Best Tess Gerritsen Audiobooks

The best Tess Gerritsen audiobooks — 14 titles ranked by listening experience across Thriller, Mystery, averaging 4.17 ABR stars.

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Tess Gerritsen brings a surgeon's precision to medical thrillers — which makes sense, because she is one. Her Rizzoli & Isles series, anchored by The Surgeon and The Apprentice, built its reputation on the uncomfortable detail: the procedural accuracy of a forensic pathologist, the clinical cold of a killer's methodology, the way bodies tell stories investigators don't want to hear. Gerritsen's prose is tight and clinical without being sterile — she gets under your skin quietly, then doesn't let go. Unlike thrillers that substitute pace for dread, hers earns both. Body Double and Die Again show her range beyond Boston's precinct rooms, pushing into territory that's genuinely unsettling. Readers who want their crime fiction grounded in real anatomy, real investigative process, and protagonists who feel the weight of what they see — Gerritsen is the real thing.

Tess Gerritsen's highest-rated audiobook in our collection is Playing with Fire, narrated by Julia Whelan, Will Damron (4.18 ABR stars). Performed by narrators including Julia Whelan, Will Damron, Tanya Eby, Kathe Mazur, and more. Rankings here weight the listening experience — narrator performance and Audible ratings factor alongside reader scores.

Where to Start with Tess Gerritsen

  1. 1
    Playing with Fire cover

    Playing with Fire

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Julia Whelan, Will Damron

    4.18 ABR Score (27.2K ratings)
    ★ 3.97 Goodreads (23.9K) ★ 4.33 Audible (3.3K)
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    Julia finds an unusual violin composition in a Roman antique shop that causes blackouts and her daughter's disturbing behavior changes.

  2. 2
    Ice Cold cover

    Ice Cold

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 8

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Tanya Eby

    4.20 ABR Score (56.0K ratings)
    ★ 4.19 Goodreads (53.2K) ★ 4.2 Audible (2.8K)
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    Maura Isles becomes stranded in an abandoned Wyoming village where twelve identical houses hide evidence of a religious cult's mass disappearance, turning a ski trip into survival horror.

  3. 3
    Die Again cover

    Die Again

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 11

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Tanya Eby

    4.10 ABR Score (37.7K ratings)
    ★ 4.21 Goodreads (35.2K) ★ 4.28 Audible (2.4K)
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    Detective Rizzoli investigates a big game hunter found dead with his illegally obtained snow leopard, uncovering connections to a deadly safari that went wrong years earlier.

  4. 4
    The Silent Girl cover

    The Silent Girl

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 9

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Tanya Eby

    4.21 ABR Score (48.5K ratings)
    ★ 4.15 Goodreads (46.4K) ★ 4.26 Audible (2.1K)
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    Jane Rizzoli discovers a severed hand in Boston's Chinatown and a nearly headless corpse on the rooftop above. Tanya Eby navigates Gerritsen's grisly crime scenes with appropriate gravity.

  5. 5
    Body Double cover

    Body Double

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 4

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Kathe Mazur

    4.32 ABR Score (65.5K ratings)
    ★ 4.19 Goodreads (63.9K) ★ 4.41 Audible (1.6K)
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    Kathe Mazur voices medical examiner Maura Isles as she faces a serial killer case that becomes disturbingly personal when she discovers her own doppelganger.

  6. 6
    Last to Die cover

    Last to Die

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 10

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Tanya Eby

    4.18 ABR Score (40.2K ratings)
    ★ 4.13 Goodreads (38.0K) ★ 4.23 Audible (2.1K)
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    Fourteen-year-old Teddy survives his second family massacre in two years, leaving detective Jane Rizzoli to find the connection. Tanya Eby handles the teenager's trauma with appropriate restraint.

  7. 7
    I Know a Secret cover

    I Know a Secret

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 12

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Tanya Eby

    4.22 ABR Score (30.5K ratings)
    ★ 4.22 Goodreads (29.0K) ★ 4.43 Audible (1.5K)
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    Detective Rizzoli and pathologist Isles investigate a bizarre murder scene where a woman clutches mysterious objects in death. Gerritsen's twelfth series entry combines forensic puzzles with personal secrets that prove deadly.

  8. 8
    Vanish: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel cover

    Vanish: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 5

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Susan Denaker

    4.17 ABR Score (74.8K ratings)
    ★ 4.15 Goodreads (73.3K) ★ 4.38 Audible (1.5K)
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    A desperate woman takes hostages in a restaurant, demanding to speak only to medical examiner Maura Isles. Denaker's steady narration anchors this high-stakes thriller where human trafficking meets police procedure.

  9. 9
    The Apprentice- Tess Gerritsen cover

    The Apprentice- Tess Gerritsen

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 2

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Anna Fields

    4.14 ABR Score (74.8K ratings)
    ★ 4.14 Goodreads (73.3K) ★ 4.35 Audible (1.6K)
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    Someone is copying the methods of imprisoned killer Warren Hoyt, and detective Jane Rizzoli must catch the copycat before becoming the next victim. Fields captures Rizzoli's determination as the hunter becomes hunted.

  10. 10
    The Mephisto Club cover

    The Mephisto Club

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 6

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Kathe Mazur

    4.12 ABR Score (53.3K ratings)
    ★ 4.03 Goodreads (51.7K) ★ 4.21 Audible (1.6K)
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    Ancient evil stalks modern Boston as Rizzoli and Isles face their most supernatural case, while Kathe Mazur's chilling performance makes every Latin phrase feel like a curse.

  11. 11
    keepsake the cover

    keepsake the

    Rizzoli & Isles • Book 7

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Deirdre Lovejoy

    4.04 ABR Score (50.5K ratings)
    ★ 4.12 Goodreads (49.1K) ★ 4.27 Audible (1.4K)
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    Medical examiner Maura Isles and detective Jane Rizzoli investigate when mummified remains in a museum storage room connect to recent murders, blending archaeology with modern forensics.

  12. 12
    Gravity cover

    Gravity

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by William Dufris

    4.22 ABR Score (18.6K ratings)
    ★ 4.1 Goodreads (17.6K) ★ 4.41 Audible (933)
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    Medical thriller meets space station horror as deadly organisms threaten both orbiting astronauts and Earth below.

  13. 13
    Life Support cover

    Life Support

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4.14 ABR Score (20.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.03 Goodreads (19.4K) ★ 4.33 Audible (717)
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    George Guidall lends his steady voice to Gerritsen's medical thriller, where hospital politics turn deadly and someone is targeting the most vulnerable patients.

  14. 14
    Bloodstream cover

    Bloodstream

    by Tess Gerritsen

    Narrated by Richard Poe

    4.09 ABR Score (18.2K ratings)
    ★ 3.99 Goodreads (17.6K) ★ 4.3 Audible (589)
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    Dr. Claire Elliot seeks small-town peace in Tranquility, but violent outbreaks among local children suggest something sinister flows beneath the surface.

How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

Read our full ranking methodology →