I’ll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara is a nonfiction piece that showcases the years of work and dedication McNamara pored into solving the infamous “Golden State Killer” case. This book is jam packed of factual information that attempts to piece together the decade long spree of violent murders and sexual assaults in the Golden State area that occurred more than 30 years ago, all committed by the same unknown person.

Michelle McNamara was a true crime journalist who started her own website to help solve cold cases like this, TrueCrimeDiary.com. She spent hours bent over police reports, photographs, victim interviews, potential evidence, and anything that may point her in the right direction. She was resourceful, persistent and determined on her hunt to track down the man responsible for more than 10 sadistic murders and 50 violent sexual assaults. Unfortunately, she passed away suddenly during her investigation.

I can’t decide if I would have enjoyed this book more had I not known that the Golden State Killer was convicted just this year. I wish McNamara would have lived to see him put behind bars, as she dedicated her life to this case. I do believe her work did not go unnoticed and she contributed a great deal of insight to detectives.

I rated this a 3.5 stars rounded up to 4; I thought it was very interesting and extremely well-researched. It was unbelievable that so much evidence was pointing to the same person guilty of committing these crimes, yet no one could find him/charge him. Due to the heavy amount of research and first-hand accounts, I found it to be a tad boring and repetitive. Non-fiction isn’t a genre I find myself grabbing as a first pick to read, but between the positive praise for the book and the conviction just this year, I was curious.

Not bad, but not amazing (in my opinion). If you’re a history or true crime buff, this is right up your alley.