Author Guide · True Crime
Books Written by
Michelle McNamara spent years at her laptop after midnight, cross-referencing police reports on a case that had been cold since the 1980s. She gave the man a name, the Golden State Killer, and the name stuck. She died in April 2016 with her book half finished. It was completed by others and published in February 2018, and two months later the police arrested a 72-year-old former officer. She wrote one book. This guide covers it, everything else she wrote that is not a book, and what to read next.
By Lisanne Swart · 1 book · True Crime Diary · Female authors · 2018 · Updated September 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Michelle McNamara wrote one book: I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, published by HarperCollins in February 2018, almost two years after her death. People often search for her books in the plural because of everything around it: her blog True Crime Diary, her 2013 article for Los Angeles Magazine, and the HBO documentary series of 2020. There is no second book, and no sequel.
Where to Start with Michelle McNamara
If you want the book
→ I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018). There is only one.
If you want to try her first
→ “In the Footsteps of a Killer” (2013), about twenty pages, free online.
If you would rather watch
→ The HBO series (2020), but read the book first: it is hers, and the series is not.
If you have read it and want more
→ Paul Holes's Unmasked (2022), by the investigator she interviews in the book.
If you want true crime written with the same care
→ My guide to Iris Chang, or the best investigative journalism books.
The One Book Michelle McNamara Wrote
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
Part cold-case investigation, part memoir of an obsession. McNamara reconstructs a series of attacks across California between 1974 and 1986, works through decades of case files with a network of amateur researchers, and keeps the victims, rather than the man who attacked them, at the centre of the book. She died with the manuscript unfinished; the researcher Paul Haynes and the crime writer Billy Jensen completed it, with an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt. Some chapters are polished and others are her raw notes and transcripts, and the seams are left visible. It spent more than eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and HBO made it into a six-part documentary series in 2020.
Read it for how she writes about the survivors. Be aware that it describes sexual violence and murder in detail throughout.
— LisanneHow Many Books Did Michelle McNamara Write?
One. Here is why it feels like more, and where the rest of her work lives.
- The book — I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018), unfinished at her death and completed by the researcher Paul Haynes and the writer Billy Jensen. Read the entry →
- The article — “In the Footsteps of a Killer”, Los Angeles Magazine, 2013. The book grew out of it, and it is still online.
- The blog — True Crime Diary, from 2006, where she wrote up more than a hundred unsolved cases. See the full list →
- The series — HBO's six-part I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2020), directed by Liz Garbus, which uses her own archive and her own words.
- No second book — there is no sequel and no unpublished manuscript waiting. What she left is in this one.
In What Order to Read Michelle McNamara
With one book there is no reading order, but there is a sequence that makes the book land harder.
The sequence I would follow
1. “In the Footsteps of a Killer” (2013)
2. I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018)
3. The afterword by Patton Oswalt, which is the last thing in the book and should stay there
4. The HBO series (2020), if you want to see her
Everything Else Michelle McNamara Wrote
One book, but not one piece of work. The magazine article that became it and the blog that made it possible are both worth reading, and two people who helped finish it went on to write books of their own.
Open a form with the + to see every book in it.
