I'll Be Gone in the Dark

I'll Be Gone in the Dark

Michelle McNamara

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One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case. "You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark." 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." McNamara pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was. At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening. 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. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by McNamara's lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.


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  • Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    4.5 stars

    I think I first heard about this book on My Favorite Murder, and it was a great read! Both the foreword and the afterword discussed how wonderful a person and writer Michelle McNamara was, and I can definitely say that I found her writing to be amazing. She had a way of being chilling without shoving too much gore/horror in your face, and yet she was also tender with the discussion of victims.

    I thoroughly enjoyed this book's discussion of both the facts and speculation about the Golden State Killer, and the way that the author thought through what was known and came up with new angles and ideas about the cases was incredible--leaps of the mind that blew me away.

    My two favorite parts were when McNamara compares the killer's methodology and actions to her own sleuthing--hunting the evil killer. That gave me goosebumps and I could totally see what she meant! And the second: was her spine-tingling letter to the murderer about what it'd be like when he was eventually caught.

    What's crazy to me is that he WAS caught! Only a month or two after this book was published! Now I kind of want to know about him, to see what predictions and speculations about him in this book turned out to be true...

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