Sallot Leon, a thief, steals a poster announcing open auditions for the Left Hand — the volunteers who function as the queen’s assassins. Sal goes to the auditions, hoping to be able to join the group — but not to become an assassin. Sal wants revenge. Deryn Edwards conveys the brutality of this novel in her narration but subtly projects Sal’s vulnerability as well. This compelling story will pull listeners into its world and keep them wondering what will happen next.

Narrator Chloe Dolandis keeps the tension high in this creepy thriller. Sia Gianopoulos has diving in her blood. After a charter dive goes wrong and the boat is wrecked by a monstrous creature, Sia washes up on an island with a handful of survivors and a lot of questions. Dolandis nails the pacing that is key to this type of story. The mystery plays out slowly enough to build the suspense to a fever pitch, then goes into overdrive for the action. 

This exciting production, recorded before a live audience, dramatizes the WASHINGTON POST’s struggle with the Nixon administration over the publication of the Pentagon Papers. Much of the dialogue is lifted straight from the historical record. Whether or not this is accurate history, it certainly makes excellent theater. A riveting subject is given its due. 

AudioFile Earphones Award

This classic depiction of Black family life in Kansas in the 1930s is narrated with grace and skill by Jaime Lincoln Smith.  Listeners follow young Sandy Rogers as he comes of age and witnesses his family’s encounters with a racially divided America. The important Harlem Renaissance novel brings the struggles and challenges of  early-twentieth-century Black American experience to life. Smith deftly switches into period diction and local accents, voicing each family member so that discerning the flow of dialogue is easy and meaningful.

Born in Russia, Reisen wrote Yiddish tales of shtetl life in Eastern Europe and immigrant life in the teeming city of New York before WWII. David Skulski narrates the introductory biographical sketch and the 38 stories of life in the Old Country in a gravelly voice that draws listeners in. Skulski’s deep voice skillfully delivers the smatterings of Yiddish and Hebrew words, mostly untranslated, switching accents and languages seamlessly.

Narrator Leighton Pugh gives all the interlocutors in Plato’s most important dialogue their own voices. But only Socrates, who does almost all the talking, comes across as a full person: intelligent, moderate in temper, genial, accommodating to his fellows but someone who commands respect and attention. THE REPUBLIC deals with justice, politics, and education, among many topics, and includes the famous “Allegory of the Cave.” Pugh’s reading demonstrates that philosophy not only can be comprehensible in audio but also enjoyable.