100 Books That Defined the Decade
For good, for bad, for ugly.
Michelle McNamara, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (2018)
I love reading true crime, but I’ve always been aware of the fact that, as a reader, 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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Essential stats: McNamara’s posthumously published true crime book investigating the Golden State Killer was a #1 bestseller and remained on the list for 15 weeks. Oddly, right around the time of the book’s publication, authorities actually caught him. They claimed their success, decades after the murders, had nothing to do with McNamara’s book, but the rest of us weren’t too sure. At the very least, the book revitalized interest in the case at just the right time. HBO is developing the book as a docu-series.
Plus: It’s simply one of the most compelling true crime narratives of the decade.
Listen to an excerpt:
Emily Temple
Emily Temple is the managing editor at Lit Hub. Her first novel, The Lightness, was published by William Morrow/HarperCollins in June 2020. You can buy it here.
