Books
15 creepy horror audiobooks
If you enjoy the creeping sense of dread that crawls up your spine as you immerse yourself in a thrilling, atmospheric mystery then you’re in for a treat with these creepy, scary audiobooks.
Whether we’re listening to the dark Scandinavian thriller The Crow Girl or Jo Nesbo’s horror-inflected The Night House, we love nothing more than losing ourselves in an audiobook for hours on end. There’s something oddly satisfying about listening to a story so chilling and creepy that you contemplate sleeping with the lights on!
Which of these brilliantly sinister, spooky audiobooks will be going right to the top of your list?
15 of the creepiest horror audiobooks:
The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund
The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund, read by Gabrielle Glaisters
This international Scandi crime sensation has to be one of the darkest, most gruesome crime novels we’ve ever come across. Prepare yourself for twist after twist, because you’ll never guess where this one is heading.
After a body is found – the hands bound, the skin covered in marks – Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg is determined to find out who is responsible. When it becomes clear she’s hunting a serial killer, she turns to psychotherapist Sofia Zetterlund for help.
Listening length: 30 hours and 34 minutes
The Night House by Jo Nesbo
The Night House by Jo Nesbo, read by Edward Bourne
Recently orphaned Richard Elauved has moved to live with his aunt and uncle in Ballantyne, a remote town that doesn’t take kindly to outsiders. So when one of his peers goes missing, everyone points the finger at him. Impossible as it sounds, Richard saw the boy getting sucked into the receiver of a payphone – and he thinks the terrifying abandoned house in the woods has something to do with it. Now, with another classmate missing, Richard is in a race against time to prove his innocence and restore his reputation – but is his own account of events really that reliable?
Listening length: 6 hours and 32 minutes
The Whistling by Rebecca Netley
The Whistling by Rebecca Netley, read by Lois Chimimba
Elspeth Swansome has taken herself to the remote Scottish island of Skelthsea to work as a nanny, but her new place of employment is far from easy-going. Her charge, a child who refuses to talk, recently lost her twin brother, and the previous nanny disappeared suddenly and mysteriously. At night, a faint but chilling whistling sound fills the air, meanwhile the house’s empty corridors resound with chilling lullabies, and strange dolls appear in otherwise empty rooms. The looming winter leaves Elspeth cut off from the mainland – is she trapped with ghosts unknown?
Listening length: 8 hours and 41 minutes
Hide by Kiersten White
Hide by Kiersten White, read by Emma Galvin
Fourteen people, a week-long hide-and-seek contest, a life-changing amount of money up for grabs, and an abandoned theme park – what could possibly go wrong? Mack is determined to win, but she soon realises that this friendly competition is anything but. As people start to go missing, it’s clear that the game is turning deadly and those who are left standing will have to work together if they have any hopes of getting out alive…
Billed as the perfect thriller for fans of Stephen King and the hit TV show Squid Game, this immersive audiobook will make you think twice about counting to 10.
Listening length: 8 hours and 9 minutes
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware, read by Imogen Church
Full of menace, The Turn of the Key is a gripping, addictive and hugely atmospheric modern-day haunted house thriller.
When Rowan stumbles across the advert, it’s too good an opportunity to miss: a live-in nanny position, with a staggeringly generous salary. When she arrives at Heatherbrae House, she’s smitten by the luxurious home by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare – one that will end with a child dead and her in a cell awaiting trial for murder. She knows she’s made mistakes. But she’s not guilty – at least not of murder. Which means someone else is…
Listening length: 12 hours and 15 minutes
Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent
Lying In Wait by Liz Nugent, read by Caoilfheann Dunne, David McFetridge and Lesley McGuire
Lydia lives in the perfect house with her adoring husband and beloved son. There is just one thing Lydia yearns for to make her perfect life complete, but she doesn’t know that pursuing it will lead to murder. However, needs must – because nothing can stop this mother from getting what she wants.
Fans of The Talented Mr Ripley will love Liz Nugent’s psychological thriller – a claustrophobic, creepy novel that picks apart the facade of the perfect family and lets you into the mind of a fixated, meticulous serial killer. It also happens to have a brilliant opening line!
Listening length: 8 hours and 32 minutes
The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen
The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen, read by Hillary Huber
Rizzoli and Isles author Tess Gerritsen is back with a haunting new standalone novel that’s as chilling and creepy as they come, and perfect if you’re looking for spooky, scary audiobooks for Halloween season.
When Ava arrives at Brodie’s Watch, she thinks she has found the perfect place to hide from her past. But the old house on the hill both welcomes and repels her and Ava quickly begins to suspect she is not alone. Either that or she is losing her mind. The house is full of secrets, but is the creeping sense of danger coming from within its walls, or from somewhere else entirely?
