Published by Harper Books on 27 Feb 2018
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A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.
"You’ll be silent forever, and I’ll be gone in the dark."
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.
At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.
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. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle’s lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.
I listen to my fair share of true crime podcasts and had heard the name "the Golden State killer" before, but I didn't know anything about the case. However, I did get a sense that this case is one of the most chilling and fascinating ones for true crime junkies--for the perpetrator's elusiveness and for the sheer quantity of crimes.
This true crime account was incredibly well-researched and well-written. It was published posthumously and completed by lead researcher Paul Haynes and investigative journalist Billy Jensen. They said it best: "Michelle always found the perfect balance between the typical extremes of the genre. She didn't flinch from evoking key elements of horror and yet avoided lurid overindulgence in grisly details, as well as sidestepping self-righteous justice crusading or victim hagiography... She had a nuance one doesn't normally encounter in true crime."
It was haunting that at the time of publication, the case remained unsolved, the identity of the Golden State Killer unknown. It was bittersweet when the Golden State Killer was finally caught, just two months after publication (bittersweet that McNamara, who passed away two years before publication, didn't live to see this day).
I'm glad that by the time I started reading the book, the Golden State Killer was already caught. Otherwise, I would have had trouble sleeping at night. Tip: Don't read this book in your house!! Take it to a cafe or the beach or something!
Upon finishing the book, I tried to look into the Golden State Killer's arrest and other updates to the case, but as the investigation is ongoing, the articles I found didn't have much information and were unsatisfying (especially after reading an account as brilliant as McNamara's haha). I also went back to the Golden State Killer episodes of the My Favorite Murder podcast (#1, #115, #118), and started listening to The Murder Squad podcast hosted by Billy Jensen and Paul Holes, beginning with the Golden State Killer episode (#4).
If you're into true crime, I'll Be Gone in the Dark is a must-read.
