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

4.0

I made the unfortunate mistake of reading this book over a couple of nights. Some of the scenes made for restless sleeping. I had to go check my closet at one point. McNamara's writing is great, I'm only giving this 4 stars because of the somewhat jumpy nature of the narrative. I cannot imagine distilling the sheer amount of information produced from tracking the Golden State Killer into a readable story, and I had been warned about the disjointed narrative but it still made for a somewhat confusing read and was not my favorite. I think my favorite part of the book was actually the beginning where the author describes her relationship with her mother and how she got started in true crime. It's stunning to think of how close she came to seeing this to an end; she was certainly on the right path. I wish I'd saved it for a creepy October read but it was a great read nonetheless which really captured some of the fear California residents were experiencing at that time.