Crime & thrillers: read or listen?

It depends, on our checks: of the 23 books on this shelf, 8 are listen verdicts, 8 are read verdicts and 7 come out as either. Thrillers that tell one story in order from one or two points of view suit a single narrator. They are better read when the plot depends on documents, dated headings, flashbacks or more viewpoints than the recording keeps apart.

The Housemaid Is Watching leads this shelf for audio at 100%, followed by Gone Girl (70%) and Mad Mabel (67%). The Housemaid Is Watching has a second narrator for its second viewpoint, Gone Girl has a narrator for each viewpoint and praised narration, and Mad Mabel has two narrators and an award-winning recording.

Lesley Manville reads the first two books and Fiona Shaw reads the series from The Bullet That Missed onwards, including The Impossible Fortune. Both are solo, unabridged recordings.

Because the timeline jumps back two months in part four, which favours reading, while praised narration from four actors favours listening. The two are close, so the verdict is a close call at 57%.

Yes. Our checks do not penalise twists: Gone Girl, one of the twistiest books here, is a Listen verdict, while Verity leans to reading because it alternates between the present day and a manuscript written in retrospect, not because of its twists. The pages flag spoilers without describing them.