That summer I hunted the serial killer at night from my daughters playroom. For the most part I mimicked the bedtime routine of a normal person. Teeth brushed. Pajamas on. But after my husband and daughter fell asleep, Id retreat to my makeshift workspace and boot up my laptop, that fifteen-inch-wide hatch of endless possibilitiesI rarely moved but I leaped decades with a few keystrokes. Yearbooks. Marriage certificates. Mug shots. I scoured thousands of pages of 1970s-era police files. I pored over autopsy reports. That I should do this surrounded by a half-dozen stuffed animals and a set of miniature pink bongos didnt strike me as unusual. Id found my searching place, as private as a rats maze. Every obsession needs a room of its own. Mine was strewn with coloring paper on which Id scribbled down California penal codes in crayon. - from the prologueIll Be Gone in the Dark is not just a tale of a decade-long crime spree, of a maddeningly elusive peeper, burglar, rapist, and murderer. It is not only a tale of obsession, as the author, and others with her particular inclination, bury themselves in the forensic, statistical, genetic, and geographical trail left by this relentless offender. It is a story as well of how some dedicated active and retired police, and private citizens worked hand in hand to try to track down a homicidal monster. It is also a story of the impact that monster had on the communities he terrorized and on how advances in technology over several decades shortened the distance between suspicion and apprehension. Michelle McNamara hard at work - image from The Times - provided to them by Patton OswaltMcNamara had always wanted to be a writer, but she gained some focus on what to write as a teen.[Her] fascination with the grisly began when she was just 14, when a young woman named Kathleen Lombardo, whom McNamara knew from church, was murdered while jogging a block and a half away from McNamaras home in Oak Park, Illinois. The man who slit Lombardos throat was never found. McNamara would be forever haunted by what shed later describe as the specter of that question mark where the killers face should be. - From Vulture articleShe takes us along with her, introducing readers to three general groups of people, the victims, the professional investigators, and her small band of amateur sleuths. These are not deep profiles, but we are given enough about each to understand their roles in the ongoing drama, and their motivation. Contra Costa County Sheriffs Office sketches of a masked man who had fled a crime scene in 1979 and an artists impression of the killer image from The TimesThe first crimes took place in the 1970s, the last known GSK crime was committed in 1986. He began with simple burglaries, dozens of them, enough to earn a tabloid name, The Ransacker, then moved on to rape. One of his victims was thirteen. The tabloids called him the East Area Rapist (EAR) and the Original Night Stalker (ONS), often merging the two to EAR-ONS. He was nearly caught after one couple resisted, so, to ensure not only compliance, but that there would be no witnesses, he moved on to homicide. His home invasions were well planned, professionally executed, and particularly cruel. It was not enough to rape women. He made many of the women tie up their husbands or boyfriends, and forced them to watch him commit the rape. He had a signature technique for monitoring whether the male victims moved. Movement, they were told, would get their partner killed. And sometimes he killed them anyway, both of them. During her research, McNamara coined the GSK tag for him, the Golden State Killer.Attacks attributed to the GSK image from the Sacramento County DAs office by way of the NY TimesMcNamara takes us through not just the clues that accumulated over the years, but methodologies for looking into them. There is some very surprising information here on what happens to old police files. We follow along as new methods are added to tried and true shoe-leather investigation. There were two major technological breakthroughs over the four decades of the investigation. DNA fingerprinting was the first. And even once it was put into widespread use there were still problems with local police departments coordinating with other PDs. She walks us through how that changed. The other major item is what you are using right now, the internet. All the information in the world is useless without the ability to connect a fact here to a crime there. The internet, McNamara predicted, was what would eventually allow for the apprehension of the GSK. It is quite cheering when McNamara begins to connect with other cold-crime obsessives across the country, and they begin sharing theories, and sometimes actual evidence. It was an incredibly long investigation, and such projects come with some built-in risk.falling for a suspect is a lot like the first surge of blind love in a relationship. Focus narrows to a single face. The world and its practical sounds are a wan soundtrack