Don’t Turn Away from ‘The Dark’
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is a very compelling book by Michelle McNamara. Told through real life stories from victims and their families, the novel, tell the stories of victims of the Golden State Killer, who robbed, raped and murdered over 120 families throughout California from the mid-1970’s through the 1980’s. We are now four months into the modern investigation where the suspected serial murder and rapist is behind bars. Looking back over the events of the past few years, many media pundits, as well as actual investigators, point to this book for reopening interest into the cold case.
The book begins well enough, with a normal man, Drew, whose usual life is forever changed by the death of his sister-in-law, Manuela. The story returns to the days and years before, exploring the lives of the family, Manuela being a introverted business woman who marries Drew’s quiet, older brother, David. There is discussion of their closeness, as well as the things that divide them. Then in intricate detail. McNamara unravels the tale of the night Manuela was murdered. How David found his way to being hospitalized just before night in question. And how all the changes in Manuela’s normal life, though some very small, still ended with the her being sexually assaulted, and then killed. Finally, Drew must grapple with the idea his sister-in-law may have been killed by her own husband, his brother. However, not much is put into this theory, as one crime scene investigator, Jim White, had seen this sort of scene once before. He knows that the mess that lays before him is the work of another man, who, in the future, will be known as The Golden State Killer. All of this, happening in the first ten pages.
McNamara begins each “chapter,” each attack, each story, the same way. Each begins with someone from the outside – a family member, friend, or neighbor – living out their normal lives, before falling upon the crime scene. Each story consists of interviews from survivors and those close to the victims. This weaves an intricate picture. The reader feels that these are real people, and in a few short pages, they may even become sympathetic with the subject of the story.
She tells details about the deeper personal lives of the victims, to make them human, as compared to statistics that one may see them as, had they been looking online. From there, the interviews dive deep enough to tell the colors of the wall and doors, and the daily routines that were horrifically disturbed. There is a true feeling of atmosphere to each situation. The reader feels as if they are in the home of one of the victims from the 1970’s or 80’s while having the knowledge of the impending doom, with no way to warn the subject.
Another piece of the process are the interviews with crime scene investigators and detectives. This is how McNamara puts together details from scene to scene. A lot of evidence can be found in the police report, but many little details, such as: footprint size, or the order in which actions are done, or even the objects taken and used as weapons – are discovered through interviews with actual investigators from the time. They are used as a common thread for the reader to follow from story to story.
It is with this thread that McNamara forms the structure of her novel. The events are not told in chronological order, as is the case with most novels of this type. They are told off of the back of some of the information discovered in the previous “chapter”. This creates the feeling of a detective, seeing what the author wants us to see, and identifying the little fallacies and intricacies of our criminal, that before went unnoticed.
McNamara’s goal is to act as a makeshift detective. She compiles evidence and interviews from dozens of victims, their families, and authorities to make the book as vivid as possible. But, this is also a hint as to what she actually trying to accomplish. Only by going through these police files and interviews, and with some careful examination, McNamara is able to she is able spot the consistencies between attacks. She went to police departments and crime scenes in multiple counties, each out of the others’ jurisdiction, to find connections that authorities of yesteryear never bothered follow up or examine. All of this, is done as a way for modern authorities, and avid readers, to understand the intricacies that were overlooked when this crime spree was first investigated.
Part Two consists of this careful examination. The stories have been filtered out to the common threads. The officers pursue the suspect. Each one is more likely than the last, but none are the suspect in question. However, as the story moves to Part Three, we are met with the realization that Michelle McNamara has passed away, herself. The victim of an accidental cocktail of prescription pills. The only piece of herself she truly leaves in the final third of the book is her “Letter to an Old Man,” pleading with him to finally show his face, and quit hiding behind his own doors and fences. The final section is summed by those that she worked closest with. This is the most analytical, or uninteresting part, as the stories have disappeared. These people are not writers, and seek only to triangulate the last possible suspect. They also leave questions open, in the hopes that someone tries to answer them, and complete the book that Michelle McNamara could not finish… which they have.
Whether or not Michelle McNamara revealed who The Golden State Killer was within her words, I won’t say. I will say, however, that this book is worth reading. The entire book is worth reading, if only to find out if the characters from the first section get their due justice. Speaking specifically of myself, this is the area that was the most fascinating to read, and it was worth the price of purchase alone. Although, many questions have been answered, and some may emerge in the coming months or years, I highly recommend finding this book online or on the shelves.
Good overall, Riley. Does McNamara explain why she took up these cases in the first place? Did she know someone who was affected by the GSK? Some follow-up for the second graf also seems relevant. Was her book related to the capture of DeAngelo? Did the book inspire the police to open cold cases?
Good on “how” she went about her investigation.