What do you love most in your mystery listens? Is it dark, moody settings and gritty storylines? Is it morally ambiguous main characters with complex inner lives? If so, noir is your kind of fiction.
As a literary genre, noir can be tough to nail down because so much of it is based on a general feeling of danger. Noir fiction was inspired by film noir, and film noir traces its roots to hard-boiled detective novels. The characters are never completely good or utterly bad, and there’s usually an internal struggle. Noir is also distinguished by its gloomy and gritty settings. Whereas in other mysteries, the protagonist often comes out on top, there's no clear win in a noir story. Even if the lead character ultimately reaches their goal, they are forever changed by the events they've witnessed and experienced.
Ready to explore the world of noir fiction? Here are a few of the best noir audiobooks to get you started and keep you hooked.
From Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress is the debut novel in a series of mysteries that features Easy Rawlins, a Black war veteran turned private investigator. Set in Los Angeles in 1948, the story follows Rawlins on his first case. Recently fired from his job at a defense plant, Easy is drinking at a bar, wondering how he's going to pay the bills, when a white man walks in looking for a blond woman known for frequenting Black jazz clubs. And he needs Easy's help. Accomplished actor Michael Boatman won a 2010 Audie Award for his performance of this exquisite audiobook, available exclusively from Audible.
Here's another noir crime thriller set in LA, and another one listeners won't want to miss. Steph Cha's Your House Will Pay takes place in the 1990s. A recent police shooting of a Black teenager is sending shockwaves across the city, but Grace Park and Shawn Matthews have their own problems. They'd both rather be left alone to live their quiet lives and stay out of the protests. Yet when another shocking crime rocks the city, both the Park and Matthews families are forced to pay attention. Narrators Glenn Davis and Greta Jung bring the characters of Grace and Shawn to life and help create the novel’s cinematic and dark world.
A wisecracking former LAPD detective, Colin Graves has had everything taken from him. His wife was murdered by a ruthless gangster, and he narrowly escaped with his own life. But he's not going down without a fight. Driven by a case of mistaken identity and a quest for vengeance, Three Graves is inspired by noir classics and infused with dark comedy. Narrator Maxwell Hamilton delivers that sharp humor skillfully.
By this point, you've probably realized Los Angeles is the classic setting for a noir thriller, and James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential relies heavily on the city's gritty backdrop. The third novel in Ellroy's LA Quartet, it opens on Christmas 1951 as six prisoners are brutally beaten in their cells by drunken LAPD cops. From there, the corruption embedded in the LAPD comes to the forefront, and no one can escape the violence and crimes in their past.
The Big Sleep has become a defining novel of the noir genre. Los Angeles PI Philip Marlowe is tasked with making the Sternwood family's blackmailer disappear. But with Sternwood's two wild, femme fatale-like daughters roaming the city, Marlowe has his work cut out for him. And then, he discovers a dead body. award-winning narrator Scott Brick delivers a performance that lives up to the reputation of this Raymond Chandler classic.
S.A. Cosby's Razorblade Tears confronts difficult issues of racism, homophobia, and fatherhood head-on. Two ex-cons, Ike and Buddy Lee have nothing in common except their criminal pasts and the fact that their sons were in a romantic relationship—something Buddy Lee found hard to accept. Now, they're both dead, and Ike and Buddy Lee will not rest until they find out who killed their sons. As they embark on their mission for revenge, Ike and Buddy Lee are forced to face their own complicated feelings about their sons, themselves, and each other. Adam Lazarre-White, who narrates Cosby's critically acclaimed Blacktop Wasteland, also offers his talents to this audiobook.
Gillian Flynn is an author known for her dark and morally ambiguous characters. In Sharp Objects, Flynn brings us reporter Camille Preaker, a woman who is haunted by her past and forced to face it when two preteen girls are murdered in her tiny hometown. Camille has barely spoken to her mother or her half-sister since leaving home, but now, staying in the family's deeply unsettling Victorian mansion as she reports on the case, she'll have to come to terms with her family's secrets. The closer she gets to the murderer, the more she discovers about her own troubling past. Narrator Ann Marie Lee has a knack for building suspense through her reading, and she nails the complicated character of Camille.
