Books featuring a podcast

Since I just reviewed The Sorority Murder by Allison Brennan a few days ago I thought today it would fun to share a few of my favorite books featuring podcasts. I really love books that have a podcast element and how they help tell a story in an interesting and fun way. Also if you are sensitive to anything then make sure you check out trigger warnings for all of them because I’m pretty sure that all of them deal with one or more difficult topic.

My thoughts: This is probably one of the most well known in the podcast trope/genre but it is truly incredible. The best podcast books actually feel like a real podcast and give a similar experience as listening to one which Sadie does perfectly. This is the only book on this list that I listened to as an audiobook and I loved the experience so I definitely recommend reading it that way as well.

Synopsis:

A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial―like podcast following the clues she’s left behind. And an ending you won’t be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.

My thoughts: I have read three of the Six Stories series and these books are pretty much all podcast. They are called six stories because each podcast season (or book) is six episodes long and features a new witness/character to help solve the mystery. The third book is my favorite of the three that I have read. I would recommend that you read them in order because we do get to know the podcast host, Scott King, pretty well and things do happen related to him. However, if you are purely wanting to read a good podcast book then you may just want to read the synopsis of all the six currently published books and see which one is calling to you the most.

Synopsis (for the first one):

1997. Scarclaw Fell. The body of teenager Tom Jeffries is found at an Outward Bound center. Verdict? Misadventure. But not everyone is convinced. And the truth of what happened in the beautiful but eerie fell is locked in the memories of the tight-knit group of friends who embarked on that fateful trip, and the flimsy testimony of those living nearby. 

2017. Enter elusive investigative journalist Scott King, whose podcast examinations of complicated cases have rivaled the success of Serial, with his concealed identity making him a cult internet figure. In a series of six interviews, King attempts to work out how the dynamics of a group of idle teenagers conspired with the sinister legends surrounding the fell to result in Jeffries’ mysterious death. As every interview unveils a new revelation, you’ll be forced to work out for yourself how Tom Jeffries died, and who is telling the truth.

My thoughts: I love the way MacMillan used the podcast element to tell her story and I thought it was a unique take on what could have been the standard trope. While this book does feature a podcast it is also a detective novel and I enjoyed seeing those two things play off each other. This one does get a bit messy between the dual timelines and the variety of characters but it was still an entertaining read.

Synopsis:

From author Gilly Macmillan comes this original, chilling and twisty mystery about two shocking murder cases twenty years apart, and the threads that bind them.

Twenty years ago, eleven-year-olds Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were murdered in the city of Bristol, their bodies dumped near a dog racing track. A man was convicted of the brutal crime, but decades later, questions still linger.

For his whole life, filmmaker Cody Swift has been haunted by the deaths of his childhood best friends. The loose ends of the police investigation consume him so much that he decides to return to Bristol in search of answers. Hoping to uncover new evidence, and to encourage those who may be keeping long-buried secrets to speak up, Cody starts a podcast to record his findings. But there are many people who don’t want the case—along with old wounds—reopened so many years after the tragedy, especially Charlie’s mother, Jess, who decides to take matters into her own hands.

When a long-dead body is found in the same location the boys were left decades before, the disturbing discovery launches another murder investigation. Now Detective John Fletcher, the investigator on the original case, must reopen his dusty files and decide if the two murders are linked. With his career at risk, the clock is ticking and lives are in jeopardy…

~Cassie