Fake Crimes, Genuine Chills: The Best Mystery Podcasts to Keep You Hooked
Whodunits, paranormal mysteries, and more for untrue crime lovers!
Love fake crime? Are you always looking for the latest murder mystery to read on vacation or are you addicted to shows like NCIS? You’re definitely familiar with true crime podcasts (and you might love them) but there is a treasure trove of fictional podcasts that tell “untrue” crime stories. In the early days of radio, before television, radio dramas were all the rage. A cast would perform a drama adapted from a book or play, or written specifically for radio, and each piece of the story was presented in episodic form. Podcasts and other long-form audio entertainment have made a huge resurgence in pop culture, so podcasts that mimic the old-school radio serials of yesteryear are actually participating in a timeless tradition. We’ve pulled together some of the best mystery/thriller fiction podcasts that you have to add to your queue!
1. Solve This Murder
This interactive podcast serves every armchair detective’s needs: it gives the audience a chance to solve a murder. One host sets up the crime: the crime scene and witnesses. The other host tries to solve the murder, while the audience is also looking for clues, racing to figure out what happened. Can the audience solve the murder before the other detective does? Audience members who do get a coveted space on the show’s Wall of Detectives.
2. Tagged
A dystopian take on social media culture, Tagged exposes the dark side of influencer life. Newlyweds Karlie and Tre are influencers who embark on their picture-perfect European honeymoon. Things turn weird when they notice an almost identical couple is following them. But that’s not the weirdest part: this lookalike couple is copying their influencer-inspired posts, posting the same content by imitating their photos and using the same filters and tags. Their honeymoon turns to horror when they find themselves in the middle of a double murder investigation and discover a cult that preys on social media stars.
3. Limetown
The award-winning six-part fictional series Limetown details the investigation of the disappearance of 300 people from a neuroscience research facility called Limetown in Tennessee. Vulture named it one of the Ten Best Podcasts of 2015 and since then it is still one of the top fictional mystery podcasts ever. It even inspired a TV series of the same name, starring Jessica Biel and Stanley Tucci, which can be streamed on Peacock. For fans of Serial and The X-Files, the series combines investigative reporting with elements of the paranormal. Listeners claim the series is so good, they were fooled into believing it was true.
4. Alice Isn’t Dead
The team behind Alice Isn’t Dead came onto the scene with a previous successful podcast, Welcome to Night Vale. Joseph Fink, one of the co-authors on Welcome to Night Vale, is the author of the book and podcast Alice Isn't Dead. Fink was inspired to write this story while driving a lot between cities for live shows during Welcome to Night Vale’s run. In this new story, Keisha Taylor’s wife, Alice, disappears, and after a lot of searching, she finally assumes Alice is dead and tries to move on. But something weird happens: Keisha keeps seeing Alice on the news, showing up in the background during broadcasts at different crime scenes all over the country. To find her, Keisha takes a job as a truck driver to travel the country and look. But what she discovers are the many secrets along America’s highways she could have never imagined.
5. The Very Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen
Have you ever wondered, what would you say if you could talk to an author you admire who died decades before you were alive? The winner of the Best Audible Fiction of 2023 at the Tribeca Film Festival, The Very Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen, is a podcast that answers that question. Living in Hong Kong, Raul is thrown for a loop when he starts exchanging letters with his favorite French author from Paris. Sounds like a dream, right? There’s one catch: she died thirty years ago. What happens when they try to meet? This nine-episode series attempts to answer questions about human connection in a broken world.
6. Last Known Position
This podcast blends mysterious fascinations from the real world with fiction. When a flight disappears over the Pacific Ocean, a group of experts is called upon to recover the vanished plane. A submersible led by pilot Mikaela Soto (played by actress Gina Rodriguez) is funded by a billionaire who lost his wife and daughter on the plane. But as the crew delves deeper into unchartered waters, they discover that maybe there’s more to this increasingly dangerous expedition than they realized, and a traitor might be among them.
Which untrue crime podcasts are you listening to? Tell us in the comments about the stories we shouldn’t miss!
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