The Clearing - Podcast Rankings and reviews

In a market saturated with true crime podcasts, unique ones can be hard to find and GOOD unique ones like unicorns. Meet your unicorn! An abused daughter discovers as an adult her father is a serial killer and sets about trying to solve his cases and get closure for the victims’ families. On its surface, that’s what this podcast is about. Look deeper and you’ll see it’s how human beings cope with trauma and make sense of a senseless world. The way murder has impacted the lives of those affected by it is something glossed over in too much of true crime and this unflinching look, particularly how the daughter of a serial killer bonds with the families of her father’s victims and suspected victims and they move forward, is extraordinary.
The reporting throughout is quite good and we’re not just left with more information about a killer and how they work but how those left behind pick up the pieces.

The podcast deftly balances the pain and struggles of all those involved—culprits, victims, victims’ families, investigators, journalists, and April. There is much of value to be contemplated in everyone’s stories. The podcast, while thorough and detailed, does not seem exploitive. Even Edwards is humanized, which makes his role in all these lives more desperately awful.

I cannot express how much I admire this woman. This podcast made me cry and made me laugh. The family members of the victims and this amazing woman far outshined, in love and light, what the dark and evil E. perpetuated on innocent people. This podcast was done beautifully and the narration and sequencing was superb. Thank you.

I don’t often write reviews for podcasts, but I also don’t binge listen or cry during them either. I found this podcast on Sunday and was finished with it by Sunday. I give the biggest credit to April for doing the right thing. The last episode had me in tears listening to a father describe his son and what was lost. The fact that the two have gotten along so well is spectacular. Great job to the whole team on this series!