Michelle McNamara Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Michelle Eileen McNamara was born April 14, 1970. Michelle is a true crime writer. She grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, and was the daughter of Rita McNamara (nee Rigney), a stay at home mom, and Thomas W. McNamara, a trial lawyer. Her parents were Irish and they were raised Irish Catholic. Michelle was the youngest of five daughters and a son.

She graduated in the year 1988 from Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park, Illinois, and during her senior year she was the editor-in-chief of the Trapeze, the student paper. In the year 1992, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Notre Dame. She got her MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota.

After she finished graduate school, in the year 1997, she moved to Los Angeles in order to write for the television and film industry.

One of her favorite true crime books was Zodiac by Robert Graysmith, a book that she read over and over.

Michelle had a long-time fascination with true crime that began with Kathleen Lombardo’s unsolved murder which happened two blocks from where she lived when she was young. She launched TrueCrimeDiary, her website, in the year 2006.

She was friends with true crime investigative journalist Billy Jensen that was based off of their shared passion for researching and writing on true crime. The two hosted a panel called “Citizen Dicks: Catching Serial Killers With Social Media” at SXSW Interactive.

Investigators would speak to Michelle, because she would bring them solid theories, that were entirely worked out. When they would get shot down, she would get right back to work, after dusting herself off. There would be times she would be crying, after just getting so frustrated, before she went back to working on whatever she was doing.

Michelle noticed that serial killers start killing people is because they are the biggest zeroes on the entire planet. They attempt to paint themselves like cold antiheroes or something. When they are given nasty sounding names like the Green River Killer, it makes them seem bigger than they are. Then after they get caught, you find out they look more like Mr. Roper from “Three’s Company”. It makes you realize they don’t take up any space in the entire world and that is the reason why he kills people.

Michelle gained an interest in the Golden State Killer case and wrote articles for Los Angeles magazine on the serial killer in 2013 and 2014. She coined the term “Golden State Killer” after the authorities had linked DNA evidence that connected the East Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker. After that, she signed a deal with HarperCollins and started writing a book on the case.

She was asked if the killer ever contacted her to conduct an interview or give information on her book, but only on the condition of anonymity. She said she would turn the guy into the police, since justice is much more important that a good quote in the case.

She wanted to pursue the case because an unidentified killer is always a doorknob behind a door that will never open. All of his power, once he is known, is gone. All of his banal secrets become known.

The book, called “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” was released after she died, having been updated and completed by Patton Oswalt as well as true crime writers Paul Holes and Billy Jensen. The book was released in the year 2018, close to two years after she had died. It hit number one of combined e-book and print non-fiction and number 2 on the New York Times Best Seller list for non-fiction.

Less than two months after the book’s release, the authorities announced that they had made an arrest in the case. Joseph James DeAngelo, a former cop, is the man arrested for the crimes.

“I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” has been adapted into a miniseries for HBO in the year 2019. It was directed by Liz Garbus.

She married Patton Oswalt in the year 2005, and they had a daughter in the year 2009, named Alice.

She died at the age of 46 on April 21, 2016 of an accidental overdose and a heart problem in Los Angeles, California, dying in her sleep.

“I’ll Be Gone in the Dark” is a non-fiction book, released in the year 2018. For over ten years, a violent and mysterious predator committed fifty sexual assaults in the Northern part of California, nbefore making his way south. Here he carried out ten sadistic murders. Then he vanished, eluding capture by many police forces and some of the very best cops in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle was determined to locate the violent psychopath that she dubbed “the Golden State Killer”. She interviewed victims, looked through police reports, and embedded herself in the online communities who were just as obsessed as she was with this case.

When the crimes were happening, the Golden State Killer was somewhere between the ages of eighteen and thirty, athletic (capable of vaulting tall fences), and Caucasian. The guy always wore a mask. After he picked a victim, favoring suburban couples, he would enter their home without anybody there, master the layout, and studying the photos. He attacked them while they slept, and used a flashlight to awaken and blind them. They were unable to recognize the guy, but his victims were able to recall his voice. It was a guttural whisper through his clenched teeth. Both threatening and abrupt.

Readers have found this to be an atmospheric snapshot of a moment of American history as well as a chilling account of one criminal mastermind and the havoc he wreaked. This is the portrait of a woman’s obsession and Michelle’s unflagging hunt for the truth. The book is an impressive piece of investigative journalism, and it doesn’t matter if true crime tales happen to be your style or not. For some, the writer of this is just as fascinating as the subject of the piece, a woman who is especially astute and intelligent as well as dedicating all she had to catching this killer.