to the powerful silent biopic youre editing in your mind at all times. No amount of information on the object of your obsession is enough. You crave more. Always more. You note his taste in shoes and even drive by his house, courtesy of Google Maps. You engage in wild confirmation bias. You project. A middle-aged white man smiling and cutting a cake decorated with candles in a picture posted on Facebook isnt celebrating his birthday, but holding a knife.As with the infamous Kitty Genovese incident in 1964, how people react not just to crime but to neighborhood security in general comes in for some scrutiny here.Thats what we all do. All of us. We make well-intentioned promises of protection we cant always keep.Ill look out for you.But then you hear a scream and you decide its some teenagers playing around. A young man jumping a fence is taking a shortcut. The gunshot at three a.m. is a firecracker or a car backfiring. You sit up in bed for a startled moment. Awaiting you is the cold, hard floor and a conversation that may lead nowhere: you collapse onto your warm pillow, and turn back to sleep.Sirens wake you later. People did react in some ways. Sacramento saw a spate of residents trimming trees and uprooting bushes to deny cover to the GSK, installing floodlighting, reinforcing doors, sleeping with hammers under pillows, and buying thousands of guns. Victim support groups formed, some of the victimized men joining neighborhood patrols. Community safety meetings were packed. There were some positive impacts from GSKs dark deeds, though. The case had a profound impact not just on fear and public safety in California, but also on the way that rapes were investigated and how rape victims were treated, said Carol Daly, a detective in the Sacramento County Sheriffs Office at the timeRape victims were seen and cared for faster, and pubic hair, scratches and other evidence were examined and preserved, she said. Rape kits were standardized. Every victim went through the process, she said. - From 4/25/18 NY TIMES articleWhen my wife was reading this book, some time ago, she became a bit paranoid safety conscious, jumping at small unexpected sounds, then wanting to investigate (in a house with as many cats as we have, unexpected noises are abundant) making extra certain that our windows and doors were locked, watching a tick or two longer than usual at people passing by (living next door to a pizzeria, they are legion), keeping the lights on a bit longer than usual when going to bed. Point being that the book, while hardly a horror novel, can indeed induce a serious case of jitters. And why not? The nutter of which McNamara writes was not caught during the decades investigators private and professional worked the case. He was still on the loose when McNamara passed away, McNamaras writing skills are considerable. She keeps the narrative moving, slickly evading the potential peril of death by excessive detail. She reports on some of the gore the GSK generated, but not too much, not nearly as much as she might have. She has an ability to clarify the forensics, while keeping us in touch with the terrors experienced by the victims, and the hopes and frustrations of the diverse posse on the GSKs trail. Occasionally a particular passage or turn of phrase will make you sit back and sigh in appreciation, but the narrative chugs on and each particular gem is allowed to please, then recede into the rearview. The pair who took on the task of completing the book when McNamara died retrieved some fine samples from her notes. For example, He was a compulsive prowler and searcher. We, who hunt him, suffer from the same affliction. He peered through windows. I tap return. Return. Return. Click Mouse click, mouse clickThe hunt is the adrenaline rush, not the catch. Hes the fake shark in Jaws, barely seen so doubly feared.McNamara died in her sleep, in April, 2016, at age 46, from a combination of drugs interacting with an undiagnosed medical condition that caused a blockage in her arteries. She had been stressed out from working on this book, putting in long hours and suffering anxiety and nightmares that kept her from sleeping. Her husband engaged researcher Paul Haynes and investigative journalist Billy Jensen to complete the book McNamara had worked on for so long, and with such dedication. A week after Michelles death, we gained access to her hard drive and began exploring her files on the Golden State Killer. All 3,500 of them. That was on top of dozens of notebooks, the legal pads, the scraps of paper, and thousands of digitized pages of police reports. And the thirty-seven boxes of files she had received from the Orange County prosecutor, which Michelle lovingly dubbed the Mother Lode.The GSK burglarized more than 120 homes, raped dozens of women, killed at least ten people, and at least one dog during the 1970s and 1980s. We do not know how many people he drove mad in their decades-long inability to find him, or how many lives were ruined as a result