Very upsetting (but I couldn’t put it down either). Not something I would have chosen on my own. Good thing there are book clubs! Glad to have continued my research online and learned even more about the progress of the case. A great book if you have the guts!

An amazing account of a woman's obsession to find a killer. Although Michelle McNamara died w years before the Golden State Killer was arrested, her impeccable notes and zeal for finding him are to be applauded. Michelle gives this horrific story some humanity by focusing much of her book on the victims, and the police departments various detective heroes who would not give up on finding this rapist and murderer.
After Michelle's death, the police arrested Joseph DeAngelo, a former police office and a supermarket distribution warehouse employee. They were able to connect his DNA to the murders and rapes.

#IllBeGoneInTheDark #MichelleMcNamara

I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK is billed as true crime, which I guess it is. But not really, not as most of us think of it. It is actually the investigation of the investigation of true crime.

Michelle McNamara, the author, became interested in the case of a serial rapist, then murderer, who began in Northern California in the 1970s and worked his way south to 1986. She liked to think that she could assist in the investigation more than 10 years later. But she actually wrote about her investigation of the investigation of the crimes.

I am not giving anything away when I tell you that McNamara died before she could finish writing the book, before she could identify the rapist/murderer herself. But the way I heard it before I read the book was that she died before the case could be solved. I was given the impression this was an open case when it was actually a cold case.

I feel like I was fooled because this book is not at all what I expected. Dates were all over the place, and the true crimes were not given in any type of order. I was confused throughout.

Could it be that its great reviews are mostly because McNamara died before she could finish her book?

I prefer crime that is fictional so I was leery of reading a true crime book, but I cannot say enough good things about how the author handled the subject. She handled the sensational features of the Golden State Killer with dignity. I enjoyed the true crime blogger aspect and liked how the publisher ended the book seamlessly despite being left unfinished by the author. I believe that McNamara, although she did not live to see the day, is largely responsible for GSK's eventually arrest.