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Embla Nystrom Investigations by Helene Tursten
Hunting Game by Helene Tursten
Winter Grave by Helene Tursten
Snowdrift by Helene Tursten
The More Series by Adam Dunn
Rivers of Gold by Adam Dunn
The Big Dogs by Adam Dunn
Saint Underground by Adam Dunn
The Road King Chronicles Series by Harry Harrigan
Blue Ridge Run by Harry Harrigan
Second Hand Snake by Harry Harrigan
South Dakota Dead by Harry Harrigan
Seth Walker Series by Joseph Reid
Takeoff by Joseph Reid
False Horizon by Joseph Reid
Departure by Joseph Reid
Pono Hawkings Thriller Series by Mike Bond
Saving Paradise by Mike Bond
Killing Maine by Mike Bond
Goodbye Paris by Mike Bond

Spring is here! And whether you’re cleaning out the house, mucking out the garden or lacing up your running shoes, you’re gonna need some audio companionship. Why not get lost in an audiobook — or even better, an audiobook series? It’ll make all those daily chores and miles whizz by.

We’ve chosen some shorter series here for your consideration, all in the thriller category, all with a total binge time of less than 35 hours. So get your earbuds plugged in!

 width=Embla Nyström Investigations by Helene Tursten
Narrated by Stina Nielsen
Total Binge Time: 27h 17m

Series premise: From a young age, 28-year-old Embla Nyström has been plagued by chronic nightmares and racing thoughts. She has learned to channel most of her anxious energy into her position as Detective Inspector in the mobile unit in Gothenburg, Sweden, and into hunting and boxing. But there’s a mystery from her past that won’t leave her alone.

Book One: Hunting Game: On vacation at an annual moose hunt with her family and friends in rural Dalsland, Nyström takes charge of a search for two men from a neighboring group of hunters. When one of them is found dead in a nearby lake, she calls in local reinforcements while delving into the dark pasts of her fellow hunters in search of a killer.

Book Two: Winter Grave: Nyström must solve a murder case and find two missing children before a small town takes matters into their own hands. As she hunts for the missing children, she can’t help but think of the case that has been haunting her for years: the disappearance of her childhood best friend. Could the incidents be linked? 

Book Three: Snowdrift: When a new lead breaks in the cold case that has long haunted Nyström, the truth she’s been seeking about her best friend’s disappearance may finally be revealed — if it doesn’t kill her first. A phone call in the dead of night convinces her Lollo’s alive, but she also learns that Milo Stavic, a well-known gang member and one of the last people seen with Lollo, has been shot dead. So, where is Lollo, then?

 width=The More Series by Adam Dunn
Narrated by Thomas Eldon Anderson
Total Binge Time: 29h 59m

Series premise: MARSOC and covert CIA operator Everett “Ever” More and Detective Sixto Santiago are partnered up in this NYPD police thriller set during the Second Great Depression, an alternate dystopian reality where mobocracy and gang wars reach from the streets to Wall Street and all the way into the halls of the federal government. Side note: You can also binge the related television series, Big Dogs, on Amazon Prime.

Book One: Rivers of Gold: An underground party circuit has developed, wherein rival cartels use a network of taxicabs to move contraband around the city. The brutal murder of a cab driver draws More and Santiago into an increasingly complex investigation that eventually uncovers a gang war between the party cartels, who, as it turns out, are just the tip of the crime iceberg. 

Book Two: The Big Dogs: More and Santiago’s new unit is assigned to investigate the brutal mob killing of a high-profile hedge fund founder. Working alongside an agent from the Treasury financial crimes division, they discover that the victim’s underling is in possession of encrypted info, kicking off a spree of hitman kills and a terror plot against the city’s buses.

Book Three: Saint Underground: A political feud between Republicans and Democrats reaches critical mass during the presidential conventions in NYC. Two feuding legislators who are using a shadow bank in the city’s subway system to move slush funds have their quarrel spill into open warfare, with the civilian population caught in the crossfire. 