of his crimes. The good news is that in April 2018, only a few months after the publication of Michelle McNamaras book, a 72-year-old man, Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested, based on DNA evidence. The Golden State Killer is finally in jail. He had not killed anyone in thirty years, as far as we know, but it is in the nature of such sprees to have a strong impact long after the events themselves. Meg Gardiner, who grew up in Santa Barbara, in one of DeAngelos target neighborhoods, tells of the experience of terror during the period of the killers mayhem. Yesterday my brother texted: I have a different feeling driving around the neighborhood today. It was always in the back of my mind that he could still be living around here. In a weird way it feels safer.It does. The fear is gone. But the shadows remain.So does Michelle McNamaras work, her legacy, a major contribution to finally locking up a long-sought monster.HBO has bought the rights and plans to develop Ill Be Gone in the Dark into a documentary mini-series.Joseph James DeAngelo, 72 believed to be the Golden State Killer image from Sacramento County Sheriffs OfficeReview posted June 15, 2018Publication date February 27, 2018=============================EXTRA STUFFAn excerpt of the book, from The Times-----How to catch a serial killer from your bedroom: DIY detective Michelle McNamara pursued a notorious murderer without leaving the houseMcNamara includes as an epigraph the poem Crime Club, by Weldon Kees, a paean to amateur sleuthsBefore she took on this book project, McNamaras ran a true-crime blog, True Crime DiaryPaul Haynes at TwitterArticles you will want to read-----October 26, 2016 NY Times - Patton Oswalt: Ill Never Be at 100 Percent Again - an interview - on how he is coping with the loss of his wife by Jason Zinoman-----February 28, 2018 Vulture - My Friend Michelle McNamara, the Crime Writer Gone in the Dark - by Kera Bolonik a beautiful remembrance by a long-time friend-----April 25, 2018 NY Times - Michelle McNamara Died Pursuing the Golden State Killer. Her Husband, Patton Oswalt, Has Questions for Him. - by Alexandra Alter hours after the GSK is arrested Oswalt, the two people hed hired to complete her book, along with members of Ms. McNamaras family were together at an event for the book in Chicago -----April 25, 2018 NY Times - Search for Golden State Killer Leads to Arrest of Ex-Cop-----April 25, 2018 Slate - How Did Police Find the Golden State Killer Suspect? Michelle McNamaras Researcher Has a Hunch. - by Laura Miller-----April 26, 2018 Sacramento Bee - Relative's DNA from genealogy websites cracked East Area Rapist case, DA's office says - by Sam Stanton and Ryan Lillis----- May 3, 2016 - Time Magazine - Patton Oswalt Remembers His Wife, Michelle McNamara: 'She Steered Her Life With Joyous, Wicked Curiosity - By Patton Oswalt -----May 4, 2018 Signature Reads by novelist Meg Gardiner - Growing Up in Santa Barbara While the Golden State Killer Was at Large-----June 27, 2018 - NY Times - Genealogists Turn to Cousins DNA and Family Trees to Crack Five More Cold Cases - by Heather Murphy-----August 29, 2018 - NY Times - She Helped Crack the Golden State Killer Case. Heres What Shes Going to Do Next. - by Heather Murphy - on Barbara Rae-Venter, a lawyer with expertise in genetic sleuthing, whose work was crucial to the work that identified the killerHarper has a series of podcasts for this book on Soundcloud that are very worth checking out-----Preview-----Episode 1-----Episode 2-----Episode 3

Michelle McNamara was obsessed with the subject of this book. She believed that by using modern technology, a rapist and killer could finally be brought to justice.She created maps and chased leads. She ran a true crime blog and this was one of her topics.It haunted her. Then, tragically, Michelle died before this masterwork could be completed.Her fellow researchers put I'll Be Gone in the Dark together from her notes. It is a chilling but thorough portrait of the perpetrator of a series of unsolved crimes.It also includes some autobiographical chapters to explain Michelle's obsession with the man she named, "The Golden State Killer," but also why she loves writing.She writes about why she couldn't stop researching and examines her complicated relationship with her mother: "No one would have taken more joy from this book than my mother. And I probably wouldn't have felt the freedom to write it until she was gone." pg 41It is an amazing book. And, I believe, it has enough details that, if someone who reads this book knew that guy, he will be brought to justice at last.He pointed a knife at her and issued a chilling warning: "Make one move and you'll be silent forever and I'll be gone in the dark." pg 61Gillian Flynn writes a stellar introduction: "I've always thought the least appreciated aspect of a great true crime writer is humanity. Michelle McNamara had an uncanny ability to get into the minds of not just killers but the cops who hunted them, the