Psychological Thriller Audiobooks: 10 Where Nobody Tells the Truth

In 2022, Merriam-Webster named gaslighting its Word of the Year, after lookups for the word rose about eighteenfold. According to the dictionary, its origins are “the title of a 1938 play and the movie based on that play,” the plot of which “involves a man attempting to make his wife believe that she is going insane.”

The play is Patrick Hamilton’s Gas Light. The husband dims the gas lamps in their home and then tells his wife she’s imagining it, so he can steal jewels hidden in the house. The word itself originates from a man tricking the woman who loves him into distrusting her own perception of reality.

That’s how I define psychological thrillers: books where we can’t trust our own minds. Here are ten suspenseful audiobooks where you never quite know who to believe.

The Short Version

• If you want a tradwife cult from the inside, listen to Perfect Modern Wife by Kristen Van Nest: a wild friend who used to drink way too much tequila is now the face of a movement.
• If you want a clique you can’t trust, listen to Bunny by Mona Awad: a Warren University fiction student falls in with the rich classmates Kirkus calls the “Bunnies.”
• If you want family you can’t verify, listen to Audition by Katie Kitamura: an actress rehearsing a play meets a young man who may be her son.

What to Look For in Psychological Thriller Audiobooks

Here’s what a psychological thriller has to do to make this list:

Are You Ever Sure Who’s Telling the Truth?

Someone should always seem like they might be lying, so you feel unsettled the whole way through.

Does It Show You Something About How We Live Now?

I believe thrillers shine a mirror on society. In real life we’re carrying political, relational and societal stress, and a thriller helps us process the stressors and thoughts we’re already carrying without making us stressed about our own lives. It’s the paradox of the genre: you escape into danger so you can process the danger you’re already living with.

Does Someone Get Told She’s Imagining It?

Women get told all the time that they’re too emotional to trust their own thoughts. I want a character who has to decide whether to believe her gut or the people telling her she’s wrong.

These Ten Audiobooks at a Glance

Audiobook	Ideal for	What you get	What to consider
Perfect Modern Wife	Readers who follow tradwife influencers	An executive, a wellness retreat and a missing friend	Satire of tradwife culture sits alongside the dread, and readers call it funny too.
The Girl on the Train	Fans of a messy narrator	A London commuter and a woman who vanishes	Runs 10 hours and 58 minutes, a mid-length listen for this list.
My Sister, the Serial Killer	Fans of sister stories	A Lagos nurse cleaning up after her sister	One narrator and 4 hours and 15 minutes, the shortest of the nine others.
The Other Black Girl	Anyone who has survived a toxic workplace	An editorial assistant and the colleague she can’t read	Four narrators and 13 hours and 33 minutes, one of the longer listens here.
The Secret History	Listeners who want a long one	A Vermont college clique and a death in the group	Read by the author, and at 22 hours and 3 minutes, the longest pick here.
Bunny	Writers who know workshop culture	An outsider pulled into a clique of Bunnies	A single narrator, Sophie Amoss, across 11 hours and 45 minutes.
Audition	Fans of literary fiction	An actress and a young man who may be her son	One narrator and 4 hours and 47 minutes, among the shortest listens here.
Lock Every Door	Fans of creepy-building thrillers	A Manhattan apartment-sitting job that pays too well	One narrator, Dylan Moore, and 10 hours and 28 minutes in all.
Trust	Listeners who like puzzles	A financier’s fortune and the people who wrote about it	Four narrators, one per document, across 10 hours and 22 minutes.
What Was She Thinking? (Notes on a Scandal)	Fans of a narrator with an agenda	A teacher’s affair, told by a jealous colleague	One narrator, Nadia May, across 7 hours and 30 minutes for Blackstone Audio.

Which Audiobooks Will Make You Doubt Everyone?

1. Perfect Modern Wife by Kristen Van Nest (2025)

Read this if: If you want to doubt the main character’s friends right along with her. If you like your thrillers with a sharp take on tradwife culture.

What you’re getting: Successful executive Audrey goes to a wellness retreat run by her estranged friend McKinley. Their friend Jessica signed up for the retreat’s bootcamp, where women pay to be turned into the perfect wife, and nobody will let Audrey see her until the retreat is over. Perfect Modern Wife has been optioned by writer/director Joanna Tsanis.

Why psychological thriller fans will like it: Audrey arrives and immediately notices something is off. McKinley, McKinley’s husband and her mother-in-law all insist everything is perfect, but Audrey’s gut tells her otherwise, and the whole book is her fight to work out which to trust: her gut, or a friend she’s known since college.