Read our previous coverage of this series here.

 width=The Road King Chronicles Series by Harry Harrigan
Narrated by Holden Still
Total Binge Time: 30h 28m

Series premise: Master Sergeant Roman Keane has spent the last 23 years and three combat tours with the 75th Ranger Regiment. He’s got a Silver Star, a titanium knee and a plan to see America on his Road King motorcycle now that he’s retiring. But somehow trouble always finds him. 

Book One: Blue Ridge Run: A chance encounter with an old work van with a bloody foot smeared up against the back window triggers a series of events that puts Keane’s brother Virgil and two old friends in the crosshairs of a murderer. Read our review here.

Book Two: Second Hand Snake: Keane has been in the saddle for the last four months and is looking forward to getting home when a couple of old friends ask him to help them deliver a collection of vintage motorcycles. Sounds simple enough — until it nearly gets them all killed. 

Book Three: South Dakota Dead: At the behest of his old friend and historian of military arms, Hugh Early, Keane is off to South Dakota to check out “something you have to see to believe.” But historians, of all people, should know that the past you thought was dead and gone has a way of rising up to finish what it started.

 width=Seth Walker Series by Joseph Reid
Narrated by JD Jackson
Total Binge Time: 30h 14m

Series premise: Air marshal turned investigator Seth Walker is called into cases involving air travel and aviation in this high-octane Amazon bestselling series.

Book One: Takeoff: Walker is tasked with delivering female pop star Max Magic to the FBI. But when their routine flight ends in a hail of gunfire at LAX, Walker has no choice but to take the frightened diva on the run, using a patchwork of trusted aviation contacts to get her home to Austin. But as they race to stay one step ahead of their deadly pursuers, the biggest danger of all may be what they’re heading toward — the dark secrets that Max herself has been keeping.

Book Two: False Horizon: A commuter flight has fallen from clear skies over West Virginia, its wing sheared off at twenty thousand feet. Air marshal Seth Walker is called to the mountains of Appalachia to investigate. But what he stumbles into is a ground war of ruthless ecoterrorists, heavily armed miners and cold-blooded drug smugglers. 

Book Three: Departure: When an electrical engineer from one of America’s premier tech companies disappears inside the San Francisco International Airport before an overseas flight, Walker is called in to investigate. With the clock ticking down and questions multiplying at every turn, Walker can’t afford to fail: the lives of all two hundred thousand passengers inside SFO may hang in the balance, as the engineer might actually be terrorist.

 width=Pono Hawkins Thriller Series by Mike Bond
Narrated by Luke Daniels, Mikael Naramore
Total Binge Time: 32h 27m

Series premise: Former Special Forces veteran Pono Hawkins, now a well-known Hawaii surfer and international surfing journalist, grapples with dirty politics, corporate greed and impending environmental catastrophes.

Book One: Saving Paradise: When a beautiful journalist drowns mysteriously off Waikiki, former Hawkins quickly gets embroiled in trying to solve her death. What he learns soon targets him for murder or life in prison as a cabal of powerful corporations, foreign killers and crooked politicians focuses the blame on him.

Book Two: Killing Maine: Hawkins quits sunny Hawaii for Maine’s brutal winter to help a former comrade beat a murder rap. Hunted, shot at, betrayed, and stalked by knife-wielding assassins as he tries to find the real murderer, Hawkins uncovers a web of  crooked Maine politics, environmental catastrophes and corporate graft.

Book Three: Goodbye Paris: Hawkins races to France when he learns that an ISIS terrorist he’d thought was dead has plans to destroy Paris. He was once that terrorist’s prisoner in Iraq, and is now the only one left alive to identify him. Joining forces with U.S. and French intelligence, he sets out against the odds to uncover and outwit a dangerous terrorist network.

Read our previous coverage of this series here.