victims they destroyed, and trail of grieving relatives left behind." Introduction.This killer, whoever he is, is terrifying not only for the carnage he left, but the meticulous way he planned and carried out the murders.He was organized and unhinged, as compared to other murderers whose passion and disorganization are their downfall: "It's a tiny minority of criminals, maybe 5 percent, who present the bigger challenge- the ones whose crimes reveal pre-planning and unremorseful rage." pg 14I read this book in one sitting. It is that compelling.But I paid for it during the night. Each creak, any small sound in the house and my heart would leap into my throat."He's here," my over-active imagination declared. "This is the end."It made it all too easy to understand the terror the murderer inflicted on his victims and the community he plagued. Multiple states away and decades removed from the crimes and I was petrified as well.Recommended for brave readers, fans of true crime and anyone who wants to help solve an unsolved mystery.

"You'll be silent forever, and I'll be gone in the dark."In this book McNamara gives an unflinching account of the Golden State Killer, the mysterious boogeyman who burgled, raped and murdered his way through California. This book was divided into three parts; Book 1, details of the crimes and the victims: Book 2, details of the investigators (from forensic scientists, detectives, criminologists and witnesses) and the investigation: Book 3, covers further profiling such as geographic (this part was written by McNamara's researchers after she had died). This book also included an amazing introduction by Gillian Flynn and such a thoughtful and heartfelt afterword by Patten Oswald, Michelle McNamara's husband.This true crime book was fantastic! Probably one of the best I have ever read, and one I've been recommending to everyone. This book is informational without being boring. McNamara does a brilliant job at humanising the case and respecting both the victims, their families and the towns shook by terror. She gives names of the police and victims, and describes and paints their personality onto paper so that you can imagine their ordeal and the frightening encounters they have had to endure. Another good thing about the book is that this is entirely comprehensive- especially to a lay person. McNamara does a great job at explaining the technological aspects of the case and DNA profiling, without going into too much scientific detail, but provides you with the basics of how it works. She shows how this helped the case progress, linking crimes to so many different areas over California. One of the chapters that had me completely gripped was called "The One", this explored how there were certain suspects that linked up to so many of the crimes... but the DNA didn't match, and McNamara details the disappointment from investigators after pouring their energy into catching this offender.It was also helpful how McNamara incorporated the map of California in the first few pages, with notes on the side following most of the crimes. As someone who does not know much about the geography of California, this really helped me form an understanding of the geographical timeline of the rapes and murders and how they all linked up.As someone who didn't know anything about these crimes, it was fascinating to learn more about the investigation into this mysterious, awful murderer. I found this book completely fascinating, and as someone who has read a lot of true crime and studied forensic psychology, I really enjoyed it!I think McNamara does a brilliant job at describing her own obsession with the case and the lengths that people go to when researching, whether this be officer's on the case officially or people at home interested in the case. I liked learning about geographical profiling and learning of all the different theories purported by researcher's and investigator's alike (for example, the killer using a plane).While I loved this book, I really wish that Michelle McNamara was alive today to see how greatly received her work has been and how it has sparked a new generation of investigators into crime. I would've loved to have seen her witness the case unfold and the catching of the killer. I agree with Gillian Flynn in that I think Michelle McNamara would've been a great person to know and be friends with, as I myself have delved into the obsession of understanding a criminal's mind, and it would've been great to discuss and hear more from her. This book was completely engrossing and intriguing and really got the heart pumping. I was addicted to learning about the Golden State Killer and the surrounding investigation.McNamara has a special ability in her writing by drawing you into the investigation and ensnares you, so that you become a detective yourself, formulating your own theories and putting pieces of the puzzle together. I feel like I need to read this again in the future just to absorb and uncover more details!

