Compelling audiobooks with spy or crime investigations?

June 18, 2018 7:58 AM

I need to use up some Audible credits, so I want your recommendations for audiobooks about investigations, especially if they are spy/espionage/intelligence related. True-crime investigations also welcome.

I love following the ups and downs of an investigation, especially if it's looking into events of decades past. I've loved recent podcasts on these themes: Death in Ice Valley (death of a possible spy); In the Dark; Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo. I'd love to find some audiobooks that do something similar, especially if it's related to cases I don't already know about.

Probably prefer non-fiction, but fiction would work too. And also: I'm fussy about narrators, so a high-quality reading is key.

posted by CiaoMela to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

The audiobook of I'll Be Gone in the Dark was gripping, and very much about the investigation of the Golden State Killer, more so than his crimes.
posted by peppermind at 8:11 AM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

You've probably already read it but In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a really good Audible listen.
posted by shornco at 9:01 AM on June 18, 2018

I was fascinated by The Feather Thief.
posted by jeather at 9:24 AM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Among narrators, Michael Jayston is a favorite. He read John LeCarre's A Small Town In Germany among other things.

As for titles, Operation Mincemeat is a great book. It's not about espionage but about using false evidence to mislead the enemy. Also other books by the author Ben Macentyre, Double Cross and ASpy Among Friends.
posted by SemiSalt at 10:06 AM on June 18, 2018

I'm not a big True Crime sort of guy, but I'd recommend "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets," by David Simon (Audible link). Simon was a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun and spent a year with the Homicide Squad at BPD. This is the book that was the basis for Simon's TV series, "Homicide: Life on the Streets" and "The Wire." H:LOTS actor Reed Diamond (Det. Mike Kellerman) reads the book in about 6 hours.

It's not a particular investigation; IIRC Simon would spend a day with the Homicide squad a few times a month for a year, but they do follow a number of investigations, from "whodunnits" to "dunkers," that is, difficult mysteries and slam-dunk-easy cases.
posted by Sunburnt at 12:17 PM on June 18, 2018

“The Skies Belong to Us” is the story of the longest (by distance) plane hijacking in US history. It also tells the broad story about the massive surge of hijackings in the early 1970s. I found the story fascinating and the narrator fantastic. Highly recommend.
posted by fso at 11:01 AM on June 19, 2018