Features AudioFile Spotlight: Mystery & Suspense Audiobooks

This month’s best mystery and suspense audiobooks include several anticipated sequels to ongoing series, as well as a fantastic new standalone. Set across the globe, from 1950s San Francisco and contemporary Italy to Colorado and coastal Maine, they’re sure to keep suspense fans satisfied.

DAUGHTER OF ASHES: Teresa Battaglia, Book 3
By Ilaria Tuti, Ekin Oklap [Trans.]| Read by Christina Moore
AudioFile Earphones Award
Recorded Books | 10.5 hrs.

Christina Moore gives an expert performance of this third captivating episode featuring Italian police superintendent Teresa Bataglia. While secretly dealing with an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Teresa is drawn out of semi-retirement to interview imprisoned serial killer Giacomo Mainardi. Moore enhances Teresa’s complex personality, subtly providing layers of insight. Her Italian pronunciations are spot-on while her range of voices offers easily identifiable characters.

REVIEW

THE LIES YOU WROTE: Raisa Susanto, Book 1
By Brianna Labuskes| Read by Caroline Hewitt
Brilliance Audio | 10 hrs.

Narrator Caroline Hewitt depicts a panoply of colorful characters in this nail-biting procedural full of surprising turns. Raisa Susanto, one of the FBI’s best forensic linguists, is assigned to investigate a recent murder that occurred 25 years to the day after a murder-suicide. Hewitt matches Labuskes’s breakneck pacing with a creeping tone of paranoia and adds anguish to a heartbreaking story.

REVIEW

THE BELL IN THE FOG: Andy Mills, Book 2
By Lev AC Rosen| Read by Vikas Adam
Macmillan Audio | 9.75 hrs.

Vikas Adam brings a noirish vibe to his first-class narration of this mystery set in 1952 San Francisco. Andy Mills tries to find his way after being bounced off the police force for being gay. An old lover appears, needing help, and Andy is soon working blackmail and murder cases. Adam gives Mills a deep, tough voice for the most part, though it softens for more tender moments. He’s also outstanding with other characters, giving each a distinctive voice and attitude. More impressively, his performance enhances the atmosphere of the entire audiobook.

 REVIEW

BLOOD BETRAYAL: Detective Inaya Rahman, Book 2
By Ausma Zehanat Khan| Read by Fareeda Pasha
Recorded Books | 10.25 hrs.

Fareeda Pasha skillfully narrates the second book in the Blackwater Falls series, featuring Detective Inaya Rahman and her boss/love interest, Lieutenant Waqas Seif. This time they are investigating two separate shootings of young men of color by two different white police officers. Pasha captures the Colorado community’s despair and rage at the grave injustice of the shootings while also conveying the agony and incredulity of the police officers involved. The victims’ mothers’ heartbreak will pierce listeners’ souls as the community comes together to protect their own.

REVIEW

THE EDGE: 6:20 Man, Book 2
By David Baldacci| Read by Zachary Webber, Erin Cottrell, Will Collyer, Erin Bennett, Tiffany Smith
Hachette Audio | 11.75 hrs.

The much-anticipated sequel to The 6:20 Man immerses listeners in the murder of Jenny Silkwell, a CIA operative who had returned to her hometown in coastal Maine to settle unfinished business. Narrator Zachary Webber leads the ensemble cast of Tiffany Smith, Will Collyer, Erin Cottrell, and Erin Bennett. Webber’s talents as a narrator truly shine, but all of the performances are woven into the narrative seamlessly, and each performer embodies their character masterfully.

REVIEW

AudioFile Spotlight: Mystery & Suspense Audiobooks