Brilliant Audio Books

[Wavingnotdowning]

Please tell me your best audio books - I am looking for inspiration.

I have just finished Anthony Horowitz Hawthorne series, they were brilliant and now I need something new to keep me entertained.

Thanks

I am hooked on Ben Aaronovitch and Kobna Holdbrook Smith is perfect - I may even listen to them all over again. I love a bit of Magic

Jilly Cooper’s Riders is free on audible.
May not be a literary giant, but is entertaining nonetheless.

The Midsomer Murders series, read by John Hopkins (who played Sgt Scott in the tv series).

His impression of John Nettles is uncanny, and he’s a fantastic reader. The original books are really funny too!

Oooh some brilliant recces here - and I fully agree with PPs that the Rivers of London series is brilliant. Kobna is perfect as Peter.

I love the Robert Galbraith series too.

Recently listened to Brooklyn and it’s sequel along Island by Colm Toibin - such evocative storytelling.

Anything by David Sedaris has me in stitches.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver has the best opening chapter of anything ever written and even though I’m not through it yet, it’s brilliant so far.

I'm with @RustyBear , I love all Jodi Taylor's books. I use the audiobooks to help me to go sleep and I have discovered that I definitely prefer books read by an English person rather than an American - and I definitely dislike dramatisations because the changes in loudness wake me up. I like something gentle and amusing, but with a good story.

The Strike books are read so well on audible, also Rivers of London. I'm really enjoying The Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwell. If you like fantasy Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik is wonderful, alongside all her other books.

I loved the Outlander Series of 9 books by Diana Gabaldon ( be prepared they are between about 46 and 59 hours long). The narrator Davina Porter is brilliant.

Love the Strike books read by Robert Glenister. He is excellent. (I could not get on with "the email one" at all on Audible though )
Agree with pp about Jodie Taylor and Chronicles of St Mary and the Time police books read by Zara Ramm. Oh my word is she good!
Random ones I could reccommend are - Rebecca read by Anna Massey, v posh but appropriate, The man with one of those faces series , A broken afternoon by Simon Mason and John Slattery reading Steohen King's Duma Key.

I love audiobooks and love the Hawthorne series so others I would recommend that are similar are:

Magpie Murders and Moonflower murders also by Horowitz

Vera series by Ann Cleeves

Washington Poe series by MW Craven

Simon Mason crime series about Ray and Ryan Wilkins

And best of all

The Strike series by Robert Galbraith

The 15 Lives of Harry August is an interesting one.

@23Shadows honestly it's more than that. They basically paid max brooks millions of dollars for the title of his book. That's it

Nothing about the story is the same in any way. The film is fine but it should be called Brad Pitt vs zombies.

American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The Marriage Portrait and Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell
The Song of Achilles and Circe - Madeleine Miller
Discworld series - Terry Pratchett
Babel: An Arcane History - R F Kuang

The Terry Pratchett Discworld novels narrated by Stephen Briggs are my favourite. I wasn't as keen on the ones narrated by Nigel Planer. I think it's partly because the voices he did just didn't seem "right", partly because sometimes he just didn't read particular sentences with the emphasis on the right words, but also the audio effects they used for those ones didn't work well.

I believe that Audible are working their way through the series with different narrators which I haven't tried yet.

I haven't tried the Rivers of London series but I think I'll give it a go. The synopsis reminds me a bit of Charles Stross's Laundry Files series which I loved for the first few books but tailed off a bit as it went on. Stross's series is way geekier than I suspect Aaronovitch will be.

Another one I should've mentioned was The Expanse series. If you like hard sci-fi, it's really good.

I completely agree. I've got all of the Discworld novels narrated by Stephen Briggs. I think he's perfect.

I've tried a couple with other narrators and they don't work for me at all.

Just finished this and loved so much. Could not stop listening.

Others I’ve loved:

• Demon Copperhead
• The Heart’s Invisible Furies
• In Memoriam
• The Dutch House
• Matthew Perry’s autobiography (though very very sad)

If you like dystopian and don't mind an American narrator Dean Koontz 'Jane Hawk' series is good, but start with book 1, or the following books won't fit into the story line properly.
I Also liked 'watchers' by Dean Koontz, it's totally unrealistic but features a very clever Golden retriever!

Project Hail Mary, particularly if you like block buster Sci fi! It's an incredible audio book!

We tried them recently on a car journey and I fell asleep around 15% in.

Saying that, I don't like audiobooks and only do them on car journeys but this one was a failure.

Slough House series by Mick Herron is brilliant on audio.

I’ve listened to some great ones free on BorrowBox. The most recent was ‘The Beesting’ by Paul Murray. A good crime one is ‘Wrong Place Wrong Time’ by Gillian McAllister

I've just finished All the colours of the dark. By Chris Whitaker. It was brilliant. It made me cry twice on the train.

The Martian

Lisa Jewell None of This is True

If you like sci-fi then We are Legion, We are Bob is fantastic, it's the first of a short series.

Murderbot series by Martha Wells

Loads of John Scalzi is great to listen too, Starter Villain, Lock In and The Dispatcher are good to start with.