Latest Books AudioFile Magazine picks for August Mystery & Suspense Audiobooks

Cap off your summer listening with exciting new thrillers from excellent audiobook narrators and favorite authors. Read on to find the latest from Ruth Ware, Kate Morton, Dean Koontz, and more. Find your next great listen in the mystery picks below.

HOMECOMING
By Kate Morton | Read by Claire Foy
AudioFile Earphones Award
Bolinda Audio | 17.5 hrs.

Claire Foy gives listeners a remarkable performance of Kate Morton’s sweeping new novel. On Christmas Day, 1959, a bizarre tragedy strikes the Turner family of South Australia. In 2018, Jess Turner, a London-based journalist, is summoned back to Sydney, where her grandmother lies gravely ill. There, she stumbles across the decades-old mystery. As she digs into the story, Jess wrestles with the stunning truth. Foy varies her intonation, pace, and pitch to create indelible audio portraits. She heightens the verisimilitude, pulling us in as the truth is uncovered.

REVIEW

ZERO DAYS
By Ruth Ware | Read by Imogen Church
AudioFile Earphones Award
Simon & Schuster Audio | 12.5 hrs.

Imogen Church performs this suspenseful mystery with conviction. Jack and her husband, Gabe, work in the security field. She checks for penetration, and he hacks computer systems. After a long night working on a test gone awry, Jack returns home to find Gabe dead. Church delivers a compelling narrative of anguish, confusion, and mental fatigue with a strained, shaky voice and well-timed pauses. Church keeps the listener invested with fast pacing, and her distressed tone adds to the tension as Jack becomes even more filled with anxiety as she finds herself the chief suspect—and flees.

REVIEW

THE DETECTIVE UP LATE: Sean Duffy, Book 7
By Adrian McKinty | Read by Gerard Doyle
Blackstone Audio | 9.5 hrs.

In this final installment of the Sean Duffy series, it’s fitting that a Duffy regular narrates. Gerard Doyle has a fabulous brogue and the ability to deliver a sly joke and dialogue between an Irishman and a Scot with equal facility. The plot, set in Belfast during the Troubles, revolves around a missing girl, a Russian double agent, and Detective Sergeant Duffy’s retirement from the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Listeners who are new to the series will want to start at the beginning while those who know DS Duffy will come to miss him.

REVIEW

DEATH COMES TO MARLOW: Marlow Murder Club, Book 2
By Robert Thorogood | Read by Nicolette McKenzie
Recorded Books | 9.5 hrs.

The eccentric members of the Marlow Murder Club are back for more sleuthing adventures. Thorogood has once again crafted an amusing and taut cozy mystery, animated by another superb performance from Nicolette McKenzie. Especially delightful are McKenzie’s portrayals of 77-year-old Judith, who writes crossword puzzles for The Times; a down-at-the-heels dog walker turned radio star named Suzie; and the suddenly secretive vicar’s wife, Becks. Energetic pacing keeps this campy whodunnit moving briskly as the intrepid trio work to solve a locked-room murder of a local squire.

REVIEW

AFTER DEATH

By Dean Koontz | Read by Edoardo Ballerini

AudioFile Earphones Award

Brilliance Audio | 9.5 hrs.

Koontz’s latest thriller is superbly narrated by Edoardo Ballerini. Security guard Michael Mace dies in a catastrophic lab accident and wakes up alongside his dead co-workers in a makeshift morgue. Mace is stunned to learn he now has a superpower: With his mind he can tap into and manipulate any electronic data system in the world. Ballerini portrays Mace as an unflappable, stoic loner. Ballerini’s performance of the cat-and-mouse game between Mace and a murderous government agent is riveting.

REVIEW