Looking for some top-rated true crime audiobook recommendations? Check out the 10 best true crime audiobooks that you need to listen to now!
A well-narrated audiobook can provide a truly immersive experience that rivals just reading the book itself.
Under each one of the audiobooks listed below, we’ve included a handy link to it on Audible.
Audible is one of the best platforms to get your audiobooks from because they offer a free 30-day trial that includes 1 free audiobook to enjoy.
1. If You Tell
A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood
- Rating: 4.3 out of 5
- Reviews: 66,619
- Listening Length: 10h 34m
- Author: Gregg Olsen
- Narrator: Karen Peakes
- Release Date: December 1st, 2019
A chilling journey that contains sibling rivalries, mother-daughter relationships, secrets that won’t stay buried, and gruesome murders.
You won’t be able to stop listening to this one!
If You Tell is a powerful tale about survival and the resilience of love in the face of unimaginable horror.
A moving exploration of courage and the ability to move on.
If You Tell is a survivor’s tale of utter evil.
It serves as little justice for Nikki, Sami, and Tori, who sacrificed their lives in the fight to survive.
It’s heartbreaking and terrible at the same time.
They discovered a light in the darkness that transformed them into the strong women they are today.
Sisters for life and no longer victims.
Feeling gripped? This is not light listening.
There’s a lot of misery in this audiobook, but there’s also hope that’s guaranteed to have an effect on listeners.
That’s why it’s number one on our best true crime audiobook list.
Audible Sample:
2. Killers of the Flower Moon
Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5
- Reviews: 22,490
- Listening Length: 9h 4m
- Author: David Grann
- Narrator: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell
- Release Date: April 20th, 2017
The Killers of the Flower Moon is a true crime audiobook written by David Grann.
It’s about the Osage Indians and their horrific murders in the 1920s, at which point they were holding a large amount of oil.
The book explores not only the case but also how subsequent events led to an FBI investigation that eventually helped save America from becoming a “banana republic.”
The 1920s was a time of wild excess and great prosperity for the United States of America.
It also saw a large group of people systematically wiped off the map. This included members of the richest Native American tribe in history.
From oil to mansions, to a killing spree unheard of in modern history, The Killers of the Flower Moon reveals how this tragedy led to one of America’s greatest success stories, the FBI.
Audible Sample:
3. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark
One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
- Rating: 4.7 out of 5
- Reviews: 14,666
- Listening Length: 9h 44m
- Author: Michelle McNamara
- Narrator: Gabra Zackman, Gillian Flynn, Patton Oswalt
- Release Date: November 22nd, 2018
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is an audiobook written by Michelle McNamara, the talented journalist who sadly passed away suddenly while pursuing this famous case.
It details the true crime story of the elusive Golden State Killer who was a serial rapist turned murderer.
He terrorized California for more than ten years during the late 1970s when America was experiencing a horrible recession.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is a thrilling true crime account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind.
But it’s also a portrait of a woman’s obsession with her own fiction and her pursuit of “the truth.”
The author has done a fantastic job writing about female motivations and examining the minds of psychopaths.
If you enjoy true crime or you’re a fan of thrilling mysteries, then you’ll love this audiobook.
Audible Sample:
4. Unnatural Causes
The Life and Many Deaths of Britain’s Top Forensic Pathologist
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5
- Reviews: 13,029
- Listening Length: 11h 46m
- Author: Dr. Richard Shepherd
- Narrator: Dr. Richard Shepherd
- Release Date: September 20th, 2018
Unnatural Causes is a best-selling audiobook that takes us for a dive into the life of forensic pathologist, Dr. Richard Shepherd who solves mysteries of sudden and unexplained deaths.
He has performed over 23,000 autopsies and has investigated some of the most high-profile cases of recent times including the Princess Diana inquiry, the Hungerford Massacre, and 9/11.
From serial killers to natural disasters to perfect murders and freak accidents, Richard has provided evidence that has put killers behind bars, and freed the innocent. Yet all this came to him at a personal cost.
Unnatural Causes written and narrated by Richard himself tells the story of the cases and bodies that have haunted him for the majority of his lifetime.
Audible Sample:
5. Killing the Mob
The Fight Against Organized Crime in America
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5
- Reviews: 12,603
- Listening Length: 10h 5m
- Author: Bill O’Reilly, Martin Dugard
- Narrator: Robert Petkoff
- Release Date: May 4th, 2021
This noteworthy audiobook has spent nearly 320 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.
Killing the Mob is a fascinating encounter with true crime history at its finest.
This audiobook contains richly detailed tales of murder, betrayal, corruption, and power.
It portrays a vivid portrait of how organized crime has changed over time in America as the stories bring to life the fascinating criminal underworld of the thirties, forties, and fifties. This includes the popular cases of Bonnie and Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby-Face Nelson.
Authors O’Reilly and Dugard turn these famous criminals and their true-life adventures into a listen that rivals the most captivating crime novel.
