A few years ago, an addiction to true-crime stories might’ve singled you out as someone to keep an eye on. But now, openly admitting to spending your evenings browsing the grisly and extensive accounts of serial killers on Wikipedia might be a pretty successful opening gambit on a first date.
Audiobooks and podcasts have benefited most from the true-crime boom. Perhaps there is something about the purity of the medium – just words and a little emotive soundtrack, interspersed with the odd advert for a new mattress – that digs deep into the psyche. Shut your eyes, and you’re transported to a world of depravity and evil, all while you have a go on the rowing machine or sit on a train.
What this says about the human condition is complicated to unpick. Violence and crime excite the imagination in much the same way as a car crash or natural disaster: they are so totally other to our experience, so outside the realms of our safe lives, that we cannot help but be gripped. Women have been shown to enjoy true crime more than men do, despite the fact that very many of the stories surround brutality enacted on women. If a rollercoaster is a simulated brush with danger, true crime is something altogether more affecting, mixing the crank-turning tension of horror and thriller fiction with the starkness of facing the concept of your own death.
With a glut of audiobook titles, podcasts, documentaries and hybrids of all three available, you may require a little bit of a steer to find the best. There’s nothing worse than planning a long journey set to a gruesome murder only to find out that the retelling of the crime is as exciting as the last dregs of the food cart. So here is our guide to the best true crime Audible has to offer …
We Are Not Such Things
Narrated by actress Laurel Lefkow – her idiosyncratic voice rippling with the vocal fry favoured in the genre – We Are Not Such Things tells the story of Amy Biehl, a young, white US activist murdered at a protest in South Africa during the intense period between Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and his election as president. That Biehl was “murdered because of the colour of her skin” is presented as the generally accepted narrative, but journalist Justine van der Leun explores beyond that, challenging and subverting the established views of the crime, not only exposing the myriad cover-ups and inadequacies of those charged with attempting to right the wrongs of apartheid but also often butting heads with those, such as Biehl’s mother, who were tragically part of what happened and want to cling to whatever explanation is simplest.
West Cork
This follows Sam Bungey and Jennifer Forde, two married radio reporters from the UK, venturing into the story of a 20-year-old unsolved murder of a French woman in rural County Cork and the man accused – and acquitted – of the crime. Unfolding with masterful tension, the podcast teases out knotty morality problems about innocence and judgement set to subtly brooding soundscapes, as everyone asks how something so terrible could happen somewhere so beautiful. The reporters take turns to lead us through their investigation, encountering themes from small-town insularity and gentrification to legends like the White Lady of Three Castle Head. The real stars are the local witnesses – at once heartbroken and confused, striving for a sense of closure while being gently bemused at the interest of these two professional “blow ins” (the West Cork term for out-of-towners). “If I knew she was gonna be murdered,” says one witness, “I would’ve remembered everything ... ”
Helter Skelter
A true-crime classic centred on one of the most infamous men of the 20th century. Written by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecuting attorney in the trial of Charles Manson, it provides an inside look at the convicted murderer’s bizarre and bloody story, the young women who obeyed his every word and the murders they committed in his name. Helter Skelter charts the rise and fall of the Manson Family, noting every sinister detail. It is narrated with supreme control by award-winning voice actor Scott Brick.
Diamond Geezers
One thing often overlooked about true-crime series is just how fun they can be. Set around London’s Millennium Dome, Diamond Geezers explores the thwarted theft of £350m-worth of diamonds in 2000. Centring around an exhibition being held by jewellers De Beers in the dome, the episode captured the public’s imagination: the biggest attempted heist in history, a speedboat escape and the city’s infamous Flying Squad, all in one story. Told at a fair old clip and full of colourful underworld characters (and a lorry-turned-battering-ram with a giant concrete spike called Gertie), this is one for those who fancy something a little bit lighter.
People Who Eat Darkness
Japan is near the top of the vacation wishlist for millions of people every year – but it is also, as critic Dwight Garner noted, “not a good place to be the victim of a terrible crime”. This is a supremely dark retelling of the disappearance of a 21-year-old British Airways flight attendant, who ventured into Tokyo’s bustling streets and never returned. Let down by the city’s bumbling police force, she remained missing until her dismembered remains were finally found buried in a shallow grave under a bathtub in a seaside cave 30 miles from the city. Told with restraint and candour, setting out gruesome fact after gruesome fact without flinching or exploitation, People Who Eat Darkness is an exploration of a chilling crime and the country that many believe let it happen.
I Heard You Paint Houses
The Mafia has remained a key part of popular culture’s fascination with criminality for a century, and I Heard You Paint Houses (soon to be a film, The Irishman, starring Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, and directed by Martin Scorsese) focuses on one of its most famous stories. The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa has fascinated true-crime fans since the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union leader went missing in 1975, and this book focuses on the life (and confessions) of Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, his right-hand man. A union official-turned-hitman, Sheeran alleges he carried out 25 murders for the Mafia before turning his attention to Hoffa himself. The themes are well-trodden, and the narrative feels almost warm with details and names that will be familiar to American-underworld aficionados, but it still serves as an enthralling look into the shady politics and power plays of Italian-American organised crime at its height.
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