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

I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.

Today’s Nonfiction review is on I’ll be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara. It is 352 pages long and is published by Harper Collins. The cover is a dark picture of a house with gold highlights. The intended reader is someone who is interested in true crime and long running mysteries. There is foul language, discussion of rape and violence in this book. The story is pieced to together from first person interviews and police reports.

From the dust jacket- 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.

Review- This is a compelling and terrifying read about a horrible killer who has still not been caught. McNamara was obsessed with this killer and with someone, anyone, getting him off the streets and in jail for his crimes.  McNamara was a wonderful writer was fascinated with true crime when a neighbor was murdered near her home and that killer was never caught either.  So McNamara started a blog called True Crime Dairy and that started everything. Her very untimely death cut short a amazing writer, and I think someone who could have caught the Gold State Killer. McNamara gives the crimes a timeline, the victims voices, and the cops, who are still hunted the GSK, a place to talk and be heard. She does not gloss over the horror of the crimes but she does not give too much detail about the blood and gore. We know what happened without having to see in our minds when it's time to sleep. If you are interesting in true crime, then treat yourself and read this book.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars.