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

THE BASIS FOR THE MAJOR 6-PART HBO® DOCUMENTARY SERIES

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR:

Winner of the Goodreads Choice Awards for Nonfiction | Anthony Award Winner | SCIBA Book Award Winner | Finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime | 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 State Killer.

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371 pages

Average rating: 7.38

392 RATINGS

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grldchz

Jan 26, 2025

8/10 stars

I started this book last week, read the first 75%, then a suspect confessed to these crimes on Monday. Weird timing. Kind of put a different spin on the last quarter of the book. McNamara's doggedness and voice still held up, though.

Anonymous

Jan 14, 2025

8/10 stars

It was too bad Michelle McNamara didnât get to finish this book. The parts written by her were very well written and really drew me into the narrative. I believe if she had been able to finish it herself it would have been tighter overall.

Shawna K88

Dec 29, 2024

6/10 stars

Anonymous

Dec 12, 2024

6/10 stars

juniper hayward take notes

spoko

Oct 21, 2024

10/10 stars

I don't typically read true-crime books, but this one was certainly riveting. (While listening to one of the early chapters on my daily commute, I completely blew past my exit and had to drive 15 extra miles. Didn't even notice I had missed it until about 10 minutes down the road.) Obviously the story itself is compelling, but McNamara's telling is the real draw. It's a shame she never finished it, because it does feel . . . incomplete. I would love to give it five stars, but it really does kind of peter out after the point where her writing ends.

I recommend it, but in a mixed way. That first part really is excellent. After that, as she talks more and more about her own pursuit of the killer's trail, my interest didn't flag. But I'm not sure why, so I don't know whether I'd expect others to stay with it as easily as I did. My sense is that there is something really good there, and I just don't yet have enough distance to identify it. So, yeah, I recommend it.

You should know going in that it's detailed (and thus pretty dark), which was almost enough to keep me from giving it a go. But if you can get through that, it's quite good.