When I posted the recent blog on audiobook series to indulge in during our continued state of captivity, I realized I had focused almost exclusively on male authors. Well, there are many female authors with new additions to their series recently out or about to be published. Below is a sampling.

OUTSIDER, by Linda Castillo and narrated by Kathleen McInerney, is the 12^th book featuring Chief of Police Kate Burkholder. The series takes us into the world of the Amish, set in this case in Ohio. Castillo provides an intriguing look at a faith driven community, with its own ways of being and its own language, which narrator McInerney gets to pronounce and translate throughout the story. The title refers to anyone who is not a member of the community. Burkholder, who grew up in the community and left at age 18, is in the rare, sometimes awkward position of being both an insider and an outsider. The story provides a very timely look at police corruption. Listeners new to the series will hear enough of the backstories of the lead characters to follow along with no problem.

J.A. Jance is a highly prolific author of several series. CREDIBLE THREAT, narrated by Karen Ziemba, is the 15^th book in the Ali Reynolds series. Ziemba is an Earphones Award-winning narrator who has read almost all of the audiobooks in the series since Book 2. In this latest addition, Ali tackles the very current and troubling issue of sexual abuse by priests. Again, there is enough information to keep the listeners new to the series on track with the story.

Sara Paretsky has now given us the 20^th installment in the V.I. Warshawski series with DEAD LAND, narrated by Susan Ericksen. Earphones Award winner Ericksen has been the voice of private investigator V.I. (Vic) and the colorful characters who people her life for the last several audiobooks in the series. This series provides an interesting look into the underside of Chicago, and Paretsky is one who tackles tough and timely issues.

Another series with a strong female lead is the Kendra Michaels series by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen. The recently published audiobook HINDSIGHT, narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers, is the seventh in the series. Rodgers also narrates Johansen’s Eve Duncan series, which had a release in 2020 of its 27^th addition to the series, THE PERSUASION.

To get into a series early on, listeners might want to look to Attica Locke’s Highway 59 series. Audiobook 2 in the series, HEAVEN, MY HOME, narrated by Golden Voice JD Jackson, features Black Texas Ranger Darren Matthews. Locke has given us a complicated character in Mathews, who struggles with very real and challenging situations.

Some other additions to series to look forward to in the next couple of months:

THE SILENT WIFE by Karen Slaughter is due to be released in August. This is the tenth audiobook in the Will Trent series and is narrated by Kathleen Early, who has narrated most of the Trent audiobooks, including THE LAST WIDOW, which earned Early an Earphones Award.

For fans of Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope, the ninth audiobook in the series, THE DARKEST EVENING, narrated by Janine Birkett, will be released in September. You can prepare by listening to the, THE SEAGULL, Book 8, which earned Birkett an Earphones Award.

Such rich audio offerings to keep us going through these strange times.