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| Categories | Professionals & Academics |
| Author | Paul Holes |
| Publisher | Celadon Books (April 26, 2022) |
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 288 pages |
| Item Weight | 1.05 pounds |
| Dimensions |
6.5 x 1.2 x 9.55 inches |
I. Book introduction
**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**
“It’s a mark of the highest honor when I say it’s even more riveting than an episode of ‘Dateline’.”
—The New York Times
From Paul Holes, the detective who found the Golden State Killer, Unmasked is a memoir that “grabs its reader in a stranglehold and proves more fascinating than fiction and darker than any noir narrative.” (LA Magazine)
I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to me lately. I’m drinking too much. My sheets are soaking wet when I wake up from nightmares of decaying corpses. I order another drink and swig it, trying to forget about the latest case I can’t shake.
Crime solving for me is more complex than the challenge of the hunt, or the process of piecing together a scientific puzzle. The thought of good people suffering drives me, for better or worse, to the point of obsession. People always ask how I am able to detach from the horrors of my work. Part of it is an innate capacity to compartmentalize; the rest is experience and exposure, and I’ve had plenty of both. But I have always taken pride in the fact that I can keep my feelings locked up to get the job done. It’s only been recently that it feels like all that suppressed darkness is beginning to seep out.
When I look back at my long career, there is a lot I am proud of. I have caught some of the most notorious killers of the twenty-first century and brought justice and closure for their victims and families. I want to tell you about a lifetime solving these cold cases, from Laci Peterson to Jaycee Dugard to the Pittsburg homicides to, yes, my twenty-year-long hunt for the Golden State Killer.
But a deeper question eats at me as I ask myself, at what cost? I have sacrificed relationships, joy—even fatherhood—because the pursuit of evil always came first. Did I make the right choice? It’s something I grapple with every day. Yet as I stand in the spot where a young girl took her last breath, as I look into the eyes of her family, I know that, for me, there has never been a choice. “I don’t know if I can solve your case,” I whisper. “But I promise I will do my best.”
It is a promise I know I can keep.
Editorial Reviews
“It’s a mark of the highest honor when I say it’s even more riveting than an episode of “Dateline.”
―The New York Times“[Paul Holes’s] memoir grabs its reader in a stranglehold and proves more fascinating than fiction and darker than any noir narrative.”
―Los Angeles Magazine“Fans of true crime will love every page of Unmasked. It is a wildly engaging and painfully honest read that will appeal to anyone curious about the lives of those who pursue justice for voiceless victims.”
―San Francisco Chronicle“An exceptional memoir… his unflinching look at the emotional toll the more than 27 years he spent working in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area took on him and his family distinguishes this from similar true crime narratives.”
―Publishers Weekly, starred review“Paul Holes takes you on a fascinating and sometimes disturbing journey inside the mind of someone who hunts monsters for a living―and in order to live. And his insights on Michelle McNamara―whose loss I still feel every day―are incredible.”
―Patton Oswalt“True-crime superstar Holes takes readers on a gripping journey into the mind of a cold-case detective…a thoughtful yet fast-paced and absorbing amalgamation of personal memoir and true-crime novel. Crime junkies and nonfiction fans will clamor to get their hands on this book.”
―Booklist“The stories [Holes] tells―and the solutions to the crimes―are fascinating. Grisly, matter-of-fact, and just the thing for aspiring detectives.”
―Kirkus“Unmasked is a stunning, brutally honest memoir about a complex, highly gifted forensic scientist who sacrificed his own personal life, even his marriage and fatherhood, in his relentless pursuit of monsters.”
―Mystery & Suspense Magazine“Paul Holes is a natural criminal profiler with a talent for describing how the process works. In his book, Unmasked, he marches the reader into the real world of criminal behavior and blends his forensic expertise with his unfiltered personal life experiences as he tackles both cold cases and modern crimes. This is a book you will not be able to put down.”
―Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess, author of A Killer By Design and co-author of Sexual Homicide
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of May 2022: True crime fans take note: here is a first person account of a life spent solving cold cases, told by the detective who found the Golden State Killer. But Unmasked is much more than that. First, the Golden State Killer is only one of the high profile cases Paul Holes tackled. And second, this is a book about more than solving high profile cold cases. Unmasked describes what it’s like to be a forensic detective, to dedicate one’s self to uncovering the secrets behind some of life’s most brutal acts, day in and day out, and the toll that it takes on the rest of one’s life. There is obsession here, but there is also confession. As we read about Hole’s life solving cold cases—some famous, some only remembered by a handful of people—an imperfect man with a laser focus and a deep well of compassion comes to life amid all that brutality. This is a special book. —Chris Schluep, Amazon Editor
About Paul Holes
Paul Holes retired as a Cold Case Investigator after spending over 27 years working for the Sheriff and District Attorney’s Offices during his tenure in Contra Costa County located in the Bay Area, California. Having experience in both forensic and investigative assignments, Paul throughout his career specialized in cold case and serial predator crimes, developing and applying investigative, behavioral, and forensic expertise in notable cases such as Zodiac, Golden State Killer, and Jaycee Dugard. Paul is frequently sought out by investigators to consult on the most complex and high profile cases and has played a part in putting several serial predators on Death Row such as Darryl Kemp, Joseph Naso, and Joseph Cordova Jr.
As an FBI Task Force Officer while employed with the DA’s Office, Paul teamed with FBI and Sacramento DA personnel to apply innovative technology that identified Joseph DeAngelo as the Golden State Killer, the most prolific and cunning serial predator in U.S. history.
Since the arrest of DeAngelo, Paul has been very involved on the media side continuing to assist law enforcement and victim’s families with their unsolved cases, through the television show The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes and with the podcast Jensen & Holes: The Murder Squad.
II. [Reviews] Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes
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1. C.M.MILLS review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
Paul Holes tells his story of solving cold case crimes and capturing the Golden State killer
I first heard Paul Holes in a fascinating interview on NPR’s chat show “Fresh Air” hosted by Terry Gross.
Holes served in the police department of Contra Costas County California for well over thirty years. He is an obsessive-compulsive Type A personality type who never forgets a case even if the crime occurred years in the past. The book tells us of how modern crime fighting tools such as DNA and ancestry genetic testing lead to the solving of crimes. There are many gruesome and horrific crime scene description in this book especially those involving the rapes of young girls. Holes never gave up in his quest to capture the hideous Golden State killer Joseph James DeAngelo. DeAngelo was an ex-cop who raped over fifty women and committed many murders over his long career of crime.
Much of the book deals with the personal story of Holes. The father of four and twice divorced husband he recounts how difficult it was to separate his job from family life. The riveting book was written along with co-author Robin Gaby Fisher. The best true crime book of the year!
2. CALIFORNIA DREAMING review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
Rock You Like a Hurricane (Holes)!
I remember well the day that the Golden State Killer (GSK) was finally unmasked as Joseph James DeAngelo, whom I will simply refer to as JJD from here on for brevity. My wife and I were having our house painted and I was lying in bed inside, trying to avoid the outside chaos, and also trying to keep from getting any paint on me as well. I picked up my iPad, looked at the day’s news, and then my eyes got big. No, they got HUGE. But I jumped out of bed, ran to the front door, opened it, and exclaimed to one of the painters, “Did you hear that the Golden State Killer was just arrested?!” His reply: “Who’s the Golden State Killer?”
I couldn’t believe it.
I couldn’t believe that the GSK was finally caught. But maybe more incredibly, I couldn’t believe that someone didn’t know who that was, especially in the area where I live, just above the Napa Valley. I thought that everyone knew about the Visalia Ransacker (VR) who morphed into the East Area Rapist (EAR) who then became the Original Night Stalker (ONS) whose nickname was finally wrapped up into the Golden State Killer (GSK) by Michelle McNamara. She was in the middle of writing a book not long before his capture, from memory. Unfortunately, she didn’t live long enough to finish it but lucky for us true-crime aficionados her book “I’ll be Gone in the Dark” (IGD) was finalized and