I'll Be Gone in the Dark

Fascinating - I wish McNamara had been able to finish the book, I wish she'd been able to see the DNA results finally yield a match, and I wish she'd been able to write many more books after this. Her style is engaging and vivid without ever being exploitative, a tough needle to thread when writing true crime. She seems like she would've been fun to hang out with and her personality really shines through in the book.

I will admit, I had a choppy experience with this book that is wholly my own doing, and unfortunately prevented me from realizing the highest level of enjoyment from this book. I began it as an audio-book, which had multiple CDs; I would often not realized it was looping back to the beginning of the CD, so I would get confused, or distracted while driving or just thinking of something else.... and there are WAY too many names and details being thrown around for me to ever firmly grasp the narrative. I had to return the CDs, so I finished by reading the book.

That being said, I liked the book a lot and McNamara is a truly talented writer. I think it's so difficult to show personality as a writer (hers being sensitive and compassionate, but painstakingly detailed, obsessive, self-aware, and hilarious) when writing about A) mostly police reports/crimes scenes/obsessive researching and B) when the topic is a terrifying, psychopath rapist serial killer who may or may not still be alive. This book is just as much about the Golden State Killer as it is Michelle McNamara. I loved that genres bend between True Crime and Memoir. And knowing that she died so young, and in the throes of this project heightens and already heightened narrative.

I would absolutely recommend this book, and intend to sit down and read the print version cover to cover sometime in the future to ensure I get the full experience - I'm sure I'll thank myself for doing it.

This was so good. The writing is well done, the investigations, the way the end was handled given the author's sudden death and later arrest of the GSK. Really fascinating stuff. I didn't care so much for some of the personal stuff (eta: I mean, personal-personal stuff, not personal-investigation stuff), but I understand why it was included and could see other people really enjoying it.

Kudos for the obsession but not a fan of the mystique the book ends up assigning post-facto to an asshole. I am also troubled and unimpressed by the confidence the various people involved have in their many recollections. There's enough research to prove how memory can be the most unreliable narrator. It's tempting but let's not kid ourselves, yeah?

I grew up in Northern California at the tail end of the GSK's initial spree, and the way in which Michelle McNamara was able to evoke the Bay Area of my childhood was remarkable. It felt like I was sitting in the backyard of my childhood home. My Mom grew up in an Eichler and the landscape McNamara described was both eerie and comforting. She manages to write about a horrific series of crimes with an unflinching yet compassionate eye so that the macabre is never indulged but the terror isn't lost. It is a true tragedy she passed away before she was able to see her efforts pay off - but what a legacy this book leaves in her memory.

This was intense and thoughtful telling of the hunt for the Golden State Killer. Do not go into this expecting just facts about GSK. What we often do not get in true crime is focus on victims beyond the worst moments. McNamara gave us details about them. She made sure that they were human. Some of this was very difficult to listen to. We were given a window into how these cold cases are investigated by those who are shaken by these crimes and refuse to let these killers continue to go unpunished.

I tried to love this book. It's beautifully written and well-balanced between McNamara's world and EAR-ONS's world in terms of storytelling, but I'm just not sure True Crime is a genre I'm excited to read. This is my first encounter with True Crime. Maybe I'll revisit this at a different point in time, but when the bookmark fell out for the fourth time, I decided to not find the page.

For those of you that like True Crime, I think you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

As someone who has not read a lot of true crime, i do not how this book stands against the rest in the genre so i am not sure how to rate it. Three star rating because I just remember how chaotic I felt the structure was. This book does what a lot of non-fiction does. It jumps back and forward through time. Now, with standard non-Fiction, this can make the book tedious or complicated, but overall, I can keep up with the events of the story. With true crime, it is a bit harder, as there are a myriad of dates, locations, victims, investigators, etc., that we are keeping tracking of on top of the timeline. I constantly found myself getting out of the flow state of reading because it was quite difficult to keep track of all the key pieces of information provided in this book, simply because of the scattered way in which it was pieced together. Which brings me to the overall structure of this book which bounced all over the place. In fact, I would say there was very little structure overall to the book, which made it hard to follow but i was still able to connect with it. Looking forward to searching about more true crimes which could be 5 star reads.

Absolutely fantastic true crime read! You can feel all the hours spent slogging through thousands of leads for that diamond in the rough. McNamara's writing in the first handful of chapters creates a story focused around the suffering of the victims and their families. She takes care to protect privacy of the grieving families but still impart important details to the reader. Quite a delicate balance to hold.

After her passing, the novel was completed and built from interview transcripts and incomplete chapters. I appreciate that they did not attempt to copy her way of writing, instead focusing on breaking down the loads of facts that can take the search for the elusive killer in many different directions. The true capping point of the book was the letter to the Golden State Killer at the end written by McNamara. Her words are powerful and direct.

As a reader after the announcement of the capture of the alleged killer, it was unsettling to read about the methods she used realizing the exact same process is what eventually brought justice to lives of victims and their families. All and all a really good read.

2.5 stars While I respect that Michelle McNamara pretty much dedicated her life to finding the truth and I am sad that she passed away before she could finish her book and get closure on the case, I wasn't captivated by the narrating style. Had I not listened to this on audio, I never would have finished it.

Loved it. I really, really hope they catch this guy and I'm really bummed that she died before she figured it out, because I feel like she would have.

Also, I need to talk to someone immediately about the Visalia Ransacker and the hilariously weird physical descriptions of him because this clearly wasn't a human person.

Another book that sat on my shelf for far too long and when I finally got to it (because it's a book club pick), I was kicking myself I didn't read it sooner.

The premise of this book is the Golden State Killer - that McNamara penned, and was previously East Area Rapist (EAR) and then the Original Night Stalker (ONS), is a wild one. It's a story where there were so many victims and his crimes escalated from rape to murder, yet he alluded authorities for 4 decades. And it wasn't a popular, well-known story like the Zodiac killer. The research, effort, and care McNamara took into finding the facts and telling the story is really special. Her driving motive was to get this guy caught and answer for his crimes and I think it shown in every page of her writing. And I've said it before, some true crime feels exploitive of the people involved, but she handled this with respect. And, it actually scared me. Her writing is so immersive and there was even one moment I was cooking dinner while listening to the audiobook and realized the back door was unlocked and checked the whole house after locking it.

This is also a unique true crime book because the author, Michelle McNamara, died before she was able to finish it. And the killer was eventually caught shortly after this book was published but sadly she wouldn't be able to see that. I think the people that helped get this finished did a beautiful job. For me, this book was so unique because I think I am more interested in her then in the Golden State Killer. Yes, the story is interesting and left my jaw hanging open, but the story of Michelle and her hunt for him and just her history of true crime obsession and the trajectory that lead her to and through this case is so intriguing.

Overall, 5 star read and highly recommend to the true crime fans out there.

I listened to this title via audiobook and just... the way it was written felt like I was unfolding a story, not necessarily listening to the gruesome acts of a serial murderer and rapist. I loved the way that Michelle McNamara wove facts of the different attacks with her own personal narrative. I only wish that she had been alive to see the GSK put away for good.

Michelle's writing is beautiful even through such a disturbing and sensitive subject. The book shines at the most memoir moments and that's where the 3 stars come in. I imagine this was incredibly hard to write, and I feel her overwhelm and distraction in the pages. I couldn't find the driving storyline, I think because it jumps back and forth in time so often it does feel like whiplash. I got confused on where we were, when we were, and who we are talking about.

I do think it's worth reading and I would recommend reading it alongside the documentary. The two support each other well.