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4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This book started out ok--interesting and engaging, learning about the author's life and career. Toward the end, it got creepy and I couldn't sleep due to the graphic details of the murders. Overall, this was not the story I expected. If you want to be able to sleep at night, I wouldn't recommend.
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
First, huge thanks to @CeladonBooks for sending me an Advance Reader Copy of this book and giving me the chance to read and review Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases.
I've read a lot of true crime and memoir and this book definitely stands with the best of them.
Paul Holes really struck me with how much he shared about his personal struggles with anxiety and alcohol use as well as difficulties in his family life that have come from being so dedicated to a career full of so much tragedy and darkness. So often, we expect to hear stories from investigators and detectives that support the trope of the "strong, unemotional, detached" male investigator who gets through his job and goes home to his life like everything is fine, when in reality, that investigator likely isn't as common as we think he is. It's also just not that common for men in today's society to be willing to share that much vulnerability with anyone, let alone the entire public. It added an important element to the story and, in my opinion, showed why Mr. Holes has been able to be such a successful investigator for as long as he has been.
Mr. Holes also shares details about numerous cases he's worked over the years, some of which were huge cases with national news coverage, and others that I definitely hadn't heard about. But, he talks about each case with the same amount of care and the same level of interest. All of his cases mattered to him and were important to him, and he sought the truth in each case with the same vigor, even cases that fell out of view of the public decades ago.
Holes also, on more than one occasion, shows the reader his empathy for not only victims of these violent crimes, but also their families. His retellings, despite being graphic and accurately depicting the very gruesome nature of some of these crimes, never come off as exploitative in the way some other true crime books might; they read as if telling the story hurts Paul Holes himself. Because the story shouldn't exist to tell.
If you're a fan of true crime and memoir, if you enjoy stories that focus on the experiences of victims or investigators rather than those of perpetrators, and if you prefer true crime media that has a less exploitative flavor, I absolutely recommend Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes. I also hope to see more written by him in the future.
I've read a lot of true crime and memoir and this book definitely stands with the best of them.
Paul Holes really struck me with how much he shared about his personal struggles with anxiety and alcohol use as well as difficulties in his family life that have come from being so dedicated to a career full of so much tragedy and darkness. So often, we expect to hear stories from investigators and detectives that support the trope of the "strong, unemotional, detached" male investigator who gets through his job and goes home to his life like everything is fine, when in reality, that investigator likely isn't as common as we think he is. It's also just not that common for men in today's society to be willing to share that much vulnerability with anyone, let alone the entire public. It added an important element to the story and, in my opinion, showed why Mr. Holes has been able to be such a successful investigator for as long as he has been.
Mr. Holes also shares details about numerous cases he's worked over the years, some of which were huge cases with national news coverage, and others that I definitely hadn't heard about. But, he talks about each case with the same amount of care and the same level of interest. All of his cases mattered to him and were important to him, and he sought the truth in each case with the same vigor, even cases that fell out of view of the public decades ago.
Holes also, on more than one occasion, shows the reader his empathy for not only victims of these violent crimes, but also their families. His retellings, despite being graphic and accurately depicting the very gruesome nature of some of these crimes, never come off as exploitative in the way some other true crime books might; they read as if telling the story hurts Paul Holes himself. Because the story shouldn't exist to tell.
If you're a fan of true crime and memoir, if you enjoy stories that focus on the experiences of victims or investigators rather than those of perpetrators, and if you prefer true crime media that has a less exploitative flavor, I absolutely recommend Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes. I also hope to see more written by him in the future.
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I really did not like this audiobook. It felt super self-serving and like he was playing the victim in his personal life. Maybe the narration had something to do with it.
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
dark
medium-paced
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced