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A review by scburhans
Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Walking the line between productive and education true crime content and fetishizing killers can be really delicate, but this book does so masterfully. Definitely a must read for fans of I'll Be Gone in the Night, Buzzfeed Unsolved, and other true crime publications.
I love true crime content in any form, but I hate when it gets turned into torture porn or romanticizes or fetishizes killers; especially serial killers. It's gross, socially irresponsible, and completely disrespectful to the victims and their family. Holes, however, does his best to present the facts of the cases he discusses in a way that is respectful of the victims and without any of the gory details that is a hallmark in bad true crime content. One of the biggest things that I appreciated about this was the focus on the victims and their families. Too often true crime junkies forget that these were real people with real families who are forced to relive the deaths of their loved ones when their cases get dragged into the light. Holes shows us just how traumatizing it is for victims families to have to constantly relive their experience, which is a nice deviation from the norm.
I was also a bit wary going into this book about how honest Holes would be about his experiences, but, overall, he really seemed to paint honest pictures of himself and his life - even when those pictures weren't flattering. He didn't glamorize his experience in the justice system and he was honest about his struggles with is family and mental health, something that takes a lot of bravery to do, especially as a man. He was honest about his mistakes and didn't make the entire case about himself. He showed how it was a collaborative effort, and how they never would have solved the case without all of them working on it. I grew to really like Paul as a person as well as an investigator, and I truly wish him the best with book.
I love true crime content in any form, but I hate when it gets turned into torture porn or romanticizes or fetishizes killers; especially serial killers. It's gross, socially irresponsible, and completely disrespectful to the victims and their family. Holes, however, does his best to present the facts of the cases he discusses in a way that is respectful of the victims and without any of the gory details that is a hallmark in bad true crime content. One of the biggest things that I appreciated about this was the focus on the victims and their families. Too often true crime junkies forget that these were real people with real families who are forced to relive the deaths of their loved ones when their cases get dragged into the light. Holes shows us just how traumatizing it is for victims families to have to constantly relive their experience, which is a nice deviation from the norm.
I was also a bit wary going into this book about how honest Holes would be about his experiences, but, overall, he really seemed to paint honest pictures of himself and his life - even when those pictures weren't flattering. He didn't glamorize his experience in the justice system and he was honest about his struggles with is family and mental health, something that takes a lot of bravery to do, especially as a man. He was honest about his mistakes and didn't make the entire case about himself. He showed how it was a collaborative effort, and how they never would have solved the case without all of them working on it. I grew to really like Paul as a person as well as an investigator, and I truly wish him the best with book.