Her writing that is not a book
3
3 books · 2006–2016
- 2013“In the Footsteps of a Killer”her article for Los Angeles Magazine, where the name Golden State Killer first appeared in print, and the piece the book grew out of
- 2006–16True Crime Diaryher blog on unsolved cases, which built the network of amateur researchers she worked with; the site is archived rather than live
- 2006–16Articles for other magazinesshe also wrote on crime for outlets including The Los Angeles Times
Books that are often shelved with hers
2
2 books · 2019–2022
Chase Darkness with Me (2019)
By Billy Jensen, one of the two writers who finished her book; on solving cases as a journalist.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases (2022)
By Paul Holes, the investigator she interviewed in one of the book's most memorable sections.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
Quick facts about Michelle McNamara
- Born
- April 14, 1970, Oak Park, Illinois
- Died
- April 21, 2016, Los Angeles, aged 46
- Education
- University of Notre Dame (BA in English) and the University of Minnesota (MFA in creative writing)
- Married
- Patton Oswalt, comedian and actor, in 2005; they had one daughter
- Books
- 1: I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018), published after her death
- Blog
- True Crime Diary, started in 2006, where she wrote up more than a hundred unsolved cases
- She coined
- “The Golden State Killer”, the name police themselves used at the 2018 arrest
- What started it
- The unsolved murder of Kathleen Lombardo, two streets from her home, when she was fourteen
- On screen
- I'll Be Gone in the Dark, a six-part HBO series directed by Liz Garbus, 2020
How Michelle McNamara Wrote: The Victims First
Most writing about serial crime is organised around the man who did it. McNamara inverts that. She spends her detail on the people who were attacked and on the ordinary Californian streets where it happened, and she writes about the man himself with a flat, deliberate lack of glamour. She named him the Golden State Killer partly for that reason, and she knew the objection: that it sounded too much like a stage name. She kept it anyway, because the jarring quality of it felt right to her.
She worked like a researcher rather than a reporter. From 2006 her blog True Crime Diary brought together a loose network of amateurs who traded case files, maps and eBay listings for stolen items, and she was open that this obsession cost her sleep and, eventually, her peace of mind. That honesty is part of why the book reads as a memoir as much as an investigation.
She did not live to see the arrest. She died in her sleep in April 2016, at 46, from an undiagnosed heart condition combined with medication she had been taking. Two years later the police used the name she had invented when they announced they had their man, which her husband called proof of the impact of her work.
Frequently asked questions about Michelle McNamara's books
How many books did Michelle McNamara write?
One: I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, published by HarperCollins in February 2018, almost two years after her death. There is no second book and no sequel.
What is I'll Be Gone in the Dark about?
It is McNamara's investigation into a man who committed dozens of rapes and at least twelve murders across California between 1974 and 1986, and who had never been caught. It combines cold-case research with her own account of becoming consumed by it, and it keeps the survivors at the centre of the story.
Did Michelle McNamara finish her book?
No. She died in April 2016 with the manuscript unfinished. The researcher Paul Haynes and the crime writer Billy Jensen completed it from her notes, with an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt. Some sections are finished chapters and others are her raw notes and interview transcripts, left visible on purpose.
Did Michelle McNamara name the Golden State Killer?
Yes. Before her 2013 article for Los Angeles Magazine, the same man was known separately as the Visalia Ransacker, the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker. She coined “the Golden State Killer”, and when police announced the arrest in April 2018 they used her name for him.
Was the Golden State Killer caught?
Yes. Joseph James DeAngelo, a 72-year-old former police officer, was arrested in April 2018, two months after the book was published, after investigators traced him through genealogy databases. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
What was True Crime Diary?
The blog McNamara started in 2006, where she wrote up more than a hundred unsolved cases and built a network of amateur researchers who shared documents and leads with her. It is one of the reasons people search for her “books” in the plural. The site is now archived rather than active.
Is there a Michelle McNamara documentary?
Yes. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, a six-part HBO series directed by Liz Garbus, premiered in June 2020. Patton Oswalt gave Garbus access to McNamara's archive so the series could be told as far as possible in her own words.
Should I read the book or watch the series first?
Read the book first. It is her writing, and the series is other people's account of her. The series works better as an epilogue, particularly because it covers the arrest, which she did not live to see.
Is I'll Be Gone in the Dark hard to read?
It can be. It describes sexual violence and murder in detail, and although McNamara writes about the survivors with real care, the accounts of the attacks are unflinching. It is worth knowing that before you start.
How did Michelle McNamara die?
She died in her sleep on April 21, 2016, at the age of 46. An autopsy found an undiagnosed heart condition combined with medication she had been taking.
Footnotes
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“One day soon, you'll hear a car pull up to your curb, an engine cut out.”
— Michelle McNamara, I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018)
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendations