I started hearing about Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer about a year ago. The Golden State Killer had unleashed a reign of terror throughout California (over 50 rapes and 13 murders) from 1974 to 1986. He had never been caught and the author, Michelle McNamara, wanted to change that.
She started pursuing him on her blog True Crime Diary, then in articles she wrote for Los Angeles Magazine. She scoured the internet following leads, met with detectives who were impressed with her determination and gave her their case files. The detectives trusted Michelle because they realized that like them she wanted to catch this killer and bring justice to his victims.
Michelle McNamara was working on I'll Be Gone in the Dark when she died in 2016. She was only 46 and the cause of death was an undiagnosed heart condition made worse by prescription drugs. In 2018 her husband the comedian Patton Oswalt got I'll Be Gone in the Dark published to wide critical acclaim and a few months after the book's publication the Golden State Killer was finally caught.
I enjoy True Crime Books and there are some excellent writers in this genre: Ann Rule, Joseph Wambaugh, Vincent Buglosi and I would add Michelle McNamara to that list. She is a very engaging narrator as she draws you in, telling the story of the California towns where the killer operated, telling us about his victims and the detectives who sought justice.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark is also part memoir. Michelle writes about growing up in Oak Park, IL, her family and friends, her desire to be a writer and when she was fourteen the event that changed her life, a young woman murdered two streets down from where she lived. Michelle didn't know the woman but while the rest of the neighborhood was horrified they moved on but for Michelle it was a life changing experience and an obsession with unsolved murders was born.
Michelle McNamara was halfway through writing I'll Be Gone in tne Dark when she died and her editors gathering together her notes have done a reallly fine job. The book doesn't feel half finished. Michelle's obsession to catch the killer is also a testament to the internet and how much research on any subject that interests you is possible just by using the search engine. It's a shame we won't have future books from Michelle McNamara but there is I'll Be Gone in the Dark which I am glad I read and recommend.
I have this ear-marked on Goodreads as one I really want to read. Glad to know you liked it so much. :)
ReplyDeleteI think you will like it too Lark and would love to know what you think. As I understand an HBO documentary of the book is coming out sometime in 2020.
DeleteSounds intriguing but horrifying. I hand read very few true crime books. Many of them look really good but I also think that they might be a little disturbing.
ReplyDeleteIt is terrible that the author died before actually publishing this.
Super review.
Thanks Brian, True Crime can make for fascinating reading but one has to be selective. The Golden State killer was a horrifying character but Michelle McNamara who narrates the book is an empathetic presence throughout so that makes it easier to read. Very sad, I agree, she never got to see her book published and reach number one on bestseller list.
DeleteI got this book for my sister for her birthday and might read it when she is done with it. True Crime about serial killers often freaks me out too much to read it, even in the daylight hours.
ReplyDeleteHi Ruthiella, You do have to be careful with the True Crime genre. For example I tried to read last year The Devil in the White City by Eric Larson. Put it down halfway through. Too gruesome. And above all you want a sympathetic narrator telling the story, someone who is angry on behalf of the victims. Michelle had the empathy where in comparison tnere was a coldness I felt in Devil in White City and how that story was told.
DeleteI read The Devil in the White City a few years ago and was also not as taken with it as so many other readers. Particularly, I felt that Larson did too much "guessing" what the killer thought or did or about his childhood when there was no evidence for this. That much supposition doesn't work in non-fiction for me personally.
DeleteHi Ruthiella, Devil in White City a disturbing book no question. I also wonder if the author in spending too much time trying to figure the killer out downplayed the victims and the detectives trying to catch him. You need an equal focus on the detectives in a true crime book because otherwise it can become too dark.
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