Book Review: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara
Publisher: Harper
Release Date: February 27, 2018
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “the Golden State Killer.” Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman’s obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Utterly original and compelling, it has been hailed as a modern true crime classic—one which fulfilled Michelle’s dream: helping unmask the Golden State Killer.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is the true story of the Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist. He terrorized California, committing at least 13 murders, more than 50 rapes, and over 100 burglaries in from 1974 to 1986. Author Michelle McNamara believed she was coming close to discovering the Golden State Killer’s identity when she unfortunately passed away. She did not complete I’ll Be Gone in the Dark but her husband, Patton Oswald, decided to publish it anyway. He and her researchers pieced together the gaps in her writing. Any time they have done this, it’s explained in the text at the point where it occurs.

Coincidentally, the Golden State Killer was caught shortly after this book was published, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to read it. It’s a lot more satisfying to read true crime if the crime has been solved! I found this book to be a little disjointed and confusing. However, that’s understandable considering it’s basically unfinished. Michelle worked on this book for years and it’s amazingly well-researched. She was allowed to take boxes upon boxes of police files home to look at and she analyzed them all thoroughly. She also performed several interviews with people involved with the case.

The Golden State Killer’s capture is bittersweet. Of course it’s fantastic that he was caught but it’s sad the Michelle wasn’t alive to see it. She was, in her own words, obsessed with this case. At the end of the book is a letter to the Golden State Killer from Michelle about what she thinks will happen when he is captured that is eerily close to the truth.

Fans of true crime and those curious about the Golden State Killer should definitely check out I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.

P.S. If you want even more information about the Golden State Killer, I highly recommend the episodes that the podcast Case Files did on him. They put out an update after the killer was apprehended explaining what led the police to finally find him and so forth that was really good.