“I read relatively fast, so any audiobook has to offer something extra special, given that it requires so much more time. That secret sauce is a narrator whose delivery illuminates the book, or a group of narrators who transform the book into more of a play. Here are five listens that bring an extra something to the physical book and which I race to listen to at any opportunity.” —Sarah Vaughan, author of Based on a True Story
Abigail Dean’s literary thriller about a serial intruder and the impact of his vicious crimes on a marriage works superbly as an audiobook. Claire Skinner is perfection as the sardonic and often prickly playwright Isabel; John Hopkins is equally convincing as her loving but repressed lawyer husband, Edward, ashamed of being bound in the next-door room at the time. With chapters alternately narrated between the two, it’s as much a love story as a depiction of the impact of trauma. On more than one occasion, Skinner’s wry inflections and Dean’s scalpel-sharp insights brought me to tears.
The Secret Barrister’s first courtroom drama is an empathetic, twisty, and propulsive read but an even better audiobook, with 11 narrators bringing the characters so vividly to life. Toby Jones narrates the legal documents, but the bulk of this courtroom drama is told by a cast including Ben Miles as the self-important prosecuting KC, Simon Vance as the harsh and hideously arrogant judge, and Wesley Ruthven and Kenton Thomas as two of the defendants. In a thriller as much about class and the lottery of life chances, the range of dialects and accents only highlights this theme.
Sarah Wynn-Williams’s no-nonsense New Zealand accent and just-controlled fury intensifies this devastating critique of the social media giant where she worked from 2011-17 as global public policy director. Her description of a toxic work environment in which she is fired after alleging sexual harassment by her manager, and in which she is criticised for being insufficiently responsive when in a postnatal coma, plus the egocentrism of Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, will stay with me.
Juliet Stevenson and Jane Austen are the most wonderful match, and I laughed out loud several times when listening to this audiobook of Austen’s Gothic satire. I could equally have chosen Pride and Prejudice or Sense and Sensibility. Wry, mellifluous, quietly empathetic. Just joyful.
I’ve a huge soft spot for Luke Thompson, who played the first-ever James Whitehouse in the multi-part narration of my novel Anatomy of a Scandal before going on to become Benedict Bridgerton. His narration of Daphne du Maurier’s sinuous and brilliantly plotted psychological thriller is superb. He brilliantly captures the naivety and then infatuation of 24-year-old Philip Ashley, as well as women—Rachel herself, and his childhood friend Louise Kendall—and a Cornish and Italian cast. I first read this Gothic thriller at 13 and it was my introduction to this author. From the opening line—“They used to hang men at Four Turnings in the old days”—Luke Thompson had me hooked.
Sarah Vaughan is the pseudonym of journalist Sarah Hall, and she is the bestselling author of several books, including Anatomy of a Scandal.
