Review: I'll be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

Title: I'll be Gone in the Dark

Author: Michelle McNamara

Publisher: Harper

Publishing Date: February 27th, 2018

Pages: 352
Audio Length: 9 Hours and 45 Minutes

Genre: Non-Fiction True Crime

Series: Stand Alone

Source: Audio

 

Introduction by Gillian Flynn
Afterword by Patton Oswalt
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.

What made me pick this book up: 

I needed to find a non fiction book with a building on the front. And this one said it was about a killer. 

What did I like about the cover: 

It's definitely creepy and dark. I think it fits the book well.

What made me read this book: 

Like I said, I needed a non fiction book with a building on the cover, and this one sounded really awesome. I have a thing for serial killers.

What did I like the most:

I really liked listening to the murders (in a totally normal, sane, not creepy way) But also the clues that the author found and the way she found it was really interesting.

I found myself completely into this book, staring off into space, completely wrapped up in it.

I don't really have much to say about this book, except it really was interesting. I wanted to do a review so more people could find it.  

What didn't I like: 

Well, the way it's written it goes back and forth in time. So the stories of the murders and how she found what she did, she kept bouncing back and forth between them and it just got really confusing.

Also she died before she could finish it. And that's sad.

Would I read the rest of the series/more from this author?
Sure... if there was more.

Really interesting to read about the murders and the killer. I enjoyed it.

“But then you hear a scream and you decide it’s some teenagers playing around. A young man jumping a fence is taking a shortcut. The gunshot at three a.m. is a firecracker or a car backfiring. You sit up in bed for a startled moment. Awaiting you is the cold, hard floor and a conversation that may lead nowhere; you collapse onto your warm pillow, and turn back to sleep. Sirens wake you later.” 
― Michelle McNamara, I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

Michelle McNamara was a screenwriter, journalist and true crime writer. She was the founder of the website True Crime Diary. The site covers lesser-known crimes and cold cases. In 2005, she married comedian Patton Oswalt. They had one daughter together, born in 2009.