kfan 's review for:

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker

4.0

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Dark & sad but soooo good. As it says on the cover, it's the story of a series of unsolved murders, so don't expect an ending where the bad guy gets locked up and the cops & lawyers go out for drinks. Much more than a recounting of the steps in an investigation, this book is about the stories of the people involved. What their lives were like, the circumstances that led to the victims all being sex workers. And not just the lives of the victims, but their families, and the people in their lives, and how all the people on the periphery of these women came together after the bodies were discovered. The profiles of the law enforcement people take up minimal, almost liminal space in this story, as it should be. Because they fucked up, and they are bad, and continue to be bad. What matters is the women, and their stories. It's messy and sad and difficult, but it's also a welcome change from the murder/clues/gavel bang of L&O and CSI.