Who doesn't love a good mystery? Listening to mystery audiobooks is a great way to feel some semblance of order in an often chaotic world. The clues are there for you to solve along, and by the end, it will all come together in an incredibly satisfying manner. There’s a formula to the genre, sure, but the best mysteries still surprise you and often subvert expectations. The following authors excel at providing a satisfying mystery story while offering up a little something extra.
Gillian Flynn was once the chief TV critic for Entertainment Weekly, but she’s now a novelist who has become a household name. Her work is dark, unflinching, and increasingly popular. (It’s quite likely you’ve already heard of .) Looking for a more traditional mystery story with satisfying twists and turns? I’d recommend starting with her debut novel, . This title is especially compelling in audio, as narrator Ann Marie Lee is the perfect voice for this suspenseful story.
If you love a good historical mystery, Sujata Massey’s novels are not to be missed. Try her series about Perveen Mistry, a character loosely based on some of the first female lawyers in India. Mistry as a character is all about advocating for marginalized women. At the start of the first audiobook, , Mistry has just joined her father’s law firm. She’s tasked with handling the will of a wealthy Muslim mill owner who has left three widows behind. But the more she looks into the case, the more suspicious she becomes. The first book in the series is narrated by Soneela Nankani, and the second installment, , is narrated by Sneha Mathan. Both talented narrators add their own flare to the story.
Attica Locke is a screenwriter and novelist whose work has been nominated for a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an Edgar Award, and an NAACP Image Award. Her houses pause-resistant mysteries that deliver hard looks at race and justice in America. Both audiobooks currently available in the series, and, are narrated by JD Jackson, one of AudioFile’s 2020 Golden Voices.
Walter Mosley is a prolific writer with many works of crime fiction, science fiction, young adult fiction, erotica, nonfiction, and plays to his credit. His works have won several awards and have been translated into many languages. But Mosley is probably best known for his detective series. Easy Rawlins is a Black WWII veteran turned private detective. The majority of books in the series are narrated by Michael Boatman, who offers up a strong, consistent voice for the character. Start from the beginning with to see the origins of Rawlins as a detective.
