First Impression Friday | I’ll Be Gone in the Dark

Welcome to another First Impression Friday. In case this is your first time, here’s the rundown:

• Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions
and predict what you’ll think by the end.
• Did you think you’d love and ended up hating it? Or did you think
you’d hate it and wound up loving it? Or were you exactly right?
• Link back to Storeys of Stories so I can enjoy reading all the
First Impression Fridays out there!

Let’s talk about I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara.

“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.”

Books of these kind always fill be with a certain kind of terror. Not for the people in the story, and if they will die or not. But the terror of realizing what some actual human beings are capable of. A lot of the criminals discussed in similar books, and especially the ones in this book, are more depraved and evil than 99% of ‘bad guys’ in fiction stories. Literally the kind of thing that makes someone say, “You can’t make this shit up.”

That may make it sound like I’m not enjoying this book, but I am. A lot. It’s tough to put down, especially when you get to thick of a particular crime or theory. That being said, it is non-fiction, which is normally a bit slower than fiction.

My Prediction: 4 stars.

Fun fact about this post: This true crime, non-fiction book, originally fell onto my radar because of the late author’s husband, who is one of my favourite comedians. Regardless how I got here, I’m enjoying it.