FIVE THINGS I LIKED ABOUT ILL BE GONE IN THE DARK (AND FIVE THINGS I DIDNT)By now, most everyone knows that police have, decades after he killed more than a dozen people and raped more than 50, found and arrested the alleged Golden State Killer, the subject of this true crime book by Michelle McNamara.Its a phenomenal story, and Im sure there will be an expanded edition* when the book comes out in paperback. (Its also currently being made into an HBO documentary.) The sad thing is, McNamara never got to hear about it; indeed, she didnt even get to finish this book. She died of an undiagnosed heart condition in April 2016, at the age of 46. The book was completed by her researchers.But eerily, in the epilogue, Letter To An Old Man, McNamara addresses the (at the time) unknown killer, warning him that through Familial DNA matches he would eventually be caught. Thats exactly what led to Joseph DeAngelos arrest.And what of the book itself? At times I loved it; at others, I didnt. Part of it has to do with the books incompleteness, of course. But thats all I had to go on.THINGS I LIKED1. The writingIm not an avid true crime reader, but McNamara obviously was, and the sections in which she recounts the grisly murders of the killers victims are harrowing, but never in an exploitative way. It requires talent to take facts from witness accounts, evidence and news stories and confidently present narratives persuasively and effectively. Thanks to McNamaras writing, I will never look at a sliding glass door in the same way again. And while reading the book, there were a couple of nights where I came home to my empty condo and thought: Could someone be in the room right now and I wouldnt know it? Totally spooked me out.2. The reason for the writers obsessionEarly on, McNamara tells us how she got interested in true crime. When she was a child, a girl had been killed and left in an alley two blocks from her home. Yes, that would do it...3. How Michelles obsession affects her entire lifeWhile the book is mostly an account of the complex details of the killers work, with many theories about who he was, why he did what he did and where he lived (Id never heard of the concept of geographical profiling until reading this), its also a look at how working on the book affected the authors life. The prologue starts: That summer I hunted the serial killer at night from my daughters playroom. On her laptop in the same room where her daughter played, she would try to track down details about horrendous deaths and a twisted killer. Imagine what that must do to your psyche.And one of the most powerful sections comes when McNamaras husband, the actor/stand-up comic/writer Patton Oswalt gives her two anniversary gifts related to her hunt for the killer; she, in turn, has forgotten their anniversary altogether because of her obsession. 4. The glimpse into small California townsThe places the Golden State Killer attacked werent huge sprawling metropolises like Los Angeles but rather smaller towns that are less familiar: Irvine; San Ramon; Danville; Davis; Walnut Creek; Goleta; Ventura. The book fills you in on many of these suburban tracts. (The killer favoured houses that backed onto fields or empty lots, or were the second last house from a corner - easy access. He often climbed over fences and spent a lot of time, unobserved, studying his future victims through windows.)5. Watching the DetectiveA lot of the book is taken up with a big mystery, one the author felt could be solved if only she found the right clue, dug up an ignored report, talked to the right surviving witness. Through it all, we learn a lot about how people do their jobs. For the longest time, because of a lack of sharing between regional police departments, there wasnt even a connection between rapes/break-ins in one area and rapes/break-ins in another. (The Golden State Killer, a term McNamara coined, was called different things, including the East Area Rapist and the Night Stalker.) It is absorbing to witness this level of detection. THINGS I DIDNT LIKE1. The book can get bogged down in detailsSometimes McNamara doesnt see the forest for the trees. 2. There are a lot of people involvedBecause the story spans decades and crosses various geographical lines, people pop up, disappear for a while, and then come back. McNamara doesnt have simply one or two characters (except herself, of course) to focus on. Consequently, it can get confusing, even with a chart of characters at the front. 3. The book feels patchyThis is definitely a result of the author dying before publication. The story will often stop and say something like: [EDITORS NOTE: The following chapter was pieced together from Michelles notes.] Theres even one transcript between Michelle and an investigator that has simply been transcribed, banalities and all. 4. The personal material isnt consistently integratedAgain, this is something that probably would have been fixed had McNamara worked with an editor to shape the book in its latter stages. But I wish there had been a separate arc that her personal life took while she was recounting her investigation into the Golden State Killer. 5. There is no endingBut of course, now that the alleged killer has been caught, there is. So I hope the publishers clean up the current edition and give the book a satisfying conclusion* that honours McNamaras huge efforts as well as the memories of all the families of the victims.*Now that I think about it, perhaps the book will need to be overhauled. At any rate, more books will be written about the killer, and they will likely draw heavily on this book. So in the end McNamara achieved her goal.

