A review by travelseatsreads
Unmasked: Crime Scenes, Cold Cases and My Hunt for the Golden State Killer by Paul Holes

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5.0

 Most true crime fans have a case that truly captivates & terrifies them & for me it was the Golden State Killer. It baffled me that someone who kept raging such a widespread & prolonged reign of terror & heinous crimes was still out there. The day it was announced that he was finally in custody a chilling shiver ran down my spine, could it really be true? That day & many more after, one name kept popping up, & after reading the many books & listening to the varied podcasts on the case it was one I was familiar with as being crucial to the investigation & that was Paul Holes. 

Within the pages of Unmasked, Holes gives an honest, enthralling & detailed account of his life, the cases which still haunt him & of course his involvement in catching the GSK. In this part memoir/part true crime story Paul chronicles his career from the early days of wetting his feet in the crime lab, to helping solve some of the most horrific crimes but old & new as Chief Of Forensics. 

Holes gives some pretty gruesome & grisly accounts of the crime scenes, this book isn't for the faint hearted but what he does master is retelling the stories of the crimes while remaining fully respectful & empathetic to the victim & their families. Often in true crime books the voice of the victim is overshadowed by that of the perpetrator but it's clear Holes always holds the victim & justice in the forefront of his mind. 

He also brings the reader along into the fascinating world of forensics & crime scene investigation & gives an insight of the wide-spanning painstaking cooperative effort that is involved in investigating a case, while being very honest about many of the roadblocks & hurdles (from political to human error) that can turn a case upside down. His honesty also reaches past his career and Paul details how his obsessive nature & need to find answers has had a huge impact on his family life over the years.

It's almost impossible to imagine the possibility of DeAngelo currently wasting away in Corcoran State Prison without Holes dogged & obsessive perseverance and even for that alone this book is worth your time. 
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