Patricia Highsmith's debut novel, Strangers on a Train was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1951 film of the same name. This classic is a must-listen for noir fans with a fascination for moral ambiguity. Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno are two passengers on the same train who are (you guessed it) complete strangers. When Bruno suggests they engage in a murder swap, each killing the other's enemy, Guy thinks he must be joking. But as it turns out, Bruno is a sadistic psychopath, and Guy walks right into his murderous trap. Bronson Pinchot's narrative style remains perfectly understated as the story's level of dread amps up.
How well can you ever know your neighbors? In I Know What You've Done, bestselling author Dorothy Koomson raises that unsettling question. A cross between noir and domestic thriller, the novel focuses on what happens when one woman receives a diary holding all of her neighbors' darkest secrets. And oh, the woman who gave it to her has been murdered by one of those very neighbors. An excellent cast of narrators, including Anna Acton, Ginny Holder, Madeline Appiah, and Mira Dovreni, performs this pause-resistant listen.
The Killer Inside Me is a classic noir crime thriller that offers a horrifying look inside the mind of a serial killer. Everyone in Central City, Texas, adores deputy sheriff Lou Ford. He's the nicest guy in town. The kind of guy you can trust. Yet behind closed doors, Lou is someone else entirely, with a murderous urge no one in Central City would ever suspect. Lou Ford is a complex character, and narrator Jim Thompson captures all sides of his personality, making Lou feel unnervingly real.
The bestselling author of Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia delivers a simmering historical noir. Set in Mexico in the 1970s, the novel follows Maite, a secretary who escapes the political unrest and violence around her by getting lost in pulpy romances. When her next-door neighbor Leonora, a stunning art student, suddenly goes missing, Maite gets drawn into a real-life mystery. She soon finds an unexpected ally in Elvis, a goon with a passion for rock 'n' roll. Together, they embark on a dangerous journey into Leonora's secret life.
With so many noir thrillers set in LA, there's a certain charm to listening to one unfold in America's rust belt. The Devil All the Time delves into a mess of crime and drama, spanning rural southern Ohio and West Virginia from the end of World War II to the 1960s. Author Donald Ray Pollock cooks up a powder keg of characters—a tormented combat veteran and his unfortunate son, a married couple with a less-than-subtle murder streak, and a criminal preacher with a thing for spiders—with conflicting motives that eventually intersect.
Yearning for noir fiction that combines the small-town intrigue of Fargo with the bombastic drug-fueled crime drama of Breaking Bad? If so, Winter’s Bone is the perfect listen. Taking place in the desolate winter scape of the Missouri Ozarks, the story stars Ree Dolly, a young woman whose father is in deep legal trouble for running a meth lab. With their house on the line and two younger brothers to take care of, it is up to Ree to make sure her father makes his next court date, dead or alive. Daniel Woodrell’s novel inspired an award-winning film starring Jennifer Lawrence, and narrator Emma Galvin does it justice.
The Guilty Husband is the debut noir domestic thriller of author and lawyer Stephanie DeCarolis. Vince Taylor seems to have the perfect life. The CEO of a major tech company, he has a beautiful home and wonderful marriage with his dream woman, Nicole. When a young intern at his company is found murdered, a shocking secret is revealed: Vince was having an affair with her. What else has Vince been lying about? And could he be the killer?
There are few plot hooks more compelling than the “wrong man” narrative. Caught Stealing stars Hank Thompson, a down-on-his-luck retired baseball player tending bar in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Things get juicy when Hank agrees to take care of his criminal neighbor’s cat while is out of town. What follows is a frenetic game of cat and mouse, complete with street punks, tracksuit-wearing Russian gangsters, and a guy who just wants to live a quiet life.
