Chris Whitaker Audiobooks

Crime writing that collects Daggers, beginning with the debut Tall Oaks

1 audiobook reviewed

★ 4.2/5 average

6 listener ratings

Who is Chris Whitaker?

Chris Whitaker is a British crime novelist who has gone from promising newcomer to one of the most decorated names in the genre in well under a decade. His debut, Tall Oaks, announced him properly, winning the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger in 2017 – the prize that flags up the crime writers worth watching.

What followed made good on the promise. We Begin at the End became a New York Times bestseller and collected an almost absurd run of honours: the CWA Gold Dagger, the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year and the Ned Kelly Award, all in 2021, alongside translation into 28 languages and a screen deal with Disney’s 20th Television. His 2024 novel, All the Colours of the Dark, arrived with a television adaptation announced within months of publication.

Alongside those sit All the Wicked Girls and The Forevers – a body of work that keeps prize juries and ordinary readers in rare agreement.

Chris Whitaker in audiobooks

This catalogue holds the book where it all started. Tall Oaks is the debut that won Whitaker the New Blood Dagger, and hearing it now is a little like finding early recordings of a band that went on to fill stadiums: the instincts that later earned Gold Daggers and bestseller lists are already at work. Crime fiction of this pedigree tends to thrive in audio, where pacing and voice carry the tension, and a debut with prize-winning storytelling gives any narrator plenty to work with.

For UK listeners wanting to understand why Whitaker’s name now sits so high on the crime shelf, starting at the beginning is the honest way in.