Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

True Crime Bringing Lives to Light

I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

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Michelle McNamara’s I’ll be Gone in the Dark about the Golden State Killer (previously known as the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker) is certainly a true crime book about a vicious murderer and his victims. But it is also a story of investigators who never give up, anonymous internet detectives poring over evidence, and McNamara herself, a compassionate writer with a mind like a knife. It is a different kind of tragedy that McNamara died before her book was published and before they found the […]

Long Process, Fast DNA

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When I was contemplating subscribing to Scribd’s audio book library, the book that sold me was Michelle McNamara’s I’ll Be Gone In The Dark. I expected to enjoy listening to the book, narrated by Gabri Zachman, I did not expect the book to make me miss my mother and cry. She was both proud of the fact that she had raised a strong-minded daughter and resentful of my sharp opinions.“ That dichotomy was my relationship with my mother and I did not expect to hear […]

An excellent account of horrendous events

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In lieu of the recent arrest in Sacramento, California of the East Area Rapist/Original Nightstalker/Golden State Killer and the hopes that the genealogical studies that led to his arrest could be used to discover the identity of the Zodiac Killer, I felt compelled to read about another serial killer who seemingly retired from terrorizing his community so that he could live a normal life. Both EAR/ONS and BTK because it’s utterly mind-boggling that this happens, and runs counter to the narrative usually put out there […]

“I am actively choosing to be a consumer of someone else’s tragedy. So like any responsible consumer, I try to be careful in the choices I make. I read only the best: writers who are dogged, insightful, and humane.”

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I was floored by this book. I’m glad that I was able to sit and read it over the course of one day, to really sink into it and give it my full attention. Yesterday my region was hit by our fourth nor’easter of the month (seriously, I’m ready for second winter and March to find the exit) and since my job often makes us come into work in terrible weather conditions, and I live in a pretty inaccessible place, I spend most snow days […]

Thoughtful, well-written, and well researched, but may be unfulfilling for many

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Believe it or not, I haven’t disappeared. This is actually my fifteenth book this year, but the ten unreviewed books are part of a series that I’ll probably be reading for the rest of the year. But I needed a break, so I jumped on this. I picked up I’ll Be Gone in the Dark having no knowledge of who the writer was, or the specifics around the case. In fact, it wasn’t until about halfway through the book that I even realized this was […]

This is as much a self-portrait of an obsessive mind as it is a true crime book.

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I will not let this review defeat me! I will not! I have so much to say about this book I don’t know how to organize it, and I’m still not sure what I’m going to rate it even as I type this; and I’m still freaked out by it, and still sad, and I want the Golden State Killer caught, but what if he’s dead?? If he’s dead, we’re never going to catch him!! ARGGGGh. Okay, so I’ve been looking forward to this book […]



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