June is here once again and that means it is National Audiobook Month! I am an avid audiobook listener- I would say 30-40% of my books each year are audiobooks. (I am not one of those people who thinks that audiobooks don’t “count” as reading- books are books, no matter what format.) And as I celebrate this month each year, I share some of my favourite books- in 2021, I shared The Top 7 Historical Fiction Audiobooks and in 2023, I shared The 10 Best Audiobooks for History Lovers. For National Audiobook Month 2024, I will be sharing my Top 7 Mystery Audiobooks to get lost in!
My Top 7 Mystery Audiobooks
I do that a lot of people turn to lighter books when they are on vacation or have time off, and I do enjoy a lighthearted read to relax. However, just as often I find myself turning to a mystery. Mysteries suck me in and keep my reading like few genres can, and if you give me a good mystery audiobook I will be hunting for tasks to do so I can keep listening!
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie (Narrated by Dan Stevens)
First, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they’re unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. And only the dead are above suspicion.
Why You Should Read This….
I know that other people will suggest The Murder of Roger Ackroyd or Death on the Nile as the ultimate Agatha Christie choice, but And Then There Were None still holds my attention. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I first read it over two decades ago now and I still think about it on a regular basis. Yes, there are some fantastic adaptations for the screen, but I always recommend that people read the book prior to watching them. And I think that Dan Stevens (aka Matthew Crawley from Downton Abbey) does a particularly fantastic job of narrating it! You cannot go wrong with a classic mystery.
Note: It is important to note that the original text includes several slurs that have been changed by the publisher and are not included here.
And Only to Deceive, Tasha Alexander (Narrated by Kate Reading)
For Emily, accepting the proposal of Philip, the Viscount Ashton, was an easy way to escape her overbearing mother, who was set on a grand society match. So when Emily’s dashing husband died on safari soon after their wedding, she felt little grief. After all, she barely knew him. Now, nearly two years later, she discovers that Philip was a far different man from the one she had married so cavalierly. His journals reveal him to have been a gentleman scholar and antiquities collector who, to her surprise, was deeply in love with his wife. Emily becomes fascinated with this new image of her dead husband and immerses herself in all things ancient and begins to study Greek.
Emily’s intellectual pursuits and her desire to learn more about Philip take her to the quiet corridors of the British Museum, one of her husband’s favorite places. There, amid priceless ancient statues, she uncovers a dark, dangerous secret involving stolen artifacts from the Greco-Roman galleries. To complicate matters, she’s juggling two prominent and wealthy suitors, one of whose intentions may go beyond the marrying kind. As she sets out to solve the crime, her search leads to more surprises about Philip and causes her to question the role in Victorian society to which she, as a woman, is relegated.
Why You Should Read This….
I used to read a lot more cosy mystery series, but I’ve gravitated away a little bit. (It’s no fault of the genre, I’m just not picking them up as often.) However, I do return to the Lady Emily series and I widely recommend it to anyone looking for a mystery. And Only to Deceive has more twists and surprise turns than most cosies, making it an engaging book to pick up- it’s not as predictable as others in the genre. (Again, that’s not a bad thing, simply not what every reader wants.) I also love that Emily’s passion is Greek antiquities- there is nothing like a heroine who loves her history. Kate Reading’s narration is lovely,
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman (Narrated by Lesley Manville)
In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved killings.
But when a local property developer shows up dead, ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ find themselves in the middle of their first live case.
The four friends, Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron, might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?
Why You Should Read This….
Thursday Murder Club has arguably kicked off a new sub-genres of mystery, one that I refer to as “seniors solving crimes” and it is one of my favourite types of mystery now. Yes, they existed before but it was a major turning point in the mystery field in the last few decades.
Many people will describe TTMC as a cosy mystery. However, I would strongly argue against this- as someone who has read 200+ cosies, Osman’s novels won’t give you cosiness simply because seniors are solving the crimes.
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron are whip-smart, find themselves in extreme and dangerous situations, and have to solve an ever-widening mystery while trying not to get violently murdered themselves. You will not find a better “blockbuster” mystery to escape into. And of course, the incredible Lesley Manville’s narration is not to be missed.
The Murder of Mr. Wickham, Claudia Gray (Narrated by Billie Fulford-Brown)
The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a house party, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances–characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered–except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.
Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. In a tantalizing fusion of Austen and Christie, the unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party–before an innocent person is sentenced to hang.
Why You Should Read This….
If you know me at all, you will know that I had to include an Austen-themed mystery. I love Gray’s Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mysteries are some of my favourite books of the last decade. She has done the thing that almost every author struggles to do- she has taken an existing literary universe and built on it creatively without changing the source material. We’ve got second generation Austen young women and men mingling with their parents as various characters find themselves devoid of life, and it is great fun for anyone who loves Austen and her novels. Billie Fulford-Brown brings so many of these beloved (and not so beloved…) characters to life perfectly, as well literally giving voice to our new Austen heroines and heroes!
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Jesse Q. Sutanto (Narrated by Eunice Wong)
Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady–ah, lady of a certain age–who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to.
Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing–a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of . . . swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer.
What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. As a protective mother hen, will she end up having to give one of her newfound chicks to the police?
Why You Should Read This….
This is another “seniors solving crimes” book, and I have zero shame in including two of them here. Vera Wong is one of the most unique, independent, and hilarious protagonists that I’ve found in a mystery book in quite some time, and that made this another “I cannot stop listening to this” audiobooks.
This is another mystery that will keep you on your toes from twists and turns. However, what I loved about this book was the friendships. Friendship is difficult at any age, and although most of us are not close to Vera’s age, we have gone through some of the same struggles. It is rather touching in a way that I did not expect! Eunice Wong’s narration across the decades is spectacular and makes it a must-listen performance.
Murder in G Major, Alexia Gordon (Narrated by Jessica Carroll)
With few other options, African-American classical musician Gethsemane Brown accepts a less-than-ideal position turning a group of rowdy schoolboys into an award-winning orchestra. Stranded without luggage or money in the Irish countryside, she figures any job is better than none. The perk? Housesitting a lovely cliffside cottage. The catch? The ghost of the cottage’s murdered owner haunts the place. Falsely accused of killing his wife (and himself), he begs Gethsemane to clear his name so he can rest in peace.
Gethsemane’s reluctant investigation provokes a dormant killer and she soon finds herself in grave danger. As Gethsemane races to prevent a deadly encore, will she uncover the truth or star in her own farewell performance?
Why You Should Read This….
I was lucky enough to live in Ireland, so I’m always interested in books set there. And a book that includes the performing arts AND a mystery? It’s like it was made for me! It is a lighthearted and fast-paced mystery that is the perfect escape for a quiet afternoon. There is the fun and hilarity of trying to get a group of school kids to be a prize-winning orchestra, not even just a normally functioning one. And then we have the core mystery of whether or not the conductor murdered his wife. One warning, though- it does end on a cliffhanger but that just means you will need to pick up the second book!
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, Elle Cosimano (Narrated by Angela Dawe)
Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.
When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.
Why You Should Read This….
I was really unsure whether or not I would gel with this story. As someone who doesn’t have kids or plan on having kids, I sometimes struggle with being in their shoes. No need to worry though, because Cosimano makes it so easy to step into Finlay’s head and life! This is a larger-than-life comedy of errors and it is so ridiculous that it works perfectly.
Finlay is surrounded by one of the most hilarious cast of characters, and they make what should be an incredibly darker (not to mention terrifying) story far funnier than it should be. Angela Dawe’s narration is spot-on, too- I love when you can hear the sarcasm coming through!
♠
Happy National Audiobook Month, friends!
Cheers,
The Historian
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