I’ll Be Gone in the Dark – Michelle McNamara

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I’ll Be Gone in the Dark review

It’s good because it tells us about the police investigations regarding the case and shows an enormous effort in research. But the good part ends there.

I was lost 80% of the book and I wasn’t able to position myself chronologically. It tells the story jumping from one point to another, without any kind of chronological order, which is very misleading.

It talks about the EAR (East Area Rapist), the Visalia Ransacker, the Original Night Stalker… That’s also very confusing. It starts talking about him as if they were different people, but then it turns out they’re the same person. I’m not ashamed to admit that I had to go to Wikipedia to place myself chronologically and to know who was who. Here’s the Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_State_Killer. If you want to find more information search for the Golden State Killer.

I don’t know if this mess in the book is due to the death of the author before she could finish it. If it’s the structure she had originally thought up or if it’s the work of the people who finished it for her.

Lastly, I’d like to say that, in April 2018, the suspect of these crimes, who is now 74 years-old, was finally arrested. I don’t know what the current situation of the case is and I think there hasn’t been a trial yet. At least I couldn’t find anything about it on the internet.

To sum up, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is interesting but quite disappointing because it’s a pretty tedious read.