Still Unsolved

I’ll admit: I’ve listened to *a lot* of true crime, and most unsolved-case collections start to blur together. *Still Unsolved* jolted me out of that rut within the first 15 minutes. Malton’s case selection is ruthlessly curated—no filler, no over-familiar stories (looking at you, Black Dahlia). The standout here is the 1982 ‘Library Murder’ of a small-town librarian, where the killer left behind a single, cryptic note written in *mirror script*. Malton doesn’t just describe the note; she dissects why it’s never been deciphered, interviewing linguists and handwriting analysts to expose how close (and how far) investigators came to cracking it. It’s this level of detail that makes the book feel essential. Greg Sisco’s narration is pitch-perfect for the material. He avoids the breathy, ‘spooky’ tone that sinks so many true-crime audiobooks, opting instead for a measured, almost conversational style that makes the horrors feel more real. My only critique? The transitions between cases can feel abrupt—sometimes a beat of silence or a subtle audio cue would help reset the listener’s focus. And while the brevity is a strength, I wished for deeper dives into a couple of the more obscure cases (the 1979 ‘Highway Phantom’ killings, in particular, deserved another 20 minutes). Still, the tight runtime means no fat, no padding—just a relentless parade of mysteries that’ll have you pausing to Google case files mid-commute. If you’re tired of true crime that romanticizes killers or drags out speculation, this is the palate cleanser you need.