Program Description:
To get in the Halloween mood, PBS Books and the American Library Association’s Booklist Reader are teaming up to help you find your next big scare! Public Librarian and National Director Heather-Marie Montilla will speak with audiobook editor Heather Booth to explore the best mystery, magic and horror audiobooks released over last few years. Audiobooks are rapidly growing in popularity. While a majority of audiobook readers are between 25 and 44 years of age, the immersive audiobook experience is attracting people of all ages. Join us to learn about what to look for when selecting an audiobook and get top book recommendations from the experts.
Heather Booth, Audio Editor
Heather Booth, Audio Editor, has been at Booklist since 2018, a librarian since 2002, and has been listening to audiobooks since they came on records that were tucked into paper pockets in her picture books. She is always up for listening to a quirky family story, a twisty mystery, or that book so well crafted it takes your breath away. Heather in on a quest to bake a perfect macaron and enjoys spending time with family, her dogs, and nature.
Mystery, Murder & Magic Audiobooks
The Angel of Indian Lake by Stephen Graham Jones
The final installment in the most lauded trilogy in the history of horror novels picks up four years after Don’t Fear the Reaper as Jade returns to Proofrock, Idaho, to build a life after the years of sacrifice—only to find the Lake Witch is waiting for her in New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones’s finale.
It’s been four years in prison since Jade Daniels last saw her hometown of Proofrock, Idaho, the day she took the fall, protecting her friend Letha and her family from incrimination. Since then, her reputation, and the town, have changed dramatically. There’s a lot of unfinished business in Proofrock, from serial killer cultists to the rich trying to buy Western authenticity. But there’s one aspect of Proofrock no one wants to confront…until Jade comes back to town. The curse of the Lake Witch is waiting, and now is the time for the final stand.
New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones has crafted an epic horror trilogy of generational trauma from the Indigenous to the townies rooted in the mountains of Idaho. It is a story of the American west written in blood.
Never Whistle at Night edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
Featuring stories by:
Norris Black • Amber Blaeser-Wardzala • Phoenix Boudreau • Cherie Dimaline • Carson Faust • Kelli Jo Ford • Kate Hart • Shane Hawk • Brandon Hobson • Darcie Little Badger • Conley Lyons • Nick Medina • Tiffany Morris • Tommy Orange • Mona Susan Power • Marcie R. Rendon • Waubgeshig Rice • Rebecca Roanhorse • Andrea L. Rogers • Morgan Talty • D.H. Trujillo • Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. • Richard Van Camp • David Heska Wanbli Weiden • Royce K. Young Wolf • Mathilda Zeller
Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear—and even follow you home.
These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce readers to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples’ survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due, Read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt
A gripping, page-turning novel set in Jim Crow Florida that follows Robert Stephens Jr. as he’s sent to a segregated reform school that is a chamber of terrors where he sees the horrors of racism and injustice, for the living, and the dead.
Gracetown, Florida
June 1950
Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.
The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan, Read by Soneela Nankani
Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Nearly a century later, it stands in ruins: an isolated boardinghouse for eclectic misfits, seeking solely to disappear into the mansion’s dark corridors. Except for Sana. Unlike the others, she is curious and questioning and finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion: To the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects—and to the door at its end, locked for decades.
Behind the door is a bedroom frozen in time and a worn diary that whispers of a dark past: the long-forgotten story of a young woman named Meena, who died there tragically a hundred years ago. Watching Sana from the room’s shadows is a besotted, grieving djinn, an invisible spirit who has haunted the mansion since her mysterious death. Obsessed with Meena’s story, and unaware of the creature that follows her, Sana digs into the past like fingers into a wound, dredging up old and terrible secrets that will change the lives of everyone living and dead at Akbar Manzil. Sublime, heart-wrenching, and lyrically stunning, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years is a haunting, a love story, and a mystery, all twined beautifully into one young girl’s search for belonging.
