K's Beach Reads Staff Picks

The Girl Next Door

A Novel

By: Ruth Rendell
Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
Length: 9 hours 58 minutes

INCLUDES AN EXCERPT OF RENDELL’S FINAL NOVEL, DARK CORNERS

From crime legend Ruth Rendell, a psychologically intriguing novel about an old murder that sends shockwaves across a group of astonishingly carnal and appetiteful elderly friends: “Refined, probing, and intelligent…never less than a pleasure” (USA TODAY).

In the waning months of the... Read more

Dark Corners

By: Ruth Rendell
Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
Length: 7 hours 10 minutes

“A spectacularly creepy and macabre tale” (Entertainment Weekly) of blackmail, murders both accidental and opportunistic, and of one life’s fateful unraveling—from Ruth Rendell, “one of the most remarkable novelists of her generation” (People), writing at her most mesmerizing. Rendell completed Dark Corners shortly before her death in 2015.

When... Read more

The Black Tower

By: P. D. James
Narrated by: Penelope Dellaporta
Length: 13 hours 4 minutes

The fifth mystery in the acclaimed and bestselling Adam Dalgliesh series by “the reigning mistress of murder”(Time), P.D. James, is now available on CD.

Just recovered from a grave illness, Commander Adam Dalgliesh is called to the bedside of an elderly priest. When Dalgliesh arrives, Father Baddeley is dead. Is it merely his own brush with... Read more

A Song for the Dark Times

An Inspector Rebus Novel

A Rebus Novel: Book #23

By: Ian Rankin
Narrated by: James Macpherson
Length: 11 hours 1 minute

"He’s gone…"
 
When his daughter Samantha calls in the dead of night, John Rebus knows it’s not good news. Her husband has been missing for two days.
 
Rebus fears the worst – and knows from his lifetime in the police that his daughter will be the prime suspect.
 
He wasn’t the best father – the job always came first – but now his daughter needs... Read more

Cover Her Face

By: P. D. James
Narrated by: Penelope Dellaporta
Length: 9 hours 2 minutes

P. D. James is “the greatest living mystery writer.” –People

Headstrong and beautiful, the young housemaid Sally Jupp is put rudely in her place, strangled in her bed behind a bolted door. Coolly brilliant policeman Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard must find her killer among a houseful of suspects, most of whom had very good reason to wish her ill.... Read more

Last Bus to Woodstock

By: Colin Dexter
Narrated by: Samuel West
Length: 7 hours 42 minutes

Read by Samuel West, known for his roles in Van Helsing and Notting Hill.

Last Bus to Woodstock is the novel that began Colin Dexter's phenomenally successful Inspector Morse series.

'Do you think I'm wasting your time, Lewis?'
Lewis was nobody's fool and was a man of some honesty and integrity.
'Yes, sir.'
An engaging smile crept across Morse's... Read more

Knots and Crosses

Inspector Rebus Series: Book #1

By: Ian Rankin
Narrated by: Michael Page
Length: 5 hours 58 minutes

Detective John Rebus’s city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders…and he’s tied to a maniac by an invisible knot of blood. As the ghoulish killings mount and the tabloid headlines scream, Rebus cannot stop the feverish shrieks from within his own mind. Because he isn’t just one cop trying to catch a killer—he’s the man who’s got... Read more

A Heart Full of Headstones

An Inspector Rebus Novel

A Rebus Novel

By: Ian Rankin
Narrated by: James Macpherson
Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

New York Times bestselling author Ian Rankin returns to his legendary detective—it’s not the first time Rebus has taken the law into his own hands, though it may be the last.  John Rebus stands accused: on trial for a crime that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life.
 
But what drove a good man to cross the line?
 