5, well I'll be sleeping with a baseball bat forever now stars!!!Everyday I'm feeling fine,Drinking wine,Forever reading true crimeThis starts with an introduction by juggernaut thriller author Gillian Flynn and ends with a heartbreaking and beautiful epilogue by McNamara's husband and esteemed actor Patton Oswalt. What happens in-between was pure, unadulterated journalistic *magic*. Writing this now, Im struck by two incompatible truths that pain me. No one would have taken more joy from this book than my mother. And I probably wouldnt have felt the freedom to write it until she was gone.While on its surface, this is a story about an elusive burglar, rapist, and murderer dubbed the Golden State Killer - at its heart, it's really a look inside the life and mind of its author: Michelle McNamara. We're given intimate details about the crimes committed by GSK (whom we now know is Joseph DeAngelo) and are walked chronologically through the escalation and the atrocities he reaped upon the Sacramento area over a decade-long crime-spree. Spliced in between these horrendous retellings we're given insight into McNamara. Who she is as a person, where her obsessive nature comes from, how it was ultimately refined to true-crime. Her passion for the work she does is evident throughout the entirety of this read and it's impossible not to be swept up into the sheer magnitude of research and dedication she put into this masterpiece. The victims recede from view. Their rhythm is off, their confidence drained. Theyre laden with phobias and made tentative by memory. Divorce and drugs beset them. Statutes of limitations expire. Evidence kits are tossed for lack of room. What happened to them is buried, bright and unmoving, a coin at the bottom of a pool. They do their best to carry on.What really struck me here was the accessibility of McNamara's voice. When you're dealing in such raw, gruesome and heart-rending facts it's easy to get lost in the sensationalism of it all. So much of true-crime is this in-your-face, all about ratings, how many jaws can we get to drop type of business that the humanity of those affected is lost. McNamara did not falter in this regard even once. She dealt in pure facts and maintained a clear and deep respect for the victims, the police officers, and the communities this criminal terrorized. "I dont care if Im the one who captures him. I just want bracelets on his wrists and a cell door slamming behind him.It is certainly very interesting having read this book after DeAngelo has now been caught and knowing how easy it would've been for him to just slip through the cracks and live the rest of his life a free man. I think it shows who McNamara was as a person that despite her deep obsession with this case she simply wanted him caught. She didn't need fame or fortune or to be involved -in the end, she just wanted justice. It leaves a sad aura around me knowing that she will not get to see the praise and reception she has received and that we've lost such a truly talented voice in investigative journalism. I completed this as a Traveling Friends read and it is incredible how many people have their own stories of seemingly normal people we later find out have committed heinous crimes. This makes a fantastic buddy read as there are endless opportunities to discuss. However, if I can give future readers one piece of advice: don't read this alone, at night or you'll be gone in the dark too. Cheers to Michelle McNamara and a true work of art.