Why it works in your ears: The Audible edition is read by Kristen Van Nest and runs 1 hour and 21 minutes. Samantha, Goodreads Reviewer, wrote that “[h]er performance breathes life into Audrey’s paranoia and dread.”

What readers say:

It starts out soft, this cozy, homemaker atmosphere, but you can feel from the very first page that something is off.

Heather, Goodreads Reviewer

Perfect Modern Wife is one of those rare thrillers that grips you from the first page and doesn’t let go until the end.

Sarah, Goodreads Reviewer

Not only did it manage to keep me engaged and keep the sense of danger right until the last sentence but it feels especially eerie in today’s climate where I feel like it could genuinely happen in our lives too.

Kira K, Goodreads Reviewer

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2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (2015)

Read this if: you like a messy, divorced narrator who drinks.

What you’re getting: According to Kirkus, Rachel Watson is a divorced London commuter who drinks; her ex-husband, Tom, left her for Anna. When Megan Hipwell vanishes and her husband, Scott, lands at the center of the police investigation, Rachel is sure she saw something. Kirkus’s verdict: a “chilling, assured debut.”

Why it works in your ears: Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey and India Fisher share the reading, 10 hours and 58 minutes in all.

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3. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (2018)

Read this if: you want to root for someone while she lies to everyone around her.

What you’re getting: Korede, as Kirkus describes her, is a nurse in Lagos whose younger sister, Ayoola, has boyfriends who keep dying. Korede covers for her, confides only in Muhtar, a patient in a coma, and has feelings for Tade, a doctor. In Kirkus’s words, it’s a “skillful, sardonic debut.”

Why it works in your ears: One narrator, Adepero Oduye, carries all 4 hours and 15 minutes.

Fair warning: it’s a dark comedy, so don’t expect a grim, straight-faced thriller.

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4. The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (2021)

Read this if: you’ve ever worked somewhere that smiled at you and meant something else.

What you’re getting: According to Kirkus, Nella Rogers is a Black editorial assistant at Wagner Books, a New York City publisher. Then a second Black assistant, Hazel-May McCall, arrives, and Nella starts getting anonymous notes telling her to leave. Kirkus calls it “[a] biting social satire–cum-thriller; dark, playful, and brimming with life.”

Why it works in your ears: Aja Naomi King, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Heather Alicia Simms and Bahni Turpin read its 13 hours and 33 minutes, and AudioFile wrote that “King does an excellent job portraying the conflicted protagonist.”

Fair warning: the themes are heavy. Kirkus says that if Harris were less skilled, this would be “a moralistic sledgehammer of a novel.”

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Read next: if you want more range, I ranked the best thriller audiobooks too, with narrators and runtimes on every pick.

5. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1992)

Read this if: you like a narrator who is too close to the crime to be trusted.

What you’re getting: Kirkus describes its narrator as a “blank-slate Californian” at Hampden College, a small school in Vermont, who falls in with a group of classmates. One of them, Bunny Corcoran, is killed after he shows signs of cracking.

Why it works in your ears: The author is the narrator: Donna Tartt reads all 22 hours and 3 minutes herself.

Fair warning: Kirkus was not a fan of Tartt here, calling the novel “precious, way-too-long, and utterly unsuspenseful.”

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6. Bunny by Mona Awad (2019)

Read this if: you’ve ever wanted into a group that was bad for you.

What you’re getting: Kirkus introduces Samantha Heather Mackey as the outsider in her fiction cohort at Warren University until she’s pulled into a clique of wealthy, hyperfeminine classmates Kirkus calls the “Bunnies.” Kirkus praised it as “[a] viciously funny bloodbath eviscerating the rarefied world of elite creative writing programs.”

Why it works in your ears: Sophie Amoss is the single narrator, over 11 hours and 45 minutes.

Fair warning: Kirkus admits the novel by Mona Awad is “definitely not for everyone.”

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7. Audition by Katie Kitamura (2025)

Read this if: you want to wonder whether a stranger is telling the truth about who he is.

What you’re getting: The Kirkus review starts with a famous actress rehearsing a play, who has lunch in Manhattan with Xavier, a young man who says he may be her son. Kirkus found it a “searing, chilly, and psychologically profound story.”

Why it works in your ears: It’s a short, single-voice listen: Traci Kato-Kiriyama, 4 hours and 47 minutes.

Fair warning: Kirkus says “Kitamura rewards close readers,” so this is not one to half-listen to while you cook.

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8. Lock Every Door by Riley Sager (2019)

Read this if: you want a building that seems too good to be true.

