, a recently enlisted, underage soldier in 1900. Despite the discovery of his secret, he is sent to India under the watchful eye of Colonel Crawford. There he grows increasingly close to the Colonel's family. Later, when he finds himself accused... Read More

At the opening of this exciting audiobook full of global intrigue, Jim McGill, the "president's henchman," takes a case in Paris while his wife, a politician, is in London at a G8 meeting. A former police colleague has killed a man while trying to rescue a young woman the man was beating. There are just two problems: No one can find the woman, and the people of France want to... Read More

In this cozy mystery listeners gain insight into the life of the first female Episcopal priest to serve in Apple Springs in Northern California. When Hope Taylor shows up for her first day on the job, she finds the murdered body of the meanest man in town and decides to channel her inner Trixie Belden to identify the killer. Jennifer Jill Araya helps listeners find Hope highly... Read More

Narrators Robert Petkoff and Christine Lakin adopt hard New England accents as they perform this mystery set in Maine. Opening with Lakin's portrayal of Kimmy Crepeaux's terse confession to her role in the murder of Jackie Pelletier and Ian Kelly, the story picks up speed as FBI agent Rob Barrett, portrayed by Petkoff, seeks out the real truth behind their deaths. Lakin softens... Read More

This installment of McCall Smith's beloved African novels finds Mma Ramotswe faced with two niggling problems: a distant relative asking for money and a strange smell lingering in her precious white van. Narrator Adjoa Andoh enlivens Mma Ramotswe with the rich, measured tones of a person who has weathered plenty of difficulties and will face the new challenges with forbearance.... Read More

It can be difficult for a slow-burn whodunit to gain steam, especially when the story is told from multiple perspectives. Happily, narrators Donna Banya, Katherine Kelly, and Connor Swindells manage to keep listeners engrossed when a British teen suddenly goes missing after stalking her sketchy former child psychologist. The narrators' skill with U.K. regional accents makes it... Read More

In this second audiobook in a series, Charles Jenkins returns to Russia to bring back an imprisoned woman from a past mission. Narrator Edoardo Ballerini is a master at voices. For Jenkins, he creates a slightly easygoing manner, and for his CIA contact, a youngish-sounding voice. For the Russians, he uses a pitch range: rising for a scared but strong woman, dropping a bit for... Read More

In this sci-fi mystery set in a richly imagined near future, listeners are introduced to Washington, DC, detective Jen Lu and Chandler, a piece of AI technology implanted in Jen's brain. Jen and Chandler work on cases concerning parents who, at age 65, can opt for euthanasia in exchange for their children receiving a treatment that slows aging and immunizes them against deadly... Read More

Saul Reichlin returns to narrate the seventh book in the Joona Linna series by the Swedish writing couple known as Lars Kepler. Reichlin meets the challenge of voicing numerous characters, including a 12-year-old girl and a number of psychopaths, male and female. Warning to listeners: The plot moves from one scene of depraved, graphic violence to another. An old enemy of... Read More

Enjoyable from the start, this fast-paced, tightly written legal thriller is narrated well by George Newbern. When attorney Nate Shepherd is drafted into defending a man who committed a brutal murder to save a friend, he is confronted with a client who demands exoneration. Like most legal thrillers, the book has multiple twists and turns, including the obligatory skeletons in... Read More

Nugent once again provides a dark, dramatic story--this one enhanced by an ensemble of highly skilled narrators. The Drumm brothers, William, Brian and Luke, from a working-class family in Dublin, share the little cruelties that add up to shatter their lives. The novel begins ominously at a funeral of one of the brothers, without a clue as to which one. Each brother is... Read More

With perfectly executed sardonic wit, narrator Pete Simonelli inhabits world-weary Mark Genevich, a South Boston private eye whose nightmarish new case may be the end of him. Genevich suffers from a severe form of narcolepsy that results in hallucinations and seizures. Simonelli communicates Genevich's panicked confusion when he wakes from a dream to discover that a new case... Read More

As the sole narrator of this audiobook, Jim Meskimen's range dazzles, and his attention to detail makes this action-packed story full of twists heartfelt and memorable. To pay for his sister Molly's medication, Brody robs a store, and unbeknownst to him, he's been observed. The theft puts him in an impossible situation with the Mafia, prompting him and Molly to run. The... Read More

Fans of thrillers will appreciate the second audiobook in the Deception Cover series. This story centers on an unlikely couple--ex-con Mason Burke and former U.S. Marine, now sheriff's deputy, Jess Winslow-- along with their dog, who plays an important part in the story. Fortunately for narrators Kevin Stillwell and Courtney Paterson, they aren't asked to bark or growl.... Read More

Hillary Huber returns to narrate the 19th addition to Jance's Sheriff Joanna Brady series. For fans, it will feel like a homecoming as Huber consistently performs all the familiar returning characters. In addition, she uses accents and pitch to differentiate the personalities specific to this story, including young children. The plot unfolds a couple of weeks before Christmas... Read More

In another satisfying collaboration between the author and narrator Robert Petkoff, the listener hears the story of Nina, who once testified against her wealthy boss when his lethal crimes were revealed. Forced to leave her husband and young kids rather than endanger them, she changed her name to Leah, moved to Maine, and cut off all contact. Ten years later, when her husband... Read More

With this "fly-on-the-wall" fictionalized account of the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran, narrator Stefan Rudnicki wisely avoids melodramatics in favor of a crisp, intimate delivery. At times, he sounds like the authorized voice for confidential CIA communications, which may be the case, considering that the author spent 27 years in the Foreign Service. Rudnicki makes smart... Read More

This audiobook is enhanced greatly by its animated narration. Ella Turenne crafts voices for a makeshift family of money launderers. They all battle their own demons, and when a runner is killed and the tension in the plot increases, listeners can hear the amped up anxiety in the characters. Uncle Shecky has a thick, consistent Brooklyn accent, while his partner in crime has an... Read More

Narrator Rachael Beresford engagingly introduces the English village of Pipley in 1941. Residents --including the Bright family--want to do their part for the war, so they raise pigeons. Listeners meet daughter Olive, who is delighted when Captain Jameson Aldrich comes to evaluate their pigeons as possible messengers. Lively descriptions of the countryside and concerns about... Read More

Narrator David Colacci returns to perform the final Gregor Demarkian novel, completed before the author's death in 2019. This multilayered audiobook featuring a former FBI agent, his wife, and his neighbors, who live in a Philadelphia Armenian-American community, focuses on several sociocultural issues and a murder while bringing the series to a satisfying end. Colacci's deep... Read More

Narrators Nathalie Buscombe, Finlay Robertson, and Anna Bentinck team up to perform this thriller, which examines the dangers and ironies of becoming an influencer. Buscombe portrays Emmy, aka Mamabare, whose carefully calculated imperfect perfection has turned her Instagram account into a major money earner, allowing her to support her husband, Dan, portrayed by Robertson, a... Read More

The latest in the Under Suspicion series does not disappoint. Narrator January LaVoy shines with a pitch-perfect tone and appropriate pacing, as well as effective character distinctions. In particular, LaVoy infuses drive, compassion, and intelligence into protagonist Laurie Moran. Moran is finally taking a break from producing her successful Under Suspicion television series... Read More

Narrator Grover Gardner provides the perfect intonations for this audiobook. Rosenfelt's latest in his Andy Carpenter series puts his hero in a unique situation--defending his wife's ex, who has been accused of murder. Gardner's breezy first-person narration of this mystery provides Carpenter's perspective. And while the few women in the audiobook are not differentiated as well... Read More

Susan Ericksen narrates this installment in the V.I. Warshawski mystery series. When a young man is suspected of murder because his phone number is found in the victim's pocket, Warshawski becomes entangled in a web of Middle Eastern archaeological artifacts, a shady payday loan business, Russian gangsters, and missing nieces recently rescued from working the streets. The... Read More

Narrator Olivia Vinall performs this locked-room mystery set in the French Alps. Ten years after a tragic competitive snowboarding season leaves one woman dead and another paralyzed, Milla attends a reunion with four estranged teammates at a remote chalet, hoping for closure. From the first minutes, Vinall sets a foreboding mood, drawing listeners into the cold, dangerous... Read More

Grover Gardener's accomplished narration brings alive the whole cast of characters in this long-standing audiobook series. As slightly world-weary Inspector Montalbano is faced with a new case, he also finds himself coming to terms with the fact that both he and his relationship with his long-distance girlfriend, Livia, are aging--and not necessarily aging well. Among the... Read More

Narrator Barrie Kreinik reunites with Pinkerton agents Rose Gallagher and Thomas Wilshire for a third adventure, this time in the late-nineteenth-century American West. At Theodore Roosevelt's behest, the pair investigate a series of murders and disappearances around his ranch in the Dakota Territory. Kreinik deftly characterizes the aspiring politician, conveying his robust... Read More

Listeners will be indignant as every member of Dixie's dog show class is disqualified by a vindictive judge. Indignation swells to anger when the judge deliberately steps on Dixie's champion poodle's foot. And when the judge is murdered, Dixie's friends are outraged when she becomes the prime suspect. As portrayed by narrator Madison Vaughn, Dixie's Type A personality radiates... Read More

The fifth in Ide's IQ series is packed with vivid characters and credibility-stretching subplots. Fortunately, narrator Zeno Robinson grounds this audiobook with his gift for dialogue and skill with action sequences. Robinson eases listeners inside Isaiah Quintabe's (IQ's) weary mind as he departs L.A. to look for peace and rejuvenation in Northern California. But, as expected,... Read More

Narrator Stina Nielsen introduces Detective Inspector Embla Nystrom, who is also a sharpshooter and boxer. Listeners join Nystrom and 9-year-old Elliot, the son of her ex, as they plan a hunting trip. Nystrom is called away when a body is found in a remote guesthouse. She is shocked to find that the dead man is gangster Milo Stavic, who kidnapped her best friend when they were... Read More

Narrator January LaVoy picks up where she left off--in the aftermath of a sabotaged NASA rocket launch at the Langley Research Center. Patricia Cornwell's second Captain Chase thriller begins as cybercrime investigator and Space Force pilot Calli Chase braves a snowstorm in search of answers. Tight action scenes are balanced with Calli's investigations into the possible... Read More

Neil Dudgeon impressively narrates this audio novella, which takes place in the fictional English village of Cherringham. Jack and Sarah are hired by the Cherringham Gin Company to investigate the possible murder of its head of botanicals, a move not without opposition. In his performance of each character, Dudgeon creates an individual personality, complete with regional... Read More

This audiobook is lowbrow, high energy, and absurdly good fun. Johnny Heller narrates a 1940s-style mystery in a voice suggestive of tough guys in old detective movies. There are references to lugs, thugs, swell guys, and doll-faced dames. Protagonists Bingo and Handsome are scam artists out for a quick buck (or maybe a quarter million bucks), but they are kindhearted and two... Read More

Narrator Angie Hickman takes listeners to Maika'i, Hawaii. As Christmas approaches, Saffron is busy organizing a community Nativity party at her egg farm. She attends the world's most prestigious chicken show, where the owner of the front-runners, French hens, is murdered--bashed with the winner's trophy. With the chickens having gone missing and several competitors being... Read More

Narrator Oliver Wyman delivers a strong performance of this humorous audio mystery. Serial killer Serge Storms gets involved in tracing his own genealogy and drags his sidekick, Coleman, along as he visits newly discovered relatives. But his greatest excitement, which Wyman delivers with high energy, comes when his DNA indicates that one of his relatives is a mass murderer. As... Read More

Narrator Adam Best's gentle Irish accent invites listeners into a relentlessly dark story of Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The main point of view is that of Catholic detective Desmond Maguire, who serves uncomfortably on a Protestant police force. Best voices Maguire's thoughts on being the sole survivor of an IRA ambush. In his search for the informer who drew him into... Read More

Whimsical, imaginative, and fast paced, this audiobook, narrated by Jane Copeland, is a must-listen. In 2016, preparations are underway at Windsor Castle for Queen Elizabeth's ninetieth birthday. Well-researched and full of details that blend fact and fiction, this is a quirky, entertaining story. When one of the Queen's birthday guests is found dead, an investigation begins.... Read More

Narrator Eileen Stevens uses an inquisitive and mellow tone in this mysterious audiobook thriller. After a turbulent marriage, Jessica Thornton remarries and starts a new life with realtor Ted Donovan. They each bring a teenager to their blended family, Jessica's daughter, Emma, and Ted's son, Craig. One night, Ted arrives home from a meeting to discover that both teens are... Read More