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

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I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

16 reviews

moto1480's review

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

4.25

While this book is mostly a set of loose essays about McNamara's research into whom she later dubbed the Golden State Killer, what struck me the most was how much I felt I got to know her. If this is her literary legacy, it's a good one. That being said, folks hoping for closure to the case or to her life won't find it here. Although the edition I read had updates from 2018 detailing the Golden State Killer's capture, those parts feel a lot like the way that McNamara's death is treated: brief and curt, broken up into small pieces to consume. True crime aficionados will like this book for sure.

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savvyrosereads's review

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

Rating: 4/5 stars

If you don’t already know the story of Michelle McNamara, I encourage you to read up on her and her life/writing, but the nutshell version is this—Michelle was a brilliant and dedicated true crime writer/blogger who dedicated a significant chunk of her life to investigating the identity of the serial murderer/rapist she dubbed the Golden State Killer. Although Michelle passed away unexpectedly before GSK was identified (and before the book was completed) he was finally identified and apprehended in 2018. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is a captivating and brilliantly written exploration of GSK’s crimes, a portrait of his victims, and an insight into the investigation that ultimately led to his arrest.

This was exceptional—though I’m still fairly new to the world of true crime I can already tell that this deserves a spot as one of the classics of the genre. It is incredibly well-written and detailed while still being compulsively readable and engaging. There are many reasons to be saddened by Michelle McNamara’s untimely passing, and one of them is the fact that we cannot look forward to more of her books. Indeed, the only part of the book that was less-than-stellar was the structure—undoubtedly due to the fact that Michelle never got to finish the book and much of it was pieced together from her notes or written after the fact by others—but the final product is still unquestionably good enough to compensate for this minor defect.

Recommended for anyone, but especially those who like: true crime; investigative journalism.

CW: Sexual assault/rape; murder/death; cruelty to animals.

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