Thrillers are built on tension, and tension is something a skilled narrator can stretch to an almost unbearable degree. The racing heartbeat of a conspiracy unraveling, the cold dread of a protagonist who knows too much, all of it lands harder when a voice is doing the work. Reading a thriller yourself, you control the pace. Listening, the narrator does, and that loss of control is exactly the point.

If you like psychological suspense, start with a full-cast production of Gillian Flynn’s “Gone girl.” Listeners who prefer geopolitical spy fiction tend to fall hard for Scott Brick’s narration of Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp series. The genre rewards binge listening more than almost any other, because cliffhangers at chapter breaks are genuinely difficult to walk away from.