I'll Be Gone in the Dark (book) by Michelle McNamara

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Ice Cream Jonsey
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I'll Be Gone in the Dark (book) by Michelle McNamara

Post by Ice Cream Jonsey »

Michelle McNamara was a true crime writer that was working on this book (I'll Be Gone in the Dark) on the East Area Rapist. She passed away before she was able to finish it. What she did complete is brilliant - what an amazing writer. We truly missed out on thirty years of her getting to the top of her game with her untimely death. I do need to mention that it contains the worst sentence of any book I've read in the last 10 years, however. For me to explain that, I'll give a small amount of background to the East Area Rapist.

From about 1974-1986 the East Area Rapist would commit hot prowl burglaries, tie up single women or couples in the middle of the night, rape the women and hang out at their place for hours. He would stack dishes on the backs of the men and tell them that he would kill their wives/girlfriends if he heard the dishes rattle. He would steal things like single earrings from a pair. He would eat food out of the victims' fridges while they were tied up. He would make hang-up calls before attacking houses, presumably to understand the victims' routines. He had many close calls where he should have been caught by all rights. He "graduated" into murder for his last set of crimes.

When DNA profiling was invented, detectives learned that a whole string of crimes that were previously thought to be related were the work of one guy. Thus the media epithets "Original Night Stalker" to go with "East Area Rapist" or sometimes you see "EAR/ONS."

(The terrible line in the book I mentioned earlier is that McNamara says that he, "Didn't even have a name until I gave him one," the name she gave being the Golden State Killer. Which is a very precious thing to say about the serial killer with the most aliases ever.) However! I didn't let that influence my opinion because every other sentence in the book is amazing. Let's call that line the umbilical cord level of Max Payne and not let it other spoil something great.

Unfortunately, this isn't a case where she was 99% done and needed an editor. Many chapters are reconstructed. It reminded me of the Amiga game Brattacas, in so much as you can see the potential, it was just released way too soon. I recommend it anyway. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, not Brattacas.

Link to get it is here: Amazon
the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!