I'll Be Gone in the Dark
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 is destined to become a true crime classic-and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.
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What you might want to know about I'll Be Gone in the Dark
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Reporter Michelle McNamara spent years chasing the unsolved Golden State Killer, working with retired detectives and online tipsters. She died before the case was solved. The book was finished from her files.
Yes. I'll Be Gone in the Dark is Michelle McNamara's nonfiction investigation of the Golden State Killer, who committed dozens of rapes and murders in California in the 1970s and 1980s. McNamara died in 2016 before completing the book; it was finished by her colleagues.
Yes. Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested in April 2018, two years after Michelle McNamara's death and shortly after the book was published. He pleaded guilty in 2020 to multiple counts of murder and rape.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark was written by Michelle McNamara, published in 2018 by Faber & Faber, Limited.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark is 416 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, I'll Be Gone in the Dark takes most readers 6 to 9 hours to finish.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark is a standalone novel by Michelle McNamara, not part of a series.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
