3 twisty summer thrillers that make for perfect audiobooks

Washington Post

13-07-2025

Set chiefly in the Bohemia, an exclusive New York apartment building, Chris Pavone's novel is both a thriller and an adventure in social observation. The many characters, who come from a variety of socioeconomic, racial and ethnic scales, are all captured convincingly by narrator Edoardo Ballerini. Chief among them is Chicky Diaz, a veteran doorman who is widowed and deeply in debt to some very bad actors; Emily Longworth, who married for money but has come to hate her husband for his lack of business ethics and infidelity; and Julian Sonnenberg, a melancholy art gallerist with a deteriorating marriage, dismissive children and a failing heart valve. Meanwhile, in the streets, a protest march against a recent police killing of an unarmed Black man has spawned a counterprotest, and the combination threatens a riot. The well-heeled, much-coddled residents of the Bohemia are not liking this situation one bit and come together in a very funny scene, superbly voiced by Ballerini, to exercise their many unlovely traits — outrage, umbrage, fear, wealthy tightfistedness and arrogance toward the Ukrainian building superintendent. (Macmillan, Unabridged, 12 hours, 11 minutes.)
Set chiefly in the Bohemia, an exclusive New York apartment building, Chris Pavone's novel is both a thriller and an adventure in social observation. The many characters, who come from a variety of socioeconomic, racial and ethnic scales, are all captured convincingly by narrator Edoardo Ballerini. Chief among them is Chicky Diaz, a veteran doorman who is widowed and deeply in debt to some very bad actors; Emily Longworth, who married for money but has come to hate her husband for his lack of business ethics and infidelity; and Julian Sonnenberg, a melancholy art gallerist with a deteriorating marriage, dismissive children and a failing heart valve. Meanwhile, in the streets, a protest march against a recent police killing of an unarmed Black man has spawned a counterprotest, and the combination threatens a riot. The well-heeled, much-coddled residents of the Bohemia are not liking this situation one bit and come together in a very funny scene, superbly voiced by Ballerini, to exercise their many unlovely traits — outrage, umbrage, fear, wealthy tightfistedness and arrogance toward the Ukrainian building superintendent. (Macmillan, Unabridged, 12 hours, 11 minutes.)
After a couple of novels set elsewhere, Dervla McTiernan has returned to Galway, Ireland. Like its predecessors, the audio of 'The Unquiet Grave' is narrated by Aoife McMahon, a native of the West of Ireland, with the natural accent for the setting. Nonetheless, when a German family show up at the novel's start, she gives their voices a restrained Teutonic flavor, and when events move to Dublin she adds a trace of the thud which that city gives to its people. It is the Germans who discover the first body. Embalmed in a bog with signs of ritual killing, it is of fairly recent interment. Big puzzle. Meanwhile the plot begins to zoom back and forth between Galway and Dublin: A family is being terrorized by the mother's ex-husband; Detective Sargeant Cormac Reilly's former girlfriend needs his help to find her missing husband; and — no rest for the listener — back in Dublin, a sinister operator has figured out how to game the Irish Lottery out of millions, this caper producing another couple of corpses. McMahon does us a favor in narrating this excellently tangled book at a mercifully slow pace. (Bolinda, Unabridged, 12 hours)
After a couple of novels set elsewhere, Dervla McTiernan has returned to Galway, Ireland. Like its predecessors, the audio of 'The Unquiet Grave' is narrated by Aoife McMahon, a native of the West of Ireland, with the natural accent for the setting. Nonetheless, when a German family show up at the novel's start, she gives their voices a restrained Teutonic flavor, and when events move to Dublin she adds a trace of the thud which that city gives to its people. It is the Germans who discover the first body. Embalmed in a bog with signs of ritual killing, it is of fairly recent interment. Big puzzle. Meanwhile the plot begins to zoom back and forth between Galway and Dublin: A family is being terrorized by the mother's ex-husband; Detective Sargeant Cormac Reilly's former girlfriend needs his help to find her missing husband; and — no rest for the listener — back in Dublin, a sinister operator has figured out how to game the Irish Lottery out of millions, this caper producing another couple of corpses. McMahon does us a favor in narrating this excellently tangled book at a mercifully slow pace. (Bolinda, Unabridged, 12 hours)
After a six-year hiatus, Stuart MacBride has turned again to Aberdeen's Logan McRae, of Police Scotland. Though part of a series, this novel stands successfully on its own, its characters fleshed out and in full possession of their idiosyncrasies — all magnificently conveyed by narrator Steve Worsley, who hails from Aberdeen. He captures perfectly the novel's dark wit and the region's pugnacity, bringing a sense of festivity to the police crew's inventive, anatomically challenging insults and foul execrations. Worsley provides appropriate voices for exasperated acting DCI McRae; the 'wee loon,' DC Tufty Quirrel, fan of Star Wars and master of 'Yodish'; raunchiest of cynics, Roberta Steel; and a passel of ne'er-do-wells, screwups and unctuous big shots. The villainy afoot involves the arson of a hotel occupied by immigrants, a midnight creeper, the abduction of a newspaper tycoon, a couple of murders, and amusing but thoroughly impossible car chases. Though the novel is far less violent than some of MacBride's previous books, it does include a couple of episodes that are not for the squeamish. (Macmillan, Unabridged, 17 ¼ hours)
Katherine A. Powers reviews audiobooks every month for The Washington Post.
After a six-year hiatus, Stuart MacBride has turned again to Aberdeen's Logan McRae, of Police Scotland. Though part of a series, this novel stands successfully on its own, its characters fleshed out and in full possession of their idiosyncrasies — all magnificently conveyed by narrator Steve Worsley, who hails from Aberdeen. He captures perfectly the novel's dark wit and the region's pugnacity, bringing a sense of festivity to the police crew's inventive, anatomically challenging insults and foul execrations. Worsley provides appropriate voices for exasperated acting DCI McRae; the 'wee loon,' DC Tufty Quirrel, fan of Star Wars and master of 'Yodish'; raunchiest of cynics, Roberta Steel; and a passel of ne'er-do-wells, screwups and unctuous big shots. The villainy afoot involves the arson of a hotel occupied by immigrants, a midnight creeper, the abduction of a newspaper tycoon, a couple of murders, and amusing but thoroughly impossible car chases. Though the novel is far less violent than some of MacBride's previous books, it does include a couple of episodes that are not for the squeamish. (Macmillan, Unabridged, 17 ¼ hours)
Katherine A. Powers reviews audiobooks every month for The Washington Post.