I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michel
I'll Be Gone in the Dark has gotten a lot of buzz lately. Because the spoiler of all spoilers occurred for the world on April 25th, 2018... the Golden State Killer was identified and arrested. Much celebrating occurred but it was one woman whose tireless work was lauded all over social media, that of Michelle McNamara.
Some could say McNamara was the Golden State Killer's final victim. Run down by her hunt for this elusive rapist and killer, she fell victim to a lethal combination of drugs to quiet the obsession. Her husband (comedian Patton Oswalt) was left behind to raise their daughter and, luckily for all of us, to finish Michelle's life's work. Employing the assistance of investigators Paul Haynes and Billy Jensen, Oswalt made sure that her death wasn't in vain.
This book is one of the best examples of true crime I've ever read... maybe THE best. On top of being meticulous and dogged in her research, McNamara had a way to turn even the most mundane parts of her investigation into a narrative worthy of a Pulitzer.
It's moments like this that I hope that the afterlife exists and that Michelle McNamara looked down as Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested in front of his house for the crimes he obviously believed he had avoided answering for.
Synopsis:
For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.
Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark--the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death--offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman's obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic--and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.
My rating:
5 cups!