Embla Nystrom Investigations by Helene Tursten

Embla Nystrom Investigations by Helene Tursten

Set in the rich traditions of classical Greek literature, The Cytherean Cycle brings together three pathbreaking plays exploiting perennial themes of power, love, tragedy and comedy. “Rhea Silvia” — “a Womanist Tragedy” — depicts the fate of her progeny — the twins Romulus and Rema. “ParisAlexandros” narrates the lasting impact of Paris, mythical judge of Beauty, lover of Helen of Troy and slayer of the great warrior Achilles. “Nausikaa,” developing a suggestion that the Odyssey may have been composed by Nausikaa as a female acolyte of Homer, offers a rich and surprising comedy based on that premise.

The Cytherean Cycle cultivates an ongoing faculty of thought called Cytherics: the sighting of aestheticerotic, or aphrodisian, environments.


Hunting Game by Helene Tursten

Hunting Game by Helene Tursten

Book One: Hunting Game: On vacation at an annual moose hunt with her family and friends in rural Dalsland, Nyström takes charge of a search for two men from a neighboring group of hunters. When one of them is found dead in a nearby lake, she calls in local reinforcements while delving into the dark pasts of her fellow hunters in search of a killer.


Winter Grave by Helene Tursten

Winter Grave by Helene Tursten

Book Two: Winter Grave: Nyström must solve a murder case and find two missing children before a small town takes matters into their own hands. As she hunts for the missing children, she can’t help but think of the case that has been haunting her for years: the disappearance of her childhood best friend. Could the incidents be linked? 


Snowdrift by Helene Tursten

Snowdrift by Helene Tursten

Book Three: Snowdrift: When a new lead breaks in the cold case that has long haunted Nyström, the truth she’s been seeking about her best friend’s disappearance may finally be revealed — if it doesn’t kill her first. A phone call in the dead of night convinces her Lollo’s alive, but she also learns that Milo Stavic, a well-known gang member and one of the last people seen with Lollo, has been shot dead. So, where is Lollo, then?


The More Series by Adam Dunn

The More Series by Adam Dunn

Series premise: MARSOC and covert CIA operator Everett “Ever” More and Detective Sixto Santiago are partnered up in this NYPD police thriller set during the Second Great Depression, an alternate dystopian reality where mobocracy and gang wars reach from the streets to Wall Street and all the way into the halls of the federal government. Side note: You can also binge the related television series, Big Dogs, on Amazon Prime.


Rivers of Gold by Adam Dunn

Rivers of Gold by Adam Dunn

Book One: Rivers of Gold: An underground party circuit has developed, wherein rival cartels use a network of taxicabs to move contraband around the city. The brutal murder of a cab driver draws More and Santiago into an increasingly complex investigation that eventually uncovers a gang war between the party cartels, who, as it turns out, are just the tip of the crime iceberg. 


The Big Dogs by Adam Dunn

The Big Dogs by Adam Dunn

Book Two: The Big Dogs: More and Santiago’s new unit is assigned to investigate the brutal mob killing of a high-profile hedge fund founder. Working alongside an agent from the Treasury financial crimes division, they discover that the victim’s underling is in possession of encrypted info, kicking off a spree of hitman kills and a terror plot against the city’s buses.


Saint Underground by Adam Dunn

Saint Underground by Adam Dunn

Book Three: Saint Underground: A political feud between Republicans and Democrats reaches critical mass during the presidential conventions in NYC. Two feuding legislators who are using a shadow bank in the city’s subway system to move slush funds have their quarrel spill into open warfare, with the civilian population caught in the crossfire. 


The Road King Chronicles Series by Harry Harrigan

The Road King Chronicles Series by Harry Harrigan

Series premise: Master Sergeant Roman Keane has spent the last 23 years and three combat tours with the 75th Ranger Regiment. He’s got a Silver Star, a titanium knee and a plan to see America on his Road King motorcycle now that he’s retiring. But somehow trouble always finds him. 


Blue Ridge Run by Harry Harrigan

Blue Ridge Run by Harry Harrigan

Book One: Blue Ridge Run: A chance encounter with an old work van with a bloody foot smeared up against the back window triggers a series of events that puts Keane’s brother Virgil and two old friends in the crosshairs of a murderer. Read our review here.


Second Hand Snake by Harry Harrigan

Second Hand Snake by Harry Harrigan

Book Two: Second Hand Snake: Keane has been in the saddle for the last four months and is looking forward to getting home when a couple of old friends ask him to help them deliver a collection of vintage motorcycles. Sounds simple enough — until it nearly gets them all killed. 


South Dakota Dead by Harry Harrigan

South Dakota Dead by Harry Harrigan

Book Three: South Dakota Dead: At the behest of his old friend and historian of military arms, Hugh Early, Keane is off to South Dakota to check out “something you have to see to believe.” But historians, of all people, should know that the past you thought was dead and gone has a way of rising up to finish what it started.


Seth Walker Series by Joseph Reid

Seth Walker Series by Joseph Reid

Series premise: Air marshal turned investigator Seth Walker is called into cases involving air travel and aviation in this high-octane Amazon bestselling series.


Takeoff by Joseph Reid

Takeoff by Joseph Reid

Book One: Takeoff: Walker is tasked with delivering female pop star Max Magic to the FBI. But when their routine flight ends in a hail of gunfire at LAX, Walker has no choice but to take the frightened diva on the run, using a patchwork of trusted aviation contacts to get her home to Austin. But as they race to stay one step ahead of their deadly pursuers, the biggest danger of all may be what they’re heading toward — the dark secrets that Max herself has been keeping.


False Horizon by Joseph Reid

False Horizon by Joseph Reid

Book Two: False Horizon: A commuter flight has fallen from clear skies over West Virginia, its wing sheared off at twenty thousand feet. Air marshal Seth Walker is called to the mountains of Appalachia to investigate. But what he stumbles into is a ground war of ruthless ecoterrorists, heavily armed miners and cold-blooded drug smugglers. 


Departure by Joseph Reid

Departure by Joseph Reid

Book Three: Departure: When an electrical engineer from one of America’s premier tech companies disappears inside the San Francisco International Airport before an overseas flight, Walker is called in to investigate. With the clock ticking down and questions multiplying at every turn, Walker can’t afford to fail: the lives of all two hundred thousand passengers inside SFO may hang in the balance, as the engineer might actually be terrorist.


Pono Hawkings Thriller Series by Mike Bond

Pono Hawkings Thriller Series by Mike Bond

Series premise: Former Special Forces veteran Pono Hawkins, now a well-known Hawaii surfer and international surfing journalist, grapples with dirty politics, corporate greed and impending environmental catastrophes.


Saving Paradise by Mike Bond

Saving Paradise by Mike Bond

Book One: Saving Paradise: When a beautiful journalist drowns mysteriously off Waikiki, former Hawkins quickly gets embroiled in trying to solve her death. What he learns soon targets him for murder or life in prison as a cabal of powerful corporations, foreign killers and crooked politicians focuses the blame on him.


Killing Maine by Mike Bond

Killing Maine by Mike Bond

Book Two: Killing Maine: Hawkins quits sunny Hawaii for Maine’s brutal winter to help a former comrade beat a murder rap. Hunted, shot at, betrayed, and stalked by knife-wielding assassins as he tries to find the real murderer, Hawkins uncovers a web of  crooked Maine politics, environmental catastrophes and corporate graft.


Goodbye Paris by Mike Bond

Goodbye Paris by Mike Bond

Book Three: Goodbye Paris: Hawkins races to France when he learns that an ISIS terrorist he’d thought was dead has plans to destroy Paris. He was once that terrorist’s prisoner in Iraq, and is now the only one left alive to identify him. Joining forces with U.S. and French intelligence, he sets out against the odds to uncover and outwit a dangerous terrorist network.


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