What a fun and chilling collection of psychological thrillers—perfect for summer reading (or listening)!

This anthology includes six short stories by incredible thriller writers centered around the theme of an “alibi.” We all know a crime requires motive, means, and opportunity, but without an alibi, even the innocent can be condemned.

I was already familiar with Sally Hepworth and Wanda M. Morris, but it was great to sample stories from new-to-me authors and get a feel for their writing styles.

I listened to the whole collection—each story is about an hour long, making it perfect for dog walks, folding laundry, commuting, or lounging by the pool or beach.

Like most short story collections, I had a few favorites: Death Row and Small Things. But honestly, each one kept me guessing!

I read these entertaining mystery short stories before listening to the audiobook, and while I enjoyed the stories, I thought they were even better on audio, with terrific, suspenseful performances.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #AmazonOriginalStories for the collection of short stories, #Alibis by #FreidaMcFadden #SallyHepworth #DavidLagercrantz #ChrisBohjalian #ChadZunker and #WandaMorris. This thrilling collection was filled with many alibis and I loved every one of them. The reviews for each story is on the authors individual pages.

This short story collection started out strong with a thriller from Freida McFadden that is just as twisty and engaging as her longer books are. Sally Hepworth's Ex-Wives Club is also very entertaining and suspenseful, and I was amazed that both of these authors were just as good at writing short stories as full length novels. The other authors were new to me and equally great, I'm looking forward to reading more of their books now.
In the audiobook, each short story had its own narrators and Lauryn Allman, Anthea Greco, Graham Halstead, Eric Altheide, Soneela Nankani, Pete Simonelli, Amara Jasper, and Susannah Jones all were fantastic!

Not only is every single one of these thriller stories AMAZING...everything single narrator did an amazing job! There wasn't a single one of these shirts stories that I didnt enjoy and where my jaw wasn't on the floor from the twists. One of the best collection of thriller short stories ive had the pleasure of reading and listening to on a long time.

6 excellent psychological suspense stories you won't want to miss.

I just finished reading Alibis a Psychological Suspense book written by Freida McFadden; Sally Hepworth; David Lagercrantz; Chris Bohjalian; Chad Zunker; Wanda M. Morris. I read the AudioBook published by Brilliance Publishing | Amazon Original Stories. NetGalley gave me a copy of this book. I listened to this book on NetGalley. It is a stand alone book.

This book is a must read if you like: Thrillers, psychological suspense, dark themes.

"I didn't kill him"

This short story collection contains 6 stories by 6 different authors. The first and by far the stand out story for me was Death Row by Freida McFadden. I did a full review on that you can find. Also included was The Ex-Wives Club by Sally Hepworth, a clever whodunit that explores the complexities of modern families. False Note by David Lagercrantz, a dark exploration on if we can truly escape becoming our parents. The Skydivers by Chris Bohjalian is a sad story of unexpected death. Good Neighbors by Chad Zunker is a story about what happens when neighbors get a little too involved in each other's business. And lastly Small Things by Wanda M. Morris, an exploration or expectations and how reality can differ from the perfect picture we want life to be.

These stories all have deep emotionally dark themes. Absolutely only for mature audiences.

I'm just getting into thrillers and overall I liked this book and it was more of a dive for me into the genre.

I liked the variety in this book. No two stories were similar.

By far, Death Row was the highlight of this book. I have a hard time allowing anything to complete with McFadden.

Trigger warnings on the audiobook. Also, I really didn't care for the last story, but that is probably because it was close to home.

Every single one of the narrators were excellent. I really enjoyed the deliveries.

I really did enjoy this book. A nice quick read that allowed me to take breaks and come back.

Content Warnings: Suicide, death, murder, adult language, abuse, adult themes.

I often have a difficult time with short stories, because by definition they do not provide a lot of time or space for establishing character. But every now and then, especially with authors whose writing styles I already know I like, I enjoy them - particularly in audio format.

This collection was solid and I liked the theme and enjoyed seeing how each author teased it out. I was very surprised that my favorite story was the Freida McFadden, since she is not normally an author I enjoy, but I found the twist to be delightful and truly surprising. I could not get into the Sally Hepworth at all and was not a fan of the narrator on that one all that much either. The Lagerkrantz was fine but didn't particularly resonate with me.

