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There are few things more thrilling than starting a brand new true crime podcast and realising – within minutes – that every aspect of your life will be suspended until you’ve completed the entire series.

True crime is one of the most popular genres of podcasting for a host of reasons. We like the idea of solving a murder while cleaning the oven, or identifying the holes in a conman’s yarn while standing among strangers on the morning commute.

As a medium, it’s also more efficient in terms of delivering a story than a novel, film or TV show, believes Kevin Flynn, a podcast expert, crime writer and a regular panellist for the Crime Writers On … podcast. “It doesn’t take 80,000 words to tell the story or utilise an entire television crew travelling all over the country for sit-down interviews.”

As the genre has evolved, narratives have moved on from “what happened” – now folding in psychology, multiple perspectives and social analysis. Production values have risen, with platforms like Audible commissioning seasoned investigative journalists to look into the most gripping true stories of our time. In tandem, audiences have shifted from simple consumers to communities of “audio sleuths”, collectively wrapt by the intricacies of every case.

Here, we’ve identified six exciting spaces in the true crime landscape that offer cases to crack for the new listener and established fans alike.

Male narcissism
Listeners have long said a resounding “yes please” to men who lie, cheat, manipulate and charm. Women make up the overwhelming majority of true crime podcasting listenership, whereas men are considerably more likely to be the perpetrators of crime. There are plenty of theories as to why women are so hooked on stories about male criminality, including that they empathise more readily with the female victims and want to familiarise themselves with potential danger – to essentially prepare for the worst.

Studies of men who are invested in deception on a chronic, long-term and relentless scale but who also will not – or cannot – drop the facade even when the jig is well and truly up are found in titles including I am Not Nicholas or The First Wife. The latter is Audible’s exploration of the protagonist from the brilliant Dirty John podcast by telling the little-known story of coercive predator John Meehan’s first marriage.

Family secrets
The popularity of this subgenre is largely down to its relatability. However, Flynn explains that not every family drama should be a podcast. “There must be stakes in these stories. Everyone has a family secret but not every family secret is worthy of [for example] eight episodes and three bonus episodes.”

New Audible series Foul Play explores whether England’s goalkeeper Gordon Banks was poisoned during the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, meaning he was out of action for a crucial game that saw the team crash out of the tournament. Presented by Gabriel Gatehouse and Banks’ grandson Ed Jervis, listeners have the unique opportunity to hear conspiracy theories unpacked by the possible victim’s own family.

Anatomy of an investigation
Some of the most captivating true crime podcasts are less about finite “case closed” conclusions and more about allowing listeners full access to the nuts and bolts of how a criminal inquiry is conducted and/or re-examining existing evidence.

Deepest Dive: The Search for MH370 focuses on the aircraft carrying 239 passengers that seemingly disappeared into thin air in 2014 and revisits unanswered questions from the investigation that ensued. Elsewhere, Solving the Black Dahlia takes listeners back to Los Angeles in 1947 and a brutal murder that, despite intensive investigation by the LAPD, has remained officially unresolved. Three-quarters of a century later, a former CIA agent boards a bus for the Black Dahlia tour – and is inspired to re-examine and possibly solve the case …

Prestige fraud
Grifters, fantasists, impostrs and phonies make for absolutely riveting true crime subjects, leaving listeners enjoyably agog at the sheer nerve of charlatans who commit to living a lie.

Upcoming SPLBERG is a new eight-part series by writer and former Hollywood executive Charlie Webster, which details how a man in his 20s claimed to be the 14-year-old schoolboy nephew of Steven Spielberg. The series, named after the vanity number plate on the young man’s car, sees former classmates share their personal accounts, making for a truly stranger-than-fiction listen.

Misinformation
The marriage of social media and AI has birthed a toxic proliferation of fake news – images or information designed to deceive even the most discerning of consumers. For Flynn, this is the arena of true crime podcasting that we’re likely to see proliferate, as it provides endless stories of “bloodless true crime” where AI is the culprit.

Audible’s forthcoming Influenced series sees journalist Nicky Woolf investigate the downfall of Tennessee-based Tenet Media, a content creation company that became embroiled in a scandal following a FBI investigation into payments to the company of nearly $10m (£7.4m), allegedly from Russian state media employees to publish videos and messages in Moscow’s interests. The resulting series is an eye-opening examination of the scale and consequences of misinformation flooding the online space.

Modern spycraft
Aside from offering an insight into a world most of us would never have access to, one of the main reasons espionage stories are so compelling is because they are, according to Flynn, often “procedural … not the who did it, but the how – and that’s where the hook to the story is: how did they capture the double agent or whatever.”

True Spies spotlights a different story in each episode, hosted by a roster of Hollywood actors including Vanessa Kirby and Hayley Atwell, who interview the real spies at the heart of the mission. Another tale of modern espionage is found in Mother, Neighbour, Russian Spy. Cindy Murphy was living the American dream: thriving New York City career with a beautiful suburban house complete with happy family. Except she was living the mother of all lies. Details of how she conned everyone, from federal agents to her own children are laid bare beautifully thanks to Rosamund Pike’s stellar narration.

Discover Audible’s True Crime and Investigations at audible.co.uk