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On Monday it might be a mysterious poisoning in Miami, while she’s getting ready for work. Tuesday’s commute brings an update on the woman who vanished in the centre of Edinburgh. By Friday afternoon, she’s tangled in the twisted web of half-truths and omissions with links to several cold cases. This is an average week for Billie Norman, 32, who’s rarely seen without her earphones in and a thoughtful look playing across her brow. “Nothing scratches an itch in my brain like an investigative podcast, so I’ve almost always got one on the go,” she says. “It’s not just the twists and turns, it’s the fact that I’m fully immersed, finding out new clues at the same time as the reporters. It’s like being inside the story.”

It was West Cork that first converted Norman into a true crime devotee, the Audible Original following the real-life hunt for the murderer of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, whose body was found days before Christmas 1996 in the Irish countryside. “I remember the feeling so vividly; I was thinking about it at work, trying to put two and two together, wondering about the mindset of the prime suspect and the feelings of Sophie’s family. I’m pretty sure I missed my train stop a few times when I was listening and, while I’m not proud of this, I did flake on a friend’s birthday so I could finish it. I was just so invested. You grow to care about the characters so much that it feels personal.”

The true crime genre has been steadily growing in popularity for years, but we’re now in a golden age: the sharpest journalists and audio storytellers are dedicating their skills to unpicking unsolved crimes and stranger-than-fiction happenings around the world. Take Ronan Farrow, the investigative reporter responsible for millions of podcast downloads, who hosts Audible’s Not a Very Good Murderer, a wild journey through one of America’s wealthiest gated communities. Once, the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist known for groundbreaking exposés might have chosen a broadsheet or book deal as the natural home for his investigations, but today audio formats are king.

As Norman points out, there’s an unmatched level of immersion when you’re streaming a true story directly into your ears, straight from the mouths of the investigators, suspects and sometimes even the victims themselves. There’s also a community element, with thousands of listeners congregating on Reddit threads and TikTok Lives to compare theories. It’s why millions eagerly await the next hit series – YouGov research found that 57% of Americans are consuming true crime content now, while investigative podcasts regularly top the UK charts over comedy and current affairs.

Kathryn Paige Harden, a behavioural geneticist, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Original Sin, says being drawn to investigative stories is a deeply human trait. “We are the only species that reflects not just on our own behaviour but the behaviour of others; we’re constantly wondering: ‘Why did they do that?’ We have this need to make sense of the world and we do that best through storytelling. We watch horror movies and listen to true crime podcasts because they allow us to confront difficult realities and blurred moral boundaries without getting emotionally overwhelmed. In some ways, they function as a form of therapy: a contained environment where we can work through the more confusing and dark parts of the human condition.”

It explains why deception-led stories are flowing freely through the cultural mainstream, from the success of The Traitors to crime and thriller books topping the bestseller charts. We cannot get enough, and the offering just keeps getting better. This summer, Audible takes its investigative slate to new heights with drops including Foul Play, a seven-episode deep dive into claims that the CIA poisoned a legendary England goalkeeper during the 1970 World Cup, and the fascinating SPLBERG, an eight-part investigation by former Hollywood executive Charlie Webster into a man who claimed to be the 14-year-old nephew of Steven Spielberg.

Norman says playing detective is a large part of what keeps her engaged; the chance to build up her skills of deduction and attention to detail. “It feels like I’m flexing my brain in a way I don’t get from mindlessly scrolling, and there’s something quite calming about figuring out the ending. Having listened to so many of these podcasts, I oddly feel more capable in my day-to-day life. I think it’s about feeling more equipped to deal with hard things,” she says.

In an age of uncertainty, it makes sense that we’re seeking stories that are all about finding answers. Better still if those answers lead to justice being served, adds Harden. “We live in a world where many wrongs are not being righted and we’re increasingly unsure whether wrongdoers will face consequences,” she says. “I think a lot of people enjoy true crime because it soothes those anxieties: usually, the case is solved, the perpetrator comes to justice and loose ends are tied up in a way that feels satisfyingly right.”

At first glance, an unsolved murder or dark conspiracy may not be the obvious place to find your peace, but when you consider it in this context, the true crime obsession is far from a mystery. Listening to the most brilliant minds of our time putting the world to rights may just be the most soothing way to spend your down time, safe in the knowledge that truth and justice are only ever a few episodes away.

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