Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Unmasked: Crime Scenes, Cold Cases and My Hunt for the Golden State Killer by Paul Holes

19 reviews

keelywmson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Alcohol

Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual harassment

krymar13's review against another edition

challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

librarymouse's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative mysterious fast-paced

4.5

Having read Michelle McNamara's perspective on the investigation, it was interesting to read about the search for the Golden State killer from the perspective of another working on the case in a more traditional investigative capacity. Paul Holes is a characteristic writer, and every loss faced by him and the others who's stories he tells are deeply impactful. His work on cold cases gives me hope that others who have suffered without knowing the fate of their loved ones will find closure.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Stalking, and Murder

gimmiiie's review against another edition

dark informative sad fast-paced

5.0

"Healing is subjective, but the scars never fade, and the pain is always a breath away" P.3

This is a heavy, real, and informative book. Paul Holes is honest, real, and personable. I have been a fan of Paul Holes and his work to bring justice to victims. Reading his experiences and struggles with mental illness. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

ajediprincess's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

This book was extremely fascinating, if not a little disturbing. I do not normally read true crime. I’m typically very sensitive to subject matter that would incite fear and anxiety. But, my library has an annual reading challenge that involves reading books from 50 different genres, so I chose this book to fit the “true crime memoir” category. It was good—well written, interesting, cinematic, and it had the sort of feeling of sitting down and talking to a friend who is a detective, a detective who is really passionate about his job and kind of overshares without realizing it. That’s what reading this book was like for me. 

I loved hearing about the crime solving tactics and strategies and all the dead ends and false leads Det. Holes experienced through his work. As someone who has worked for the police for the better part of a decade, I will always find the methods detectives use to solve cases to be infinitely fascinating. Cold cases are especially interesting to me, I think, because of the feeling of justice finally being meted out after years with no resolution. For those reasons, I thought I would love this book, when a friend in my forensics lab recommended it to me. To a certain extent, I did. But, it was difficult for me to get through this book without wincing and feeling bone-chillingly frightened at times. 

While Det. Holes does a great job of mentally bringing the reader into his office and unpacking his thought process when trying to solve a cold case, he also delves pretty deeply into the crime details and methods of the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker/Golden State Killer and sets the scene for each horrific attack. Between 1974 and 1986, EAR/ONS/GSK committed 120 burglaries, 51 rapes, and 13 murders; and, while Holes doesn’t explore every single one, he does touch on several that stood out to him. I was deeply unsettled by the way Holes described individual attacks as though I was watching a flashback to the night that these crimes occurred. Perhaps that was the point, but I could have done without the somewhat cinematic detail. It is clear that Det. Holes has a great deal of empathy—that the injustice of these cold cases and the psychological wounds they left on each surviving victim haunt him regularly. I suppose the way Holes tells his story is meant to share that experience with the reader and if so, job well done.

One of the most interesting and compelling aspects of this book for me was seeing how the development of technology, particularly the progression of DNA research and genealogy tracing, has affected the police department over the years and really can mean the difference between apprehending the bad guy or unwittingly allowing the perpetrator to get away with murder. Det. Holes describes this experience as he worked relentlessly to identify the monstrous person behind these vile crimes in California and how the progression of technology across forty years was a key factor in solving these cold cases. Holes also describes his experience with some of the more bureaucratic aspects of working in law enforcement and how it can sometimes feel like one is banging one’s head against a wall of red tape, which is something I can relate to.

As with most memoirs, the reader gets to know the man behind the detective badge in this book and Paul Holes becomes something of a friend by the end. He shares in detail about his personal struggles with alcohol, night terrors, panic attacks, navigating relationships as a husband and father, and trying but failing to achieve the coveted “work-life balance.” I really felt for the guy as I was reading about the agonizing dichotomy between his wishes, hopes, and plans for his life and the crushing reality he faced daily. There are many ways one could look at Det. Holes’s story: the triumph of a modern day superhero, the cautionary tale of a man who gave up too much for the demands of his job, the self-absorbed boasting of a real-life Sherlock Holmes who let celebrity go to his head, the obsessive ravings of a cold case addict unable to resist the next “hit,” list goes on. One thing is for certain though, Paul Holes is a damn good detective.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Murder

jdiedrichs628's review against another edition

dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

geekywoman14's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

2.5

It's not a bad book, but it is a sad and heavy book, which is a strange though somehow appropriate mix of an autobiography and unsolved or cold cases accounting but just an overview of mostly the trauma. Definitely not for the faint of heart or someone wanting a deep dive into an individual story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

chelz286's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.5

Those have read the McNamara novel on the Golden State Killer need to read this one! This is a deep dive into the life of Paul Holes- some of the cases he has worked and the time and years he put in to be determined to solve the GSK case. This novel really gives a good look into the life of a detective and cold cases. How slow the system is and really can be to solve crimes, and how easily cases do go cold because of the lag of labs or evidence or other facilities refusal to share or cooperate together to get the bottom of cases. The was a fascinating read and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and how he used outside of the box thinking to often solve cases. It is nothing like what's dramatized on the tv shows. True crime fans- pick this one up! Thank you to Celadon Books for the free arc! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, and Murder