The Scariest Serial Killers

I’ve listened to *a lot* of true crime, but *The Scariest Serial Killers* left me genuinely shaken—not by gore, but by the banality of how these killers operated. Richmond’s deep dives into their psyches (particularly the section on the killer who exploited societal blind spots) feel less like storytelling and more like a masterclass in how evil hides in plain sight. The audiobook’s strength lies in its *restraint*: no gratuitous descriptions of violence, just the cold math of how these men selected, manipulated, and discarded their victims. It’s the kind of book that’ll have you side-eyeing your neighbors. Aaron Smith’s performance is *exceptional*, but not without a quirk: his cadence occasionally verges on *too* measured, as if he’s afraid to let the horror seep into his tone. It works for the clinical sections, but during victim testimonies, I wished for more raw emotion—just a crack in the composure to match the subject’s gravity. The production quality is flawless, though, with ambient sounds (a distant police radio, a creaking floorboard) used sparingly but to devastating effect. My only real critique? The final chapter’s abrupt shift to societal analysis feels tacked on, as if Richmond suddenly remembered he needed to *say something* about prevention. Still, this is true crime at its most haunting—less about the thrill of the chase, more about the terror of realizing how easily the chase could’ve been you.