I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

As a dabbler in true crime fiction, I’ve got to the stage where I feel I can appreciate a really good, well researched book. And this is such a book. It follows the jagged history of the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker (later renamed the Golden State Killer by McNamara) and his reign of terror and misery through Sacramento and the surrounding areas during the 70s and early 80s before mysteriously vanishing without a trace. It’s a story of countless victims, and the ongoing hunt to find the man responsible. 

Michelle McNamara lived and breathed the Golden State Killer case, and this comes across in I’ll Be Gone In The Dark. It’s heavy on details, descriptions and the numerous ways that she and others have tried to find this illusive serial killer over the years. It’s an obsession that she readily admits too, and this book is essentially years of labour and the delicate piecing together of every bit of evidence and clue that could possibly relate to him and his journey from burglar to serial rapist and murderer. The passion and determination for the case and the need to solve it is obvious in every page. 

It’s also the style of writing that drew me in. It’s at once captivating and personal, with sections reading almost like a memoir of Michelle’s life and what initially drew her to this case. It’s endearing, and I couldn’t fail to like Michelle and her relentless pursuit of a man she’s never met yet knows so intimately. 

What makes this book all the more interesting is the fact that a suspect was arrested in April 2018. Two years after Michelle’s death, a man may finally feel that cell door close behind him as justice could be just around the corner. The fact that he was found via DNA from a genealogy site - a suggestion that Michelle herself alludes may help to find him, makes this all the more bittersweet. It’s also always with hindsight that we can see the clues and hints that were missed. Reading this through the eyes of someone who knows a little about the arrested made the clues and trails that Michelle goes down that little bit more exciting, as I could see how tantalisingly close they were to discovering who this man was. 

I found the third part of the book set a different tone to the rest due to Michelle’s untimely death leaving the book unfinished, resulting in her researchers having to piece together her thoughts from notes and old transcripts. This left the last third feeling a little more disorganised than I would have liked, however this was an excellent true crime novel overall, made all the more interesting through recent break through sin the case and the hint of personal reflection involved. If only Michelle were still here to see what she has helped to accomplish.

 - 4 stars