I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer - Softcover

McNamara, Michelle

4.12

237,428 ratings by Goodreads

9780062853172: I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062853171 ISBN 13: 9780062853172

Publisher: Harper, 2018

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR:

Washington Post - Maureen Corrigan, NPR - Paste - Seattle Times - Entertainment Weekly - Esquire - Slate - Buzzfeed - Jezebel - Philadelphia Inquirer - Publishers Weekly - Kirkus Reviews - Library Journal - Bustle - Mother Jones - Real Simple - Crime Reads - Book Riot - Bookish - Amazon - Barnes and Noble -Hudson Booksellers New York Public Library - Chicago Public Library

Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Nonfiction - SCIBA Book Award Winner - Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence

The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California during the 70s and 80s, and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case--which was solved in April 2018.

Introduction by Gillian Flynn - Afterword by Patton Oswalt

"A brilliant genre-buster.... Propulsive, can't-stop-now reading." --Stephen King

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.

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Review:

"This book just knocked me over."--Megan Abbott

"Remarkable.... A modern true crime classic."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A singular, fascinating read. It's lifelike in its incompletion... a posthumous treasure that feels thrillingly alive. A-"--Entertainment Weekly

"Impressive."--Booklist, starred review

"Utterly gripping."--People

"Both a vivid and meticulous investigation of a twisted predator who terrorized quiet, upper middle-class communities in California for nearly a decade, and a wrenching personal account from a writer who became consumed by her subject."--New York Times

"Narrative true crime journalism at its very finest, a complex, multilayered, chilling portrait of a faceless monster, and a remarkable tribute to the woman who, up until her last day, believed she would one day have him in her crosshairs."--Village Voice

"That the book feels triumphant even after tragedy upon tragedy is a testament to McNamara's skill as a reporter."--Esquire, "The 25 Best True Crime Books Every Person Should Read"

"Any true crime project is basically a reckoning with death, but in this case, it's a reckoning that is no longer theoretical. McNamara is gone. And what's especially sad about her absence is just how good she was."--The Portland Mercury

"The work has many notable qualities -- in particular, a penetrating and elegiac voice."--Seattle Times

From the Back Cover:

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.

Over the course of 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. In 1986 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, inter-viewed 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 his victims--he favored suburban couples--he often entered their homes when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layouts. 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 from Gillian Flynn and an afterword by McNamara's 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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