Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

True crime book depicting the crimes and investigation of the Golden State Killer that terrorized Californians from San Francisco to Los Angelos from 1976 to 1986. At the time the book was published, these crimes were unsolved.

This book was also a memoir of author, Michelle McNamara, who died in the pursuit of uncovering GSK’s identity. McNamara died in 2016 before her book was completed and before the Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo, was arrested in 2018. Researcher, Paul Haynes, and investigative journalist, Billy Jensen, finished the book for McNamara with an afterword from her husband, Patton Oswalt, and updated news articles about the capture and arrest of Joseph DeAngelo.

McNamara coined his moniker, Golden State Killer. Originally, he was known as the East Area Rapist (EAR) when he raped over 50 people, and then would become known as the Original Night Stalker (ONS) when he killed over a dozen people. It’s 21st century technology that connected the rapes of EAR with the murders of ONS. There wasn’t two offenders, just one, and he’d become known as EAR-ONS until McNamara renames him.

I truly loved this book, and I know that’s a weird thing to say, but it was genuinely good, addictive even. I watched the HBO docuseries two years ago and it very subtly creeped me out. It wasn’t until I tried to sleep that night that I realized how anxious I was. I kept getting up to check the door was locked without thinking why I had the urge to do so. The same with this book. There were a couple of nights I triple checked the locks or thought I heard a noise. And it’s not just the crimes of GSK that have me unsettled, and trust me, the crimes are truly at a level 100 on the creep factor, but it’s the way McNamara writes the book. The several times she addresses the killer himself, a man without a face for her, just had the hairs on my neck standing up. I’ve listened to a few true crime podcasts on this case and even discussed it in my undergrad studies, none of those elicited this response. It’s all McNamara and her incredible ability to tell a story.

It was already creepy as it was, but I wished it contained more of what he did before he attacked these people and also highlight the survivors. The main focus was on the investigation and the investigators which I thought was a great take instead of hyper-focusing on the crimes themselves. It feels respectful to the victims and the survivors while educating the public on the events and investigation, while getting across the urgency to help find this killer.

I also think the memoir chapters added something special to this book. It helped me to connect to McNamara and even the other investigators (law enforcement and civilian) on the case.

It was hard to put down. Completely riveting and an excellent example of true crime reporting.

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

I stumbled across this book in the online catalogue for our Library and thought it sounded interesting. It had me hooked. I had never heard of the "East Area Rapist" or "The Golden State Killer".
This book was written by a woman who became obsessed with the case and just wanted him caught. She was a true crime blogger and became very close with not only the police detectives but also the witnesses. This case became a cold case and Michelle McNamara did everything she could to try and keep it in the forefront so it could be solved one day.
The crimes started out as home invasions, then rapes, then he escaletd to hitting the homes when couples where in until he eventually escalated to murders.
The details of the case were very interesting and it is so shocking how long he evaded police capture. The crimes started around 1977 until he was eventually captured in 2018.
If you enjoy True Crime, this is a very interesting read.
All though she spares us the gore of the details, if you are triggered by Rape, stalking or Gun Violence I would avoid the Book.

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