The other three, particularly the trad wife story in the Morris tale, were very interesting and even if I saw the twists coming, I did not mind because the overall arc of the stories was an engaging one in each instance. The narration in each of them was also excellent. I will be on the lookout for more from Zunker and Morris - they were the two authors I was not familiar with going in, but I did find their storytelling styles to resonate well with my reading/ listening style.

I enjoyed this collection overall. I’m not a huge fan of novellas because I don’t think they present a full story with well-developed characters and enough suspense to get my heart racing. What it does, however, is give me a good idea of what an author’s voice is like and if I’d like to read more by this author. I had already read the Freida McFadden one and loved it; I am a huge fan. I really enjoyed the Sally Hepworth and Chad Zunker stories. While I appreciated what David Lagercrantz was trying to convey in his story, I wasn’t a fan of the subject matter and will most likely not continue with his stories. Chris Bohjalian is another author I am familiar with and usually enjoy his work but this was too short. Wanda M. Morris’ story rounds this out and this was probably my favorite of the stories (outside of the one I had already read). I can’t wait to read more by her.

Death Row- 5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ex-wives Club- 3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
False Note- 1/5 ⭐️
The Skydivers- 2.5/5 ⭐️⭐️💫
Good Neighbors-2.75/5 ⭐️⭐️🌟
Small Things-4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝗣𝘂𝗯 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: 6/2/25

*Thank you @NetGalley, @AmazonPublishing, and @BrilliancePublishing for sending this ebook and audiobook for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: A series of short story thrillers

𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀: I enjoyed these quick reads to break up some longer books I’m currently reading. There were 3 that I enjoyed more than the others and recommend! The other three were not my favorites. The narrators for all six stories were excellent!

I posted all of the reviews of these books individually onto Goodreads since I was able to get all of them individually as well as the complete set audiobook.

But I really enjoyed these collections of short stories. Each one was so different but enjoyable. I finished each one in one sitting and I loved how they all wrapped up.

This was a great collection of 6 short stories from big name authors, available as one audiobook.

One thing that stood out to me was that the narration was excellent for all 6 of these books, each performed by a different narrator (the Skydivers had 3 different narrators). They all provided such wonderful atmosphere for their book, and kept the character's voices unique.

As with all short story collections, I liked some more than others. Small things by Wanda Morris, Good neighbors by Chad Zunker and The ex-wives club by Sally Hepworth were my favorites. I was a little disappointed in Death Row by Frieda McFadden, partly because my expectations were so high, and while it was intriguing, the ending left me completely confused.

Interesting collection and I enjoyed listening to it.

What an awesome collection of short stories from some great thriller authors. Not sure which one was my favorite as they all were great! I think maybe the last one, Freida’s, or Sally Hepworth’s! I think each narrator did great as well.

Alibis is a Amazon Original short story collection from six well known suspense authors. Often times with short stories I find myself wishing they were longer, even full length novels, and yet this time around I found these bite sized stories quite satisfying. I won’t go into each of the stories but rather highlight my two favorites. Good Neighbors by Chad Zunker, a fast paced story that proves you never know what is going on with your neighbors. And Death Row by Frieda McFadden. Now I’m a sucker for any and everything McFadden writes, and in DeatH Row she delivers a serious brain twister where you are never entirely certain what is the truth because every time you think you have a handle on the story she offers up a new wrinkle. The audio book features multiple narrators: Lauryn Allman, Anthea Greco, Graham Halstead, Eric Altheide, Soneela Nankani, Pete Simonelli, Amara Jasper, and Susannah Jones and they all do a great job. I’d like to thank Brilliance Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review an advanced audio version of the Alibis short story collection.

•Death Row by Freida McFadden ⭐️- A novella that is disappointing and overly exaggerated. The ending is the only aspect of this story that stands out (it still left me with questions).
•The Ex-Wives Club by Sally Hepworth ⭐️⭐️⭐️- an interesting revenge filled novella by with a surprise twist.
•False Note by David Lagercrantz - ⭐️ I’m not sure what I just read. There wasn’t a discernible plot and story ended without resolving the “mystery”.
•The Skydivers by Chris Bohjalian - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This short story begins with graphic images and full of suspense. It was engaging and emotional. This had the potential to be a captivating thriller novel. Great narration too!
•Good Neighbors by Chad Zunker - ⭐️⭐️⭐️ An entertaining short story however, this is a frequently used trope.
•Small Things by Wanda M. Morris - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Very engaging short story with quite the surprising twist at the end.
Thank you to the publisher/author for the opportunity to listen to this complimentary advanced copy. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Excellent short stories from some famous authors. Overall, I really enjoyed this compilation. Definitely would recommend reading!

