
It's almost 2020.
Does anything shock us anymore? As I write this, the presidential impeachment continues, Boris Johnson has just won the UK election, and someone in Las Vegas is putting tiny cowboy hats on pigeons while animal rescue workers try to remove them (a cozy mystery in the making, as editor Emily rightly notes!).While it sometimes feels like the news cycle has succeeded in jading us forever, that’s decidedly not the case in the world of thrillers. This month more than most, my listens had me doing this (sticking with the bird theme here) in the best possible way.
One more surprise: Next month I pass the baton of this newsletter over to my mystery-and-thriller-obsessed colleague, Nicole. I leave you in EXCELLENT hands as I follow one of my other passions, nonfiction, in 2020. If you’d like to sign up for that newsletter too, I’d love to see you there. Have a wonderful new year, and thanks for subscribing.
—Kat, Audible editor
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Evil Eye
- De: Madhuri Shekar
- Narrado por: Nick Choksi, Harsh Nayyar, Annapurna Sriram, y otros
- Duración: 1 h y 38 m
- Grabación Original
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General
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Narración:
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Historia
Pallavi is an aspiring writer living in California. Her mother, Usha, is thousands of miles away in Delhi - and obsessed with finding her daughter a husband. In Madhuri Shekar’s ingenious Evil Eye, hilarious back-and-forth via phone and social media takes a shocking, supernatural twist when Pallavi meets the perfect man - leading to a climactic showdown that will leave listeners on the edges of their seats.
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Holy Crap!
- De Avid Reader en 05-03-19
Best of the Year is here!
If I may gently grouse* for a moment first, let me say that year-end best lists aren’t as easy as the internet makes them look. The field is vast, the worthy are many, and the FOMO is real. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s crown the winners! For a supposedly escapist
genre, my favorite mysteries and thrillers this year had a lot to say about the real world. And do be sure to check out Audible’s entire Best of 2019 recap, which celebrates a year of listening across genres, trends, narrators, and more. (*Stopping with the birds now, sorry.)
See Our Picks
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Nine Elms
- Kate Marshall, Book 1
- De: Robert Bryndza
- Narrado por: Kristin Atherton
- Duración: 12 h y 6 m
- Versión completa
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General
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Narración:
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Historia
Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly turned into a nightmare. Traumatized, betrayed, and publicly vilified for the shocking circumstances surrounding the cannibal murder case, Kate could only watch as her career ended in scandal. Fifteen years after those catastrophic events, Kate is still haunted by the unquiet ghosts of her troubled past. Now a lecturer at a small coastal English university, she finally has a chance to face them.
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TOO GRAPHIC FOR ME!!
- De Artkeep en 01-09-20
Don’t be still, my heart
Oh hi, it’s my new favorite series! Robert Bryndza introduces us to Kate Marshall, a once promising, now disgraced, detective who must redeem herself after a shocking scandal involving a notorious cannibal serial killer…and when I say shocking, I mean there are some truly wild plot twists I did NOT see coming 🤯. If you’re a fan of Bryndza’s fantastic Erika Foster series and/or Hannibal Lecter, you’re going to love this one—and British actress Kristin Atherton’s to-die-for narration. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Eat It Up
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Nevada-Tan
- De: Leah Nanako Winkler
- Narrado por: Steven Boyer, Francis Jue, Tiffany Villarin, y otros
- Duración: 1 h y 47 m
- Grabación Original
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General
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Narración:
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Historia
Nevada-Tan is a genre-bending new play that introduces us to Nick, a young man who struggles to escape loneliness and isolation in the years following the tragic Columbine shooting of 1999. Nick’s quest leads to a decade-long fixation with Nevada-Tan, a Japanese schoolgirl who committed a horrific crime in Sasebo in 2004. Mixing horror and dark humor, Nevada-Tan is a shocking exploration of secrets, tragedy and obsession, thrilling listeners with its surprising twists and turns.
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A great listen; creepy and thought-provoking!
- De Chiara en 10-29-19
An excellent listen, for people who like this sort of thing
Of Grateful Dead fans, Jerry Garcia once said: Our audience is like people who like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice.
I feel that way about super dark stories, too. For those of us who love them, we really love them, and if that’s you too, I highly suggest checking out Nevada-Tan. Like Evil Eye, it was written by a brilliant young playwright specifically for audio, so it’s incredibly listenable and compulsive in the same way. The content is more niche, though: It’s about a troubled boy who becomes obsessed with a bizarre case of school violence in Japan and then sets out to meet the murderess. I didn’t see this one coming, and it haunted me in more ways than one.
Choose the Dark Side
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The Wives
- De: Tarryn Fisher
- Narrado por: Lauren Fortgang
- Duración: 9 h
- Versión completa
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General
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Narración:
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Historia
You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, and because of this unconventional arrangement, you can see your husband only one day a week. But you love him so much you don’t care. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself. But one day, while you’re doing laundry, you find a scrap of paper in his pocket—an appointment reminder for a woman named Hannah, and you just know it’s another of the wives.
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Unlikeable main character, author cheats
- De Timothy Masters en 02-12-20
Please enjoy this wild review of The Wives
This one’s still up for preorder (it comes out at the end of the month!) but I couldn’t not include it in my recap of shockers. Tarryn Fisher really went there with her latest thriller about a lovely young woman, her handsome husband—and his two other wives. I devoured this in 48 hours flat and went around not sure what to make of it for days, until I read author Colleen Hoover’s brilliant review of it on Goodreads and all was right with the world again. Thank you, Colleen, you delightful wordsmith you.
