The Quiet Neighbour

A woman begins cataloguing the habits of the man across the courtyard, and Ines Halvorsen lets you work out far too late whose behaviour is the real problem.

Cara Nilsen's read is the definition of restraint. She keeps the narrator pleasant and reasonable even as the observations curdle, so the horror arrives through content rather than performance.

Sound design is almost absent — a deliberate choice that leaves the listener alone with the voice. Chapter transitions are marked only by a short tone.

The final twenty minutes rush a reveal the book spent nine hours earning. Everything before it is close to perfect.