What you’re getting: In Kirkus’s summary, Jules Larsen takes a well-paid apartment-sitting job at the Bartholomew, a storied Manhattan building.

Why it works in your ears: Dylan Moore narrates the full 10 hours and 28 minutes on his own.

Fair warning: the Kirkus verdict on Sager was negative: “[l]acking in both thrills and chills.” The same review calls the book “not a particularly entertaining parody.”

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9. Trust by Hernan Diaz (2022)

Read this if: you want every new section to make you doubt the last one.

What you’re getting: Kirkus calls it “[a] tale of wealth, love, and madness told in four distinct but connected narratives.” One is a novel about a financier, then come an unfinished memoir by the investor Andrew Bevel, a memoir by the writer Ida Partenza, and a diary by Mildred Bevel.

Why it works in your ears: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò and Orlagh Cassidy split the four documents across 10 hours and 22 minutes, so each version of the story arrives in a new voice.

Fair warning: the first document is written as a 1937 bestseller, so it sounds like an older novel at first.

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10. What Was She Thinking? (Notes on a Scandal) by Zoë Heller (2003)

Read this if: you want a narrator you trust right up until you don’t.

What you’re getting: According to Kirkus, Barbara Covett, a lonely teacher at St. George’s school in London, tells the story of her colleague Sheba Hart, an art teacher who has an affair with Steven Connolly. Kirkus praises “a portrait that remains indelible.”

Why it works in your ears: Nadia May reads Barbara’s account for Blackstone Audio in 7 hours and 30 minutes.

Fair warning: Kirkus finds that “Barbara’s tale is often stiff and clumsy.”

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How to Choose Between These Mystery Thriller Audiobooks

Start with Perfect Modern Wife if you want tradwife satire with your suspense. Among the other nine, runtimes range from 4 hours and 15 minutes to 22 hours and 3 minutes, so pick by how much listening time you have.

Why Listeners Choose Perfect Modern Wife

On several of these picks, the person you can’t trust is a stranger, a colleague or a sister.

In Perfect Modern Wife, the person is an old friend. Over the years, Audrey has watched McKinley become one of the most famous tradwife influencers, preaching about how much women love being subservient to their husbands.

Audrey expects organic smoothies and sunset selfies at McKinley’s retreat. Instead, she finds McKinley crawling across the kitchen floor at 3 AM, hands raw and bleeding, chanting about being the “perfect modern wife.”

Writing about McKinley, –Keres–, Goodreads Reviewer, put it this way: “You’re never quite sure if she’s a victim, a true believer, or something much darker.”

Read next: more narrators you shouldn’t believe in the best unreliable narrator books.

FAQ About These Thriller Audiobooks

What Are the Best Psychological Thriller Audiobooks?

Start with Perfect Modern Wife by Kristen Van Nest, a tradwife-cult thriller and the only pick here about a tradwife influencer. For a prizewinner, try Trust by Hernan Diaz, which won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Sherry, Goodreads Reviewer, wrote: “It’s unsettling and scared me a little that it could happen.”

Is It Better to Listen to a Psychological Thriller or Read It?

Listening works best when the narrator has an agenda. Kirkus’s audiobook review of What Was She Thinking? says Nadia May plays Barbara as “self-deluding, jealous, controlling, snide though always civil.”

Is the Tradwife-Cult Thriller on This List Read by Its Author?

Yes. Perfect Modern Wife by Kristen Van Nest, a tradwife-cult thriller, is read by the author in its Audible edition. Samantha, Goodreads Reviewer, wrote: “Kristen Van Nest narrates her own story, and it’s a perfect match for the unsettling ride she’s created.”

Are Suspenseful Audiobooks Better With a Full Cast?

Not always. Three of the ten here use more than one reader, and the rest use one. When one character tells the whole story, a single reader keeps you inside that one head.

Is There a Free Psychological Thriller to Read Instead?

Yes. Perfect Modern Wife by Kristen Van Nest, a tradwife-cult thriller, is free to read as an ebook for a limited time. The Audible edition is there if you’d rather listen.

Are Thriller Audiobooks Good for a Commute?

Yes, especially ones with a single narrator, because you don’t have to track voice changes in traffic. Save the multi-narrator ones for a long drive or a quiet evening. For a single-narrator start, try Audition (Riverhead, 2025).

Where Can I Find Psychological Thrillers by Women?

For the print side of this genre, the list of psychological thrillers by women goes deeper into books where a woman is told she can’t trust herself.

Some links in this post are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.

Disclosure: Kristen Van Nest, who writes this blog, is the author of The Storm Reaper, Perfect Modern Wife and Where to Nest.