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Free Mystery Audiobooks – Sherlock Holmes, Wilkie Collins and Classic Detective Fiction
Every audiobook here is a complete, free recording of a mystery that is now in the public domain, so there is nothing to sign up for and no time limit.
The list follows the genre from its roots to the 1920s: Wilkie Collins and Mary Elizabeth Braddon's Victorian sensation novels, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown, the "fair-play" puzzles of the Golden Age and the first hardboiled crime novels from America. Detective fiction suits audio well. Short cases fit a commute, and the long novels reward close listening for clues.
1. The Adventures of Sherlock HolmesTwelve short cases, including "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Red-Headed League". The best place to meet Holmes.
2. Study in ScarletThe 1887 novel where Holmes and Watson first meet and share rooms at 221B Baker Street.
3. The Sign of the FourThe second Holmes novel, with stolen treasure, a locked room and a chase on the Thames.
4. The Hound of the BaskervillesA family curse on Dartmoor. The most popular Holmes novel, with a strong Gothic atmosphere.
5. The Memoirs of Sherlock HolmesThe second collection of cases, ending with Holmes's struggle with Professor Moriarty.
6. The MoonstoneA stolen Indian diamond and a country-house investigation told by several narrators. Often called the first English detective novel.
7. The Woman in WhiteA chance meeting on a moonlit road leads to a conspiracy over an inheritance. The classic "sensation novel".
8. Lady Audley's Secret (Version 2)A charming new bride with a past, and a nephew who starts asking questions. A Victorian bestseller.
9. The Bronze HandA mystery by the American writer who helped define the detective novel before Conan Doyle.
10. The Innocence of Father BrownTwelve stories about a mild Catholic priest who solves crimes by understanding the people who commit them.
11. The Thirty-nine StepsA man on the run across Scotland after a murder in his London flat. The template for the spy thriller.
12. The Red House MysteryA country-house puzzle from the author of Winnie-the-Pooh, light and witty, with an amateur sleuth and his friend.
13. The Pit Prop SyndicateA timber business that doesn't add up, investigated by amateurs and then the police. Golden Age methodical detection.
14. The ConfessionA woman rents an old parsonage and finds evidence of a crime. A short, atmospheric "had-I-but-known" mystery.
15. Red HarvestThe Continental Op cleans up a corrupt mining town. Hammett's 1929 debut novel and a founding work of hardboiled crime.
Where to start
- New to Holmes? Start with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, then The Hound of the Baskervilles. The collections are short cases, so you can stop between them.
- Want a long, absorbing listen? The Moonstone and The Woman in White are long, around 20 hours each, and switch between narrators, which gives each section a different voice.
- Prefer something lighter? The Red House Mystery is quick, funny and fair to the reader.
More to explore: free horror audiobooks, and the full detective fiction genre.