I'll Be Gone in the Dark

Nothing much I can say about this that hasn't been said before, but I'm glad I finally read it (or listened to it, as it were). It is profoundly sad that McNamara did not get to live a long, full life for a multitude of reasons, one of which is that the world is deprived of her insight and talent. Even for non-fans of true crime like myself (I prefer my horror fictionalized, as that's much less scary and easier to deal with), the parts of the book that she wrote were engaging.

While it's telling that my favorite parts were more concerned with McNamara's life - especially her relationship with her mother, and the events that inspired her lifelong obsession with true crime - it still speaks to her way with words. She knew when to be direct and when to wax poetic, and had a certain tact and humanity that is sorely missing from many true crime narratives.

It also broke my heart to listen to Patton Oswalt's afterword. How bittersweet that McNamara's legacy lives on through not only the attention she brought to the GSK, but also in the deductive young mind of her daughter.

Overall, the book suffers in the last third, due to McNamara's untimely death, but the other sections were strong enough that I feel comfortable bumping what would be a 3-star read into a 4/5.