Detective... Read more

Midnight Fugue: Dalziel and Pascoe, Book 24

Dalziel and Pascoe, Book 24

Harper Connelly: Book #24

By: Reginald Hill
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
Length: TBA

BOOK TWENTY TWO IN THE DALZIEL AND PASCOE SERIES

Gina Wolfe is searching for her missing husband, believed dead, and hopes Superintendent Andy Dalziel can help. What neither realize is that there are others on the same trail. A tabloid hack with some awkward enquiries about an ambitious MP's father. The politician’s secretary who shares his... Read more

Out of Bounds

Karen Pirie: Book #4

By: Val McDermid
Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
Length: 12 hours 58 minutes

A stunning new cold case novel from internationally bestselling crime writer Val McDermid about a car crash that opens up an unsolved murder from decades before. Internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, whose gripping, impeccably plotted novels have garnered millions of readers worldwide. In her... Read more

Still Life

Karen Pirie: Book #6

By: Val McDermid
Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
Length: 13 hours 6 minutes

From internationally bestselling author Val McDermid comes a propulsive new Karen Pirie thriller that delves into a historic missing persons case, fake identities, and art forgery Val McDermid is the award-winning, international bestselling author of more than thirty novels and has been hailed as Britain’s Queen of Crime. In Still Life, McDermid... Read more

Broken Ground

Karen Pirie: Book #5

By: Val McDermid
Narrated by: Cathleen McCarron
Length: 12 hours 58 minutes

Internationally bestselling author Val McDermid is one of our finest crime writers, and her gripping, masterfully plotted novels have garnered millions of readers from around the globe. In Broken Ground, cold case detective Karen Pirie faces her hardest challenge yet. Six feet under in a Highland peat bog lies Alice Somerville’s inheritance,... Read more

The Long Call

The Two Rivers Series: Book #1

By: Ann Cleeves
Narrated by: Ben Aldridge
Length: 10 hours 23 minutes

“I absolutely loved The Long Call. In this new mystery, Ann Cleeves introduces us to Inspector Matthew Venn, who embodies his diagram namesake as a character caught between his past and his future. A murder on a beach in Venn’s hometown on the English coast leads to a kidnapping, and as the pacing picks up, the suspects get ever closer to Venn’s... Read more

Wild Fire

A Shetland Island Mystery

Shetland Island Mysteries: Book #8

By: Ann Cleeves
Narrated by: Kenny Blyth
Length: 10 hours 44 minutes

“Wild Fire is the 8th book in the Jimmy Perez Shetland Island mystery series. Though I am a fan of the BBC/PBS show, this was the first book that I read. Wonderful depiction of insular island life, strong character development and a plot with twists and turns. What the characters are saying and what they leave out is important too for some... Read more

Raven Black

Book One of the Shetland Island Mysteries

Shetland Island Mysteries: Book #1

By: Ann Cleeves
Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
Length: 11 hours 20 minutes

The basis for the hit series "Shetland" now airing on PBS.

Winner of Britain's coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves's Raven Black introduces a dazzling suspense series to U.S. mystery readers.

It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a splash of color on... Read more

The Rising Tide

A Vera Stanhope Novel

Vera Stanhope: Book #10

By: Ann Cleeves
Narrated by: Janine Birkett
Length: 11 hours 27 minutes

"Janine Birkett's captivating narration does full justice to Ann Cleeves's masterful storytelling in the latest installment of this mystery series."-AudioFile Magazine on The Rising Tide

From Ann Cleeves—New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—comes the stunning tenth... Read more

The Raging Storm

A Detective Matthew Venn Novel

Matthew Venn series: Book #3

By: Ann Cleeves
Narrated by: Jack Holden
Length: 9 hours 47 minutes

“Holy Smokes! The Raging Storm is a twisty, on-the-edge-of-your-seat, wild ride of a novel. If you are lamenting the end of the Shetland series, rejoice in this new Ann Cleeves series starring Matthew Venn, a slightly uptight, gay police detective, who cannot quite believe how much he is loved by his husband, or how deeply he his respected by his... Read more

Case Histories

A Novel

Jackson Brodie: Book #1

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Susan Jameson
Length: 10 hours 42 minutes

The first book in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie Mysteries series, called "The best mystery of the decade" by Stephen King, finds private investigator Jackson Brodie following three seemingly unconnected family mysteries in Edinburg.

Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night.

Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a... Read more

Shrines of Gaiety

A Novel

By: Kate Atkinson
Narrated by: Jason Watkins
Length: 15 hours 58 minutes

“Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety book is a Dickensian exploration of post-war London. The Thames spits out bloated and puncture-filled bodies daily, while a few blocks away the wealthy party in Nellie Coker's ostentatious clubs without a care in the world. Coker and her family are the wheels upon which the story revolves. She and her children offer... Read more