I'll Be Gone in the Dark : One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer (original 2018; edition 2018)

by Michelle McNamara

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
3,407	165	3,787	(4)	152
Biography & Autobiography. True Crime. Nonfiction. HTML: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post \| Maureen Corrigan, NPR \| Paste \| Seattle Times \| Entertainment Weekly \| Esquire \| Slate \| Buzzfeed \| Jezebel \| Philadelphia Inquirer \| Publishers Weekly \| Kirkus Reviews \| Library Journal \| Bustle \| Mother Jones \| Real Simple \| Crime Reads \| Book Riot \| Bookish \| Amazon \| Barnes and Noble \|Hudson Booksellers New York Public Library \| Chicago Public Library Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Nonfiction \| SCIBA Book Award Winner \| Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California during the 70s and 80s, and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case�??which was solved in April 2018. Introduction by Gillian Flynn �?� Afterword by Patton Oswalt "A brilliant genre-buster.... Propulsive, can't-stop-now reading." �??Stephen King 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. 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. Utterly original and compelling, it has been hailed as a modern true crime classic�??one which fulfilled Michelle's dream: helping unmask the Golden… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	Chris.Bulin
Title:	I'll Be Gone in the Dark : One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
Authors:	Michelle McNamara
Info:	[Place of publication not identified] : HarperCollins 2018.
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	read-in-2018, in-goodreads

Work Information

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (2018)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

lsh63, BCarroll, chive, lmrabba, 00966550173333, ajvdveen, jonomercy, lafstaff, FatimaElf

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Member recommendations

00
Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes (PuddinTame)

▾Lists

Top Five Books of 2018 (17)

Scary Stories for the Season (48)

Club Read's Recommended Nonfiction Written by Women (45)

» 10 more

Books Read in 2018 (245)

Top Five Books of 2020 (463)

Books Read in 2019 (1,112)

To Read (24)

Books Read in 2022 (2,740)

Female Author (913)

mstrust's scary list (2)

Books With Numbers in the Title (250)

Litsy Awards 2018 (125)

Phoebe Bridgers (18)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 152 mentions

▾Member reviews

English (164) Spanish (1) All languages (165)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 164 (next | show all)

Absolutely fascinating look at the exhaustive search for the Golden State Killer. It's a little exhausting to read at times, so I can only imagine how it must have been for McNamara. Reading it with the knowledge that he's been caught can be a little frustrating at times - you just want to scream the details at her. It's also very striking how gifted a writer McNamara is, once her colleagues pick up a chapter after her death (sorry guys). Overall, a great read if you can handle the creep factor. And the unbearable unfairness that she died not knowing who he was. (

)

gonzocc | Mar 31, 2024 |

This seemed like a thing I wanted to read, but I can't get into it, and that's probably for the better.

[Half-formed thoughts about white people with anxiety disorders and our domination of the True Crime Industrial Complex go here.]

caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |

*3.5 (

)

Fortunesdearest | Feb 2, 2024 |

Absolutely fantastic true crime read! You can feel all the hours spent slogging through thousands of leads for that diamond in the rough. McNamara's writing in the first handful of chapters creates a story focused around the suffering of the victims and their families. She takes care to protect privacy of the grieving families but still impart important details to the reader. Quite a delicate balance to hold.

After her passing, the novel was completed and built from interview transcripts and incomplete chapters. I appreciate that they did not attempt to copy her way of writing, instead focusing on breaking down the loads of facts that can take the search for the elusive killer in many different directions. The true capping point of the book was the letter to the Golden State Killer at the end written by McNamara. Her words are powerful and direct.

As a reader after the announcement of the capture of the alleged killer, it was unsettling to read about the methods she used realizing the exact same process is what eventually brought justice to lives of victims and their families. All and all a really good read.
(

)

b00kdarling87 | Jan 7, 2024 |

i am not one to read true crime. The story of the write appealed to me more than the crime story. All the work she put into her book and research I felt did have an impact on keeping the crimes in the minds f the people who did solve this. (

)

cfulton20 | Nov 13, 2023 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 164 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
McNamara, Michelle	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Flynn, Gillian	Introduction	secondary author	all editions	confirmed
Haynes, Paul	Contributor	secondary author	all editions	confirmed
Jensen, Billy	Contributor	secondary author	all editions	confirmed
Oswalt, Patton	Afterword	secondary author	all editions	confirmed
Iriarte, Eduardo	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction (Longlist – Nonfiction – 2019)

Anthony Award (Nominee – Critical / Biographical – 2019)

Audie Award (Finalist – Audiobook of the Year – 2019)

Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Audio (2018)

Edgar Award (Nominee – Fact Crime – 2019)

Goodreads Choice Awards (Winner – Nonfiction – 2018)

Gordon Burn Prize (Shortlist – 2018)

Macavity Award (Nominee – Non-Fiction – 2019)

Distinctions

Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year (Crime and (In)Justice)

New York Times bestseller (Nonfiction – 2018)

Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (Nonfiction – 2018)

Notable Lists

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

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

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2018

People/Characters

The Golden State Killer

Original Night Stalker

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

No butler, no second maid, no blood upon the stair.
No eccentric aunt, no gardener, no family friend
Smiling among the bric-a-brac and murder.
Only a suburban house with the front door open
And a dog barking at a squirrel, and the cars
Passing. The corpse quite dead. The wife in Florida.

Consider the clues: the potato masher in a vase,
The torn photograph of a Wesleyan basketball
team.
Scattered with check stubs in the hall;
The unsent fan letter to Shirley Temple,
The Hoover button on the lapel of the deceased,
The note: "To be killed this way is quite all right
with me."

Small wonder that the case remains unsolved,
Or that the sleuth, Le Roux, is now incurably in-
sane,
And sits alone in a white room in a white gown,
Screaming that all the world is mad, that clues
Lead nowhere, or to walls so high their tops cannot
be seen;
Screaming all day of war, screaming that nothing
can be solved.

- Weldon Kees, "Crime Club"

Dedication

First words

That summer I hunted the serial killer at night from my daughter's playroom.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

King, Stephen

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

364.153209794

Canonical LCC

HV6565.C2

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

▾Book descriptions

Biography & Autobiography. True Crime. Nonfiction. HTML:

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR:

Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Nonfiction | SCIBA Book Award Winner | Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence

The haunting true story of the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California during the 70s and 80s, and of the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case�??which was solved in April 2018.

Introduction by Gillian Flynn �?� Afterword by Patton Oswalt

"A brilliant genre-buster.... Propulsive, can't-stop-now reading." �??Stephen King

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.

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. Utterly original and compelling, it has been hailed as a modern true crime classic�??one which fulfilled Michelle's dream: helping unmask the Golden

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary