Unholy Sensations

I’ll admit: I picked this up expecting a lurid tale of Victorian sex scandals, but *Unholy Sensations* is far more interesting—and frustrating—in its refusal to deliver easy outrage. Paddison’s deep dive into the 1891 trial of Fountaingrove’s spiritualists is less about the alleged crimes (though they’re wild) and more about how moral panics get weaponized. The audiobook’s strength is its granular focus on the *mechanics* of Chevaillier’s crusade: the selective editing of testimony, the media’s role in whipping up fury, and the way "protecting women" became code for policing desire. It’s a mirror to today’s culture wars, and Crawford’s narration sells that parallel without overplaying it. His voice is dry but never dull, letting the archival quotes—especially the prurient courtroom exchanges—land with dark humor. That said, the audiobook isn’t perfect. The first two hours drag slightly as Paddison sets the stage with *maybe* too much context on 19th-century spiritualism. And while Crawford’s delivery is mostly excellent, his cadence occasionally flattens during dense legal passages, making it hard to track the procedural twists. But the payoff is worth it: the trial’s climax, where a woman’s diary becomes Exhibit A in a battle over "unholy sensations," is as gripping as any courtroom thriller. What lingers isn’t the scandal itself, but the eerie familiarity of its tactics—how reformers and reactionaries alike have always used the language of purity to control bodies. If you love true crime that’s more *The Devil in the White City* than *Dateline*, this is your next listen.