This was a great collection of short stories by some fantastic psychological suspense authors! Some stories I liked more than others. The works by Freida McFadden, Wanda M. Morris, and Chris Bohjalian were my favorites in this collection. I listened to the audiobook versions, and all of the narrators did a nice job. If you’re looking for some quick, suspenseful reads, I recommend checking out this collection! Thank you NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really good book of short stories by a few good authors that I already enjoyed! And I found a few new ones to add to my list to keep reading! I loved Death Row, false note and good neighbors those were my favorite ones! The rest were pretty good also! But those kept me guessing and guessing!

Death Row by Freida McFadden is short story number one of six of Alibis, "a collection of stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with."

I love how novella's allow you to test out new to you authors, and such is the case for me with this one! I've heard rumors of McFadden's twists before - but OMG this twist, double twist caught me by surprise! I fell so hard for the Kool-Aid being served up, never knowing if main character Talia was unreliable or unhinged! It was suspenseful, realistic and well executed (no pun intended)!

Lauryn Allman performed such a convincing "woman on death row" audiobook narration! I was incredibly invested in this story from the get-go with their performance!



The Ex-Wives Club by Sally Hepworth is short story number two of six of Alibis, "a collection of stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with."

This one is simply a case of just too many characters to keep track of! There is such a limited amount of time to get to know anyone properly, sadly making one ex-wife indistinguishable from the next! Opening with a great walk-in freezer scene, I found the restaurant setting to be a refreshing change of pace, but overall I longed for more thrills! I loved the way the chapters moved from one to the next, which helped keep the flow and held my interest!

Audiobook narrator, Anthea Greco, was good, and appropriately accented, though none were too strong to understand.



False Note by David Lagercrantz (translated by Elizabeth DeNoma) is short story number three of six of Alibis, "a collection of stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with."

After finishing reading, I was delighted to discover this short story is from the same author who continued the "Millennium" series, and once again, I'm a big fan of translated work by journalists! With despicable, disgusting characters, this one was a tough read, but I promise it's all worth it in the end! Because like father, like son, they both got their comeuppance! My only wish is that this story had a bit of a different outcome and ending.

Graham Halstead performed such a believable audiobook narration making this one perfectly cast!



The Skydivers by Chris Bohjalian is short story number four of six of Alibis, "a collection of stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with."

What more can you ask for from any story, let alone a short one? This one is atmospheric (in a graphic way), has huge character development and a suspenseful story line! Bohjalian is one of my favourite authors (from reading Hour Of The Witch only), and this incredibly well executed short story precisely sums up why!

I wondered how three audiobook narrators would work for a short story, but Eric Altheide, Soneela Nankani, and Pete Simonelli portrayed there rolls with perfection! I was instantly engrossed and fascinated with this story, and their narration!



Good Neighbors by Chad Zunker is short story number five of six of Alibis, "a collection of stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with."

Thrilling, suspenseful and extremely action packed - this was one hell of a ride! It would be incredible to see this story made into a full-length novel, or honestly, on the big screen! I've never read a short story that had so much action in it, holding me to the edge of my seat the entire time!

Amara Jasper performed both the husband's and wife's perspectives with ease for this audiobook! Sounding cautious, fearful and adrenaline-spiked, making for one jam packed audiobook experience!



Small Things by Wanda M. Morris is short story number six of six of Alibis, "a collection of stories about lies, truth, and deception. It’s just a matter of what you can get away with."

I know it might be outdated, but all I can say is "you go girl" to main character Hannah! This cleverly woven short story was full of suspense, and concluded with such a satisfying ending!

Susannah Jones sounded threatened, frightened, and accomplished during her audiobook narration - which was spot on!

This series features 60-ish page/1.5 hour-ish long books, and they're just the sort of story to slip into when you've got just a bit of spare time!

Thank you NetGalley, Brilliance Publishing and Amazon Original Stories for the complimentary audio copy to read and review.

Overall a great selection of short stories! Some were more interesting then others but still recommend