Engrossing audiobook recommendations

Loved the murder bot. It was yet another of our bookclub books.

If you have an Audible membership then Him by JD Kirk is free and I found it gripping right to the end.

I really enjoyed The Rosie Project when I listened to it years ago.

I liked a number of books narrated by Loreli King. She is American but has such a lovely warm voice. I cannot stand the nasally voice of ? New Yorkers??

One guy narrated Mrs Galloway and I am not sure if there was something wrong with the recording but it sounded like he had had a very very heavy lunch and could barely get the words out!

Lisa Jewell is good for thrillers, I really liked Invisible Girl and also The Family Upstairs.

Actually I've done Simon Vance a disservice as it was several narrators from the trilogy version. Simon is very good- but Ben Miles has the edge

This comment has been like a lightbulb moment so thank you! You're absolutely right. Actors make the best narrators.

I loved Wolf Hall narrated by Ben Miles who played Cromwell on stage. I am struggling with Simon Vance narrating Bring Up the Bodies. Thanks to your comment, I looked up Simon Vance who is described as an audiobook narrator, and he is a good one. But compared to Ben or Mark Rylance....where is "my" Cromwell?

I've just listened to a sample of Mirror and the Light and was so relieved to see it's the magical Ben Miles again so will download it.

I also loved Patrick Stewart narrating his own autobiography - to have that rich voice in my ear last thing at night - well, there's worse ways of falling asleep! 😁

Agree, the narrator can make or break an audio book. My favourite is Scott Brick.

I agree with your comment on narrators. I'm currently listening to Outlander on audible and whilst the narrator is very good, I struggle with her doing about 20 different voices with accents etc.

I also particularly struggle with listening to the love scenes. I'm no prude but it loses any sensuality when it's a prim voice panting down the speaker at me.

I'm listening to Outback by Patricia Wolf just now and it's great. I can't wait for my commute to work to listen to it!
Also just finished Project Hail Mary based on the recommendations here and really liked that too (although it felt like I was back at uni with all the complex chemical formulae/equations etc).

I just finished the hundred years of Lenni and Margo and the narration was exquisite. I also love Angus King narration of the Jack Logan murder mystery books so good

Agree with the Strike books by Robert Galbraith (JKR). Masterclass in performing an audiobook.

I’m now listening to the Slough House books by Mick Herron after they were recommended on here. Herron has a particular style which is pacy, and the narrator doesn’t give much of a pause between paragraphs, so you have to keep your wits about you to realise you’ve jumped to a different scene or character. They are great though!

If you like detective/murder books. Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan series is good. The first book isn't the best but the series improves with each book.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar Thanks, I've added Jerry Hatchett to my list.

@Sharppencils I haven't read the book fully, so I could be wrong on this, but he's quite a deep thinker and is obviously well read. He quotes a lot of theories and sayings from philosophers, etc, and how he's put them in action. It's not a comedic book as such, it's a guide to how hes lived his life. If you want a taste of it before committing, hes been on diary of a CEO podcast, and you'll very much get the gist of how his brain works.

Not a crime, but I'm currently really enjoying Tom Lake, read by Merryl Streep. I think I'm fast realising that I like actors narrating, they give a book a completely different life than some other narrators.

I'm glad you liked it @OswaldCobblepot. I have enjoyed a lot of Andrew Mayne's books. Some of his earlier ones aren't in audio form, like Public Enemy Zero, but worth reading. Most of his books seem to be on Kindle Unlimited if you ever use that. The only series of his that I just couldn't get on with was The Underwater Investigation Unit, starting with The Girl Beneath the Sea. I just didn't take to the lead character.

If you like Andrew Mayne you might also really enjoy Jerry Hatchett. They are not in audio from unfortunately but they are really fast moving and exciting. I've read Unallocated Space and the follow up Boiling Point, and a separate series 7 Unholy Days and 7 Bloody Years.

@HowardTJMoon I hope you enjoy Scalzi and the Bobiverse. Martha Wells also has a book called City of Bones that is free on Audible. It's more fantasy rather than sci fi, which I don't normally like but it's got a good logical framework for the world building part so it suited me quite well.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar I just wanted to thank you for recommending The Naturalist. Absolutely loved it, best audio book I've listened to in ages.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar thanks for the recommendations! I liked the first of the Murderbot series but for some reason the second didn't really grab me. I might give the third a try. Revelation Space was really good. I'll definitely give the John Scalzi books a try and the Bobiverse ones.

Not fiction, but I really enjoyed a couple of memoirs on audio:

I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jeanette McCurdy - this about McCurdy’s childhood as a tv star and her relationship with her mother. You don’t need to know anything about McCurdy to listen to this, I’d never heard of her.

All that Remains, a Life in Death, by Sue Black - this is a book about Black’s career as a Forensic Anthropologist. So interesting!

Both are read by the authors themselves. I could listen to Sue Black all day, she’s got a great voice.

Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith - set in the ?Appalachians so read brilliantly in that accent -I think it came out a decade or two ago and was awarded prizes at the time.
i loved it.

Hi @HowardTJMoon
My absolute favourite in recent years is the Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor. The first book is We are Legion (We are Bob). The first three books were written as one story arc. Books 4 and 5 I think were added on because the first three were so popular, there was a bit of a cliff hanger at the end of book 5 so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that there will be a book 6.

I love John Scalzi generally except for his war books, especially Lock In and its follow up Head On, there is a choice of narrators both are good but I slightly prefer Wil Wheaton. The Dispatcher series is pretty good too and there are a load of stand alone books like Agent to the Stars, Constituent Services and Starter Villain that are very enjoyable.

I like the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky, but have tried a few of his other books and not liked them as much except for Service Model which was quirky and quite sweet.

For incredibly long and involved stories the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds is fantastic. I have mostly read these in print form though as I am a very fast reader, I don't know that I could dedicate 27 hours of listening to one book but if you are the type to have a book running for several hours every day then it would work well.

I really enjoyed the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, these come in narrated form or dramatised form. I much, much prefer the narrated ones and found the dramatised ones to be a bit clunkier and slightly harder to follow. Some of the books are quite short so not great value on Audible, which has definitely bothered some reviewers.

Diary of a Nobody read by Martin Jarvis is just wonderful

In a similar vein, Three Men In A Boat read by Jeremy Nicholas (president of the Jerome K Jerome Society) is brilliant. Plenty of other versions available but this is the best IMO.