Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The search for the Golden State Killer

I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara

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I was looking for a good audiobook for my commute when I saw I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2018) by Michelle McNamara was available. I remember reading some reviews from Cannonball when this book first came out. I was intrigued, but true crime is not really my thing–I don’t do well with violence, especially real violence–so I gave it a pass at the time. But I was still interested years later, and listening to it on audiotape seemed like a good compromise. Since the murder of […]

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 […]

I couldn’t finish it

I'll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara

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This book was everywhere and I love Patton Oswald and it’s really well written, I just couldn’t. It’s true crime, and true crime and I don’t mix – I’m too squeamish. Lord knows why, but I keep trying. I listened to half an episode of My Favorite Murderer before I nope-d right out of there. A full series podcast came out about a recent local crime and I don’t think I lasted five minutes. These are horrible things that actually happened to real people and […]

A new chapter for a brilliant piece of crime journalism

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CBR 10 Bingo: So Shiny! Bingo #3! On April 24, 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested and charged with eight counts of first-degree murder by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. Santa Barbara County would soon follow with four additional murder charges. The man widely known as the Golden State Killer, thought to be responsible for at least 13 murders and over 50 rapes spanning the 1970s and 80s, had finally been caught. No doubt the families of the victims felt some degree of comfort and […]

It’s Chaos. Be Kind.

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Oh man, I am so far behind on my Bingo reviews! I’m going to try really hard to get them all in by the 30th without shortchanging the books. So, here we go. I chose this one as my “Home Something Home” book because, well, I needed to fill the square and I found a slightly sick kind of irony in a book about a serial killer falling into this category. I actually grew up probably around 5 miles or so from at least three, […]

I’m still hoping he hears that cell door slamming behind him, and I’m hoping she somehow does too…

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cbr10bingo…Cannonballer Says I remember hearing or reading something about this book back in April of this year, because that’s when aggregate DNA from family tree / ancestry sites matched the killer’s DNA to an actual person.  I’ve always been intrigued by serial killers, and I’ve been reading true crime books since high school.  That’s really what drew me in, Michelle partially wrote this book, then passed away, then her husband and another author finished it, it was released, and then through a totally different process, […]



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