Listening length: 9 hours and 22 minutes
IT by Stephen King
It by Stephen King, read by Steven Weber
Take a trip to Derry, Maine, where It lurks in the storm drains and sewers, taking on the shape of every nightmare, each one’s deepest dread – and turning it into a terrible reality.
If you love a truly scary story, then It is the book for you – and this audio edition is beyond sinister in the way it brings the characters to life, lifting them off the page. Make sure you listen to this one with the lights on.
Listening length: 44 hours and 53 minutes
The Taking of Annie Thorne by C J Tudor
The Taking of Annie Thorne by C J Tudor, read by Richard Armitage
Sinister, dark and seriously creepy, Richard Armitage’s first class narration will prove note-perfect for those who can’t get enough of scary audiobooks.
One night, Annie went missing. There were searches, appeals. Everyone thought the worst. And then, miraculously, after forty-eight hours, she came back. But she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say what had happened to her. And she certainly wasn’t the same. Now, eight years later, her brother is being pulled back to their hometown – because what happened to his sister is happening again…
Listening length: 10 hours and 43 minutes
Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land
Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land, read by Hannah Murray
Annie’s mother is a serial killer. The only way Annie can make it stop is to hand her in to the police. Now, with a new family and a new name, surely she can be whoever she wants to be. But blood is thicker than water and she is, after all, her mother’s daughter. Can she escape the secrets of her past that keep her awake at night?
Hannah Murray’s bleak, monotonous yet gentle and soft narration captures Annie’s troubled mindset perfectly, creating an eerie and uncanny listening experience. The suspense builds with every chapter, so we promise you’ll find yourself listening long into the night.
Listening length: 10 hours and 19 minutes
Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris
Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris, read by Thomas Harris
When it comes to horror classic, it doesn’t get much scarier than Hannibal Lecter, Thomas Harris’ blood-curdling serial killer with a penchant for cannibalism. If you’re already familiar with the best-known books and films of the Hannibal series (like Silence of the Lambs), we recommend turning to the prequel Hannibal Rising. Narrated by Harris himself, this audiobook is a chilling origin story of childhood trauma and inner demons that paint a portrait of one of the most disturbing villains in the history of horror.
Listening length: 7 hours and 3 minutes
The Living Dead by George A. Romero & Daniel Kraus
The Living Dead by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus, read by Lori Cardille and Bruce Davison
Across America, from trailer parks to aircraft carriers to cable news studios, the undead are rising up. Those remaining among the living are fighting to protect themselves. Meanwhile, in Washington DC, a single-minded federal employee is hell-bent on recording the data of this astonishing phenomenon. If you love zombie movies, horror, or political thrillers, this audiobook narrated by actors Lori Cardille (Day of the Dead) and Bruce Davison (X-Men, Ozark) is for you.
Listening length: 27 hours and 13 minutes
The House by Simon Lelic
The House by Simon Lelic, read by Gemma Whelan and Adam Newington
When Jack and Syd moved into their new house, it seemed like their dream home – so when they made a grisly discovery in the attic, they chose to ignore it. That was a mistake. Because someone has just been murdered outside their back door. And now the police are watching them.
If you like your psychological thrillers tense and intriguing, then this is wonderfully creepy story is for you. Told from two perspectives, it’s the characters that really shine here – and the two narrators do a stellar job of capturing their personalities in their performances.
Listening length: 8 hours and 29 minutes
The Terror by Dan Simmons
The Terror by Dan Simmons, read by Tom Sellwood
Based on the chilling true story that inspired the Ridley Scott BBC2 series of the same name, The Terror charts the doomed 1845 expedition of HMS Terror and Erebus. Trapped in Arctic ice in their attempt to find the Nort-West Passage, the two ships and their crews await certain death and starvation in the frozen landscape with no hope of returning to safety. But in this already-grim reality, something far more sinister is taking its toll on the men…
Listening length: 28 hours and 27 minutes
Pine by Francine Toon
Pine by Francine Toon, read by Cathleen McCarron
Lauren and her father Niall live a secluded village in the Scottish Highlands, where freakish deaths, unexplained disappearances, and strange behaviour is more common than you think. Still, Lauren is desperate for answers – about her long-missing mother, the hunter found hanging in the forest with his catch, the drunk woman her father rescued one Halloween night, but was gone by morning. She turns to tarot cards in the hopes of finding the truth, but if people in her community just talked, maybe she wouldn’t have to…
Part gothic horror, part pacy thriller, this audiobook narrated by the lilting voice of Cathleen McCarron is an immersive and spine-tingling listening experience.
Listening length: 8 hours and 57 minutes
Have you listened to any creepy or scary audiobooks recently? Let us know in the comments below!
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