Mysteries on Audio to Make Your Stay at Home a Little More Enjoyable


By: Jan Bridges

Audiobooks and mysteries are a great combination. During this difficult time, having someone read to us can be very soothing. Here are three enjoyable listens that are available on Overdrive and the Libby app. Happy listening!

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson, a talented and famous painter, is in a mental institution called the Grove for killing her fashion photographer husband, Gabriel. They seemed to have everything, a beautiful home in London, success, and a close relationship. But one night when Gabriel returned home from a fashion shoot, Alicia shot him multiple times. What caused her to do this? No one knows because Alicia hasn’t spoken for six years.

Theo Faber, a young psychoanalyst has been fascinated with Alicia’s case for years. He wants to help Alicia, so he begins work at the Grove. Theo has his own problems, and his obsession with Alicia may just be his undoing.

This psychological thriller will keep you listening. The unusual setting of a psychiatric center adds interest along with the novel’s many layers, twists, and turns as well as its unexpected ending. It is told through Alicia’s diary entries, flashbacks, and Theo’s POV so active listening is a must to follow the story.

The Ruin by Dervla McTiernan

When Cormac Reilly was a rookie Irish Garda, he was called to what he thought was a domestic violence case. Instead he found two young children, Maude and Jack Blake, in a crumbling house with their alcoholic mother, Hilaria, dead in an upstairs bedroom with a needle in her arm.

Twenty years later and now a detective, Cormac moves from Dublin to Galway with his partner, Emma, and is dismayed to find that he has been assigned to cold cases. However, one cold case does spark interest in him: the death of Hilaria Blake. The death had been labeled an accidental overdose, but new evidence suggests murder. What happened to Maude and Jack Blake after their mother’s death, and why is this case being re-opened after twenty years? When a related suspicious death occurs, Cormac runs into a web of lies, family secrets, and possible police corruption.

The Ruin is part police procedural, part mystery thriller. It is dark, compelling, and totally engrossing.

Beating about the Bush by M.C. Beaton *

Agatha Raisin is a favorite with many readers, and this 30th entry in the series is another enjoyable mystery. In Beating about the Bush, Agatha and Toni are hired to investigate a case of possible industrial espionage. It doesn’t take long for Agatha to figure out that their employer is hiding something, and she wants to find out what. The Agatha Raisin Mysteries always have fun characters, and Agatha encounters new ones in this book like a bad-tempered donkey named Wizz-Wazz that takes away her spotlight.

Those familiar with the series know that Agatha’s love life is always in turmoil, and here she fights her growing feelings for Sir Charles. Because Charles needs money to keep his estate going, he is engaged to an awful, rich woman who shows Agatha her true colors. What is Agatha to do?

* C. Beaton passed away after finishing Beating about the Bush, so this might be the final book in the series. She left notes for another book so we can hope that Agatha will continue, even if someone else is writing the books.

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