Gaslight by Miles Joris-Peyrafitte and Sara Shepard, Read by Julia Atwood
Miles Joris-Peyrafitte (Sundance Award-winning filmmaker and star-studded podcast creator) and bestselling author Sara Shepard (the Pretty Little Liars series) have teamed up to write a timely, tense, compelling thriller that stands out for its exploration of the inner workings of cults, the susceptibility of young minds, and the fragility of friendship and marriage. Joris-Peyrafitte’s unique storytelling style, combined with Shepard’s knack for secrets and twists, makes Gaslight a compelling read for fans far beyond its namesake podcast. Rebecca is leading a tranquil life with her husband Tom and their two young children, believing her past is firmly behind her, until an old friend unexpectedly appears on her doorstep to shatter the idyll. The visitor, Danny, is a ghastly reminder of a charismatic leader-centered cult and all the secrets—including those relating to abuse—Rebecca is keeping from Tom. Established narrator Atwood’s storytelling flows seamlessly, even when revisiting past events to provide context. The tone and pacing are spot-on, with empathy and compassion evident in Atwood’s voice; the audio version of this novel will resonate and appeal to podcast fans. This book is a must-read for fans of cult stories, thrillers, complex characters, or even friendships turned sour (think Pretty Little Liars). Shepard’s unique perspective shines through; her mastery of secrets and twists evident on every page.
Fortune: A Novel by Ellen Won Steil
One drop of blood for a chance at a multimillion-dollar windfall. Is it a philanthropic gesture from a billionaire widow? Some suspect a darker motive behind the DNA lottery―one tied to the eighteen-year-old mystery of an infant’s unidentified remains that mars the history of idyllic Rosemary Hills, Iowa. Right after the blood lottery is announced, three local women fall under suspicion of knowing something about that night, and their carefully kept secrets threaten to spill out too.
Cleo is a divorced single mom forced to return to her hometown and accept a strange job reading to an invalid recluse; Jemma is a controversial state senator whose reelection campaign and teenage daughter have her on edge; and Alex, a divorce attorney, copes with a crumbling marriage of her own and the suffocating presence of a cold, overbearing mother.
Soon, unimaginable revelations of the past will collide with the present―and not just for Cleo, Jemma, and Alex. In this seemingly ordinary community, they aren’t the only ones with long-buried secrets.
Maude Horton’s Glorious Revenge by Lizzie Pook, Read by Genevieve Gaunt
Twenty-year-old Constance Horton has run away from her life in Victorian London, disguising herself as a boy to board the Makepeace, an expedition vessel bound for the icy and unexplored Northwest Passage of the Arctic. She struggles to keep her real identity a secret on the ship, a feat that only grows more difficult when facing the constant dangers of the icy North.
Even more dangerous than the cold, the storms, and the hunger, are some of the men aboard—including the ship’s scientist Edison Stowe. He’s watching Constance, and she knows that his attention could be fatal.
In London two years later: Maude Horton is searching for the truth. After being told by the British Admiralty that her sister’s death onboard the Makepeace was nothing more than a tragic accident, she receives a diary revealing that Edison Stowe had more of a hand in Constance’s death than the returning crew acknowledged.
In order to get the answers she needs, Maude shadows Edison. She joins him on a new venture he’s started to capitalize on the murder mania that has all of London in a frenzy—a travel company that takes guests around the country via train to witness public hangings—to extract the truth from him in any way possible.
No One Goes Alone by Erik Larson
From New York Times bestselling author Erik Larson comes his first venture into fiction, an otherworldly tale of intrigue and the impossible that marshals his trademark approach to nonfiction to create something new: a ghost story thoroughly grounded in history.
Pioneering psychologist William James leads an expedition to a remote isle in search of answers after a family inexplicably vanishes. Was the cause rooted in the physical world . . . or were there forces more paranormal and sinister at work? Available only on audio, because as Larson says, ghost stories are best told aloud.
A group of researchers sets sail for the Isle of Dorn in the North Atlantic in 1905 to explore the cause of several mysterious disappearances, most notably a family of four who vanished without a trace after a week-long holiday on the island. Led by Professor James, a prominent member of the Society for Psychical Research, they begin to explore the island’s sole cottage and surrounding landscape in search of a logical explanation.