Dive Into the Wives
New Releases
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First Cut
- De: Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell
- Narrado por: Amanda Dolan
- Duración: 10 h y 47 m
- Versión completa
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General
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Narración:
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Historia
For San Francisco’s newest medical examiner, Dr. Jessie Teska, it was supposed to be a fresh start. A new job in a new city. A way to escape her own dark past. Instead, she faces a chilling discovery when an opioid-overdose case contains hints of something more sinister. Jessie’s superiors urge her to close the case, but as more bodies land on her autopsy table, she uncovers a constellation of deaths that point to an elaborate plot involving drug dealers and Bitcoin brokers.
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Why???
- De Blu en 02-20-20
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Unspeakable Things
- De: Jess Lourey
- Narrado por: Caitlin Kelly
- Duración: 8 h y 34 m
- Versión completa
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General
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Narración:
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Historia
Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents’ strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she’s grown accustomed to them. All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale. One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed - violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who’s responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface.
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Oof
- De Derek Brown en 01-07-20
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Into the Fire
- An Orphan X Novel (Evan Smoak, Book 5)
- De: Gregg Hurwitz
- Narrado por: Scott Brick
- Duración: 11 h y 58 m
- Versión completa
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General
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Narración:
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Historia
Evan Smoak lives by his own code. Once he was known as Orphan X. Trained as an off-the-books government assassin and spoken about only in whispers, Evan Smoak was one of the most talented - and most feared - men in the Program. But he broke free and reinvented himself as The Nowhere Man, a figure shrouded in mystery, known for helping the truly desperate. If anyone is truly desperate, it’s Max Merriweather.
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Loved it!
- De shelley en 01-29-20
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Golden in Death
- An Eve Dallas Novel (In Death, Book 50)
- De: J. D. Robb
- Narrado por: Susan Ericksen
- Duración: 13 h y 50 m
- Versión completa
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General
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Narración:
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Historia
Pediatrician Kent Abner received the package on a beautiful April morning. Inside was a cheap trinket, a golden egg that could be opened into two halves. When he pried it apart, highly toxic airborne fumes entered his body - and killed him. After Eve Dallas calls the hazmat team - and undergoes testing to reassure both her and her husband that she hasn’t been exposed - it’s time to look into Dr. Abner’s past and relationships. Not every victim Eve encounters is an angel, but it seems that Abner came pretty close.
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Time to call TOD
- De Annika en 02-04-20
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First Cut
- De: Judy Melinek, T.J. Mitchell
- Narrado por: Amanda Dolan
- Duración: 10 h y 47 m
- Versión completa
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General
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Narración:
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Historia
For San Francisco’s newest medical examiner, Dr. Jessie Teska, it was supposed to be a fresh start. A new job in a new city. A way to escape her own dark past. Instead, she faces a chilling discovery when an opioid-overdose case contains hints of something more sinister. Jessie’s superiors urge her to close the case, but as more bodies land on her autopsy table, she uncovers a constellation of deaths that point to an elaborate plot involving drug dealers and Bitcoin brokers.
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Why???
- De Blu en 02-20-20
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Unspeakable Things
- De: Jess Lourey
- Narrado por: Caitlin Kelly
- Duración: 8 h y 34 m
- Versión completa
-
General
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Narración:
-
Historia
Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents’ strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she’s grown accustomed to them. All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale. One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed - violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who’s responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface.
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Oof
- De Derek Brown en 01-07-20
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Into the Fire
- An Orphan X Novel (Evan Smoak, Book 5)
- De: Gregg Hurwitz
- Narrado por: Scott Brick
- Duración: 11 h y 58 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Evan Smoak lives by his own code. Once he was known as Orphan X. Trained as an off-the-books government assassin and spoken about only in whispers, Evan Smoak was one of the most talented - and most feared - men in the Program. But he broke free and reinvented himself as The Nowhere Man, a figure shrouded in mystery, known for helping the truly desperate. If anyone is truly desperate, it’s Max Merriweather.
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Loved it!
- De shelley en 01-29-20
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Golden in Death
- An Eve Dallas Novel (In Death, Book 50)
- De: J. D. Robb
- Narrado por: Susan Ericksen
- Duración: 13 h y 50 m
- Versión completa
-
General
-
Narración:
-
Historia
Pediatrician Kent Abner received the package on a beautiful April morning. Inside was a cheap trinket, a golden egg that could be opened into two halves. When he pried it apart, highly toxic airborne fumes entered his body - and killed him. After Eve Dallas calls the hazmat team - and undergoes testing to reassure both her and her husband that she hasn’t been exposed - it’s time to look into Dr. Abner’s past and relationships. Not every victim Eve encounters is an angel, but it seems that Abner came pretty close.
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Time to call TOD
- De Annika en 02-04-20

About the Editor
Kat is an Audible editor and podcast addict who likes to mix up her diet of thrillers and true crime with comedy, weird literary fiction, and the occasional nonfiction blockbuster to sound smarter at parties. Follow her on Twitter @katbhandari.