Audible Sample:
6. The Pale-Faced Lie
A True Story
- Rating: 4.5 out of 5
- Reviews: 11,679
- Listening Length: 11h 53m
- Author: David Crow
- Narrator: Kaipo Schwab
- Release Date: January 28th, 2020
This audiobook tells the fascinating tale of how one man’s lies can destroy a family.
It starts off with author David Crow telling how much he idolized his father, Thurston Crow. As David got older, he discovers an array of dark secrets about his father’s past.
Some of these truths have shattered his life and changed the way that he sees himself as well as those around him.
He learns that what your parents teach you typically isn’t always true, which is a lesson that all sons need to take to heart.
For a young man who had such academic difficulties, David showed intelligence, perseverance, and forgiveness throughout his life.
Even if you are annoyed and outraged at some of the circumstances, you’ll continue listening because of the engrossing story plot.
The crushing poverty and squalor of the Navajo towns that the Crow family lived in throughout the 1950s and 1960s is a significant undertone in this novel.
David Crow saw it firsthand and is aware of the contrast between the idealized portrayal of Native American culture and the sometimes intolerable reality.
Audible Sample:
7. In Cold Blood
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5
- Reviews: 11,298
- Listening Length: 14h 27m
- Author: Truman Capote
- Narrator: Scott Brick
- Release Date: January 3rd, 2006
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were brutally murdered by blasts from a shotgun held only a few inches from their faces. There was no clear motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
Truman Capote provides an astonishing level of empathy for the murderers. Tracing the depths to which even the most ordinary person can relate and shining a spotlight on those who seem most ordinary.
In this audiobook, the author generates mesmerizing suspense whilst reconstructing the murder and investigation that lead to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers.
This must listen audiobook is a study of criminality, including its victims, the impact it has on their families, the surrounding community, the relatives of those who commit the crimes, and even the law enforcement officials who are engaged in the case.
Audible Sample:
8. The Psychopath
A True Story
- Rating: 3.9 out of 5
- Reviews: 10,537
- Listening Length: 7h 15m
- Author: Mary Turner Thomson
- Narrator: Mary Turner Thomson, Andi Arndt, Leon Nixon
- Release Date: March 1st, 2021
Psychopaths are always portrayed as cold-hearted killers or ruthless con artists without empathy for others.
But what if they’re just misunderstood? What if there’s more to them than you think?
Years ago, Mary Thomson was betrayed by her husband and left to pick up the pieces.
In her first book, The Bigamist, she tells the true story of how she was able to move on.
Now in her second book, The Psychopath, Mary Thomson tells the story of how she got revenge and helped others do the same.
Mary tries to stop Will’s destructive actions by working with his newest fiancée in the US.
Will she and the other victims achieve their ultimate objective, which is to weaken Will Jordan for good?
Audible Sample:
9. Finding Me
A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed – A Memoir of the Cleveland Kidnappings
- Rating: 4.7 out of 5
- Reviews: 7,478
- Listening Length: 7h 12m
- Author: Michelle Knight, Michelle Burford
- Narrator: Maria Cabezas
- Release Date: September 4th, 2014
Michelle Knight shares her harrowing story of abduction, rape, torture, and abuse at the hands of a bus driver named Ariel Castro.
She tells how she was able to clutch onto hope to survive 10 long years and how Amanda Berry gave her a new lease on life during her darkest hour.
Michelle was just 15 years old when she was kidnapped.
For more than a decade, she endured unimaginable torture. In 2003 Amanda Berry joined her in captivity.
Michelle was freed in May 2022 and soon after sought help from Dr. Phil on his TV show.
He assisted her in making sense of her freedom and also shared her story with others in order to help find other abducted women and girls.
If you want to listen to a gripping but tragic true crime audiobook, this one should be on your list.
Audible Sample:
10. Chaos
Charles Manson, the CIA and the Secret History of the Sixties
- Rating: 4.7 out of 5
- Reviews: 7,494
- Listening Length: 16h 14m
- Author: Tom O’Neill, Dan Piepenbring
- Narrator: Kevin Stillwell
- Release Date: June 27th, 2019
Last but not least on our best true crime audiobooks list is a gripping account of America’s most notorious crime, the shocking and gruesome story of a group of people who subjected themselves to torture and degradation, believing they would achieve spiritual freedom.
The author chronicles his 20-year investigation into the Manson murders, as well as its political, social, cultural, and economic implications.
In this groundbreaking new audiobook, Tom O’Neill convincingly demonstrates that Charles Manson was not only a charismatic leader but someone who symbolized revolt against what society thought was right.
Chaos is presented as an absorbing narrative with an extra-special dramatic structure.
The author has woven together a true story that’s both tragic and tragicomically infuriating, revealing in gruesome detail the series of unfortunate events that led to the murders.
It also offers a detailed analysis of the initial investigation, including a thorough exploration of Charles Manson’s role in sparking the murders, as well as everyone else’s contribution.
This is a fantastic list! I’m honored that my memoir, The Pale-Faced Lie, is in such great company.