NetGalley ARC | I Know Who You Are

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating | ⭐⭐⭐

I asbolutely loved I'll be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara. Her dedication to solving the case was admirable and I wish she could have lived to see the results. For four decades the identity of the Golden State Killer was a mystery but thanks to so many who worked hours on leads and clues, he was finally unmasked as Joseph DeAngelo. He was responsible for dozens of rapes, murders, and robberies and terrorized the cities in which he lived.

I was interested to read this one, then, because the whole investigation fascinates me. Many people had crucial roles in finally figuring out that DeAngelo was responsible for so much trauma and terror.

The author is billed as an amateur but that is a bit misleading. She may have started out by researching her own family history, but that evolved into her becoming one of the top investigators of genetic geneology in the country.

While the title indicates one case, we are actually shown several that the author has worked on over the years. Some have happy endings for families but many do not. GSK is also not her only cold case, and I feel that her work is so important to help bring closure to families.

On the other hand though, we have to consider the expectation of privacy through these geneology sites where so many have submitted samples to. The work the author does is absolutely not covered in the terms of agreement on these sites, which leads to complex arguments about the pros and cons of using them as an investigative tool. It is not nearly as simple as the author makes it out to be and we have to tread very carefully here.

We see the process the author uses for each case as she discusses at length all that goes into it. First there is the need for a usable DNA sample. With that, she also has to search for all kinds of documents such as birth/death/marriage records, obituaries, and more. She works with teams of law enforcement agencies and attorneys to provide as much information as possible.

Given all of this, I should have loved this book. But I didn't and it took me ages to read, hence only three stars. The jumping around in time was frustrating and I think the cases would have been better served by keeping one case per chapter. I get that the GSK case was something bigger than some of the others she worked on, but the writing just felt so chaotic with the jumping around. She weaves around from topic to topic, back and forth in time, and gives plenty of unrelated anecdotes and things from her personal life. These things were distractions and unnecessary.

I also think the issue of privacy needed to be explored more thoroughly. At times it felt like the author was quite dismissive of this expectation if it was for the greater good of crimes being solved. But what about those who have nothing to do with the crimes that don't wish to be found? Her focus is solely solving these cases, which is important work, but for those not wanting to be involved, it is unfair to force them to be.

Overall this would be of interest for those who are captivated by the technology and seeing how it is used in a variety of cases. If you are looking only for more info on the Golden State Killer case and his crimes, you will be underwhelmed.