The Corpse Collector

I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes at first. *Another* true crime audiobook about a female serial killer? But *The Corpse Collector* gutted me in ways I didn’t expect. Ortiz doesn’t just recount Puente’s crimes; she forces you to sit with the *logistics* of them—the way Puente would report her victims as ‘missing’ to the same cops who later dug up their bodies, or how she’d host Thanksgiving for her tenants’ families *while* their loved ones decomposed downstairs. It’s not gory; it’s *worse*. It’s the slow realization that Puente’s real talent wasn’t murder—it was making people *trust* her. Goodrick’s performance is unsettlingly perfect. He doesn’t do voices or hammy villainy; his delivery is so measured it feels like a confession. The pacing drags slightly in the middle during bureaucratic details (yes, we *get* it, the welfare system was easy to exploit), and I wished for more victim backstories to balance the focus on Puente’s psychology. But the final chapter—where Ortiz ties Puente’s crimes to broader societal failures—lands like a punch. The audio quality is pristine, though the lack of chapter markers in some versions makes it hard to revisit key moments. Still, this isn’t just true crime. It’s a cautionary tale about how easily cruelty hides behind a casserole dish.