Short-listed for the Gordon Burn Prize 2018
A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer - the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorised 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 10 years, a mysterious and violent predator committed 50 sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated 10 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 True Crime Diary, 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.
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.
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[Before the Golden State Killer, There Was The Girl]***
(Audible Studios, 22 November 2018, audiobook, 9 hours 44 minutes, bought from @audibleuk)
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I enjoyed this book. It covers much of the same material as the Audible Original Podcast, Evil Has a Name: The Untold Story of the Golden State Killer Investigation which I listened to recently. The podcast moves beyond this book, revealing when the killer was finally caught and how. To be honest, I probably would have loved I'll Be Gone in the Dark if I hadn't already listened to the podcast. Much of the same material is covered as the podcast so I felt like I didn't really learn anything entirely new. I enjoyed the audiobook though as it revealed McNamara's obsession with finding the killer which was only hampered by her unexpected death. As McNamara died before the book was released a chunk of the book still feels untold.
