Host Jo Reed is joined by contributor Alex Richey to explore three horror audiobooks that favor atmosphere and interiority over jump scares. We begin with The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann, where Florence Howard’s finely tuned vocal shifts capture Anne Boleyn’s intellect and fury in an intimate, reflective alternate history. We then turn to The Body by Bethany C. Morrow, with Nesta Cooper delivering a grounded, emotionally precise performance that deepens the novel’s psychological unease. The episode closes with Mother Is Watching by Karma Brown, as Karissa Vacker navigates a tightly controlled world of surveillance and a deeply unsettling mystery, moving seamlessly among characters as the tension gradually tightens.

Audiobooks Discussed:

The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann, read by Florence

The Body by Bethany C. Morrow, read by Nesta Cooper

Mother Is Watching by Karma Brown, read by Karissa Vacker

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Laura Rossi joins host Jo Reed to talk through three recent Earphones

Audiobooks Discussed:

Judge Stone by James Patterson and Viola Davis, read by Viola Davis (Hachette Audio)

Cleopatra by Saara El-Arifi, read by Adjoa Andoh (Random House Audio)

Trust No One by James Rollins, read by Simon Vance (Harper Audio)

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Contributor Kendra Winchester joins host Jo Reed to discuss

Audiobooks Discussed:

Language as Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon by Toni Morrison, read by Bahni Turpin (Random House Audio)

Toni at Random: An Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship by Dana A. Williams, read by Deanna Anthony (Harper Audio)

On Morrison by Namwali Serpell, read by January LaVoy (Random House Audio)

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Host Jo Reed talks with contributor Leslie Fine about three audiobooks that circle around questions of identity, family, and belonging. In Kin by Tayari Jones, dual narrators Angel Pean and Ashley J. Hobbs give distinct

Audiobooks Discussed:

Kin by Tayari Jones, read by Angel Pean and Ashley J. Hobbs (Random House Audio)

Boy From the North Country written and read by Sam Sussman (Penguin Audio)

My Other Heart by Emma Nanami Strenner, read by Joy Osmanski (Penguin

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Host Jo Reed is joined by Michele Cobb to look at three audiobooks that use multiple narrators to tell stories from distinct perspectives. In Joan Silber’s Mercy, a cast of voices traces how an experience reverberates across lives and decades, with narration providing the emotional throughline. Rachel Hawkins’s The Storm leans into suspense and atmosphere, with strong performances sharpening a layered, true-crime-tinged mystery. And in Craig Thomas’s That’s Not How It Happened, four narrators bring clarity and texture to the story of a family and the uneasy overlap between private life and public storytelling.  Three very

Audiobooks Discussed:

Mercy

The Storm by Rachel Hawkins, read by Stephanie Németh-Parker, Alex Knox, Cathi Colas, Dan Bittner, Jane Oppenheimer, Patti Murin, and Petrea Burchard (Macmillan Audio)

That’s Not How It Happened by Craig Thomas, read by Marli Watson, Cobie

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Host Jo Reed is joined by Kirkus fiction editor Laurie Muchnick for a deep dive into Rachel Reid’s six-book Game Changers series. The basis for the HBO sensation Heated Rivalry, the books are a blend of pro hockey, queer romance, and unapologetic “spice.” The conversation zeroes in on two key audiobooks—Game Changer, read by Tor Thom, and The Long Game, read by Cooper North—highlighting how each narrator shapes character, tone, and emotional depth in very different ways. Along the way, Jo and Laurie consider what these romances promise (yes, a happily-ever-after), what they explore (from homophobia in sports to mental health), and how

Audiobooks Discussed:

Game Changer by Rachel Reid, read by Tor Thom (Tantor Media)

The Long Game by Rachel Reid, read by Cooper North (Harlequin Audio)

Other audiobooks in the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid:

 Heated Rivalry and Tough Guy, read by Tor Thom (Tantor Media)

Common Goal and Role Model, read by Cooper North (Harlequin Audio)

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Lauren Groff’s narration of Brawler brings listeners directly into the cadence and emotional undercurrent of her prose. In this episode of Behind the Mic, she talks with host Jo Reed about building a collection as a series of evolving questions, from the opening story “The Wind” to the final piece “Annunciation,” which, as she puts it, is “shining a light outward” while gesturing back toward what comes before.  The conversation also

Audiobooks Discussed:

Brawler, written and read by Lauren Groff (Penguin Audio)

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Kirkus young readers’ editor Laura Simeon suggests three

 Audiobooks Discussed:

Alice With a Why by Anna James, read by Kristin Atherton (Listening Library)

Confessions From the Group Chat by Jodi Meadows, read by Eevin Hartsough (Recorded Books)

Relic Hamilton, Genie Hunter by Joseph Coelho, read by Joseph Coelho

Support for Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollinsFocus and HarperCollinsChristianPublishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Colleen Coble, Mark Harmon, Jennie Allen, Max Lucado, Lysa TerKeurst, and many more.

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Contributor Alan Minskoff joins host Jo Reed to talk about three notable books—from George Saunders, Xochitl Gonzalez, and Lauren Groff—that offer rich and rewarding listening. They begin with George Saunders’s Vigil, an inventive, full-cast production featuring Judy Greer, Stephen Root, and McLeod Andrews, where a youthful ghost serves as a death doula to an unrepentant oil tycoon. The conversation then turns to Xochitl Gonzalez’s Last Night in Brooklyn, narrated compellingly by Elizabeth Rodriguez, a sharp, observant look at friendship, ambition, and gentrification in mid-2000s Brooklyn. They conclude with Lauren Groff’s Brawler, a collection of emotionally resonant stories read with empathy and thoughtful restraint by the author herself.  Together, these audiobooks show how skillful narration—from full casts to author performances—can deepen the emotional and imaginative reach of contemporary fiction.

Audiobooks Discussed:

Vigil

LastNight in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez, read by Elizabeth Rodriguez

Brawler

Support for Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollinsFocus and HarperCollinsChristianPublishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Colleen Coble, Mark Harmon, Jennie Allen, Max Lucado, Lysa TerKeurst, and many more.

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Host Jo Reed and contributor Stephen Cummings begin with Escape by Stephen Fischbach, an Earphones Award winner narrated by Julia Whelan, Imani Jade Powers, and Sean Patrick Hopkins; it’s a debut novel that digs into the machinations of reality TV and the costs of reinvention. Next they turn to Paper Cut by Rachel Taff, narrated by Helen Laser, a sharp exploration of true crime culture that follows a former cult member facing renewed scrutiny when a documentarian wants to revisit her past. Finally, they discuss the Earphones-winning Crown City by Naomi Hirahara, narrated by Brian Nishii, a richly observed social history threaded with a mystery as a newly arrived Japanese immigrant navigates 1903 Pasadena. Together, the three audiobooks—and their narrators—offer distinct portraits of pressure, survival, and the long reach of the past.

Audiobooks Discussed:

Escape! by Stephen

Paper Cut by Rachel

Crown City by Naomi Hirahara, read by Brian Nishii (Recorded Books)

Support for Behind the Mic comes from HarperCollins Focus and HarperCollinsChristianPublishing, publishers of some of your favorite audiobooks and authors, including Colleen Coble, Mark Harmon, Jennie

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