The Girl on the Train: A Novel Audiobook by Paula Hawkins

Why the audiobook wins

Three narrators, three unreliable women, and none of them tip their hand. Clare Corbett, Louise Brealey, and India Fisher voice Rachel, Anna, and Megan with just enough distinction that you always know whose version of events you're hearing, and just enough restraint that you're never sure whose version to believe. That's the trick this book depends on, and the multi-cast format makes it sharper than reading one narrator's prose alone.

This is a strong commute pick precisely because it's structured that way, Rachel's train ride bookends real chapters, so the rhythm of listening while you're actually in transit adds an odd little frisson. The gaps between the three women's accounts, where Hawkins hides the actual mystery, are more disorienting and more effective heard in three distinct voices than read in one.

The recording won the 2016 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, judged for exactly this: a trio of narrators pulling listeners into psychological suspense. Eleven hours, one credit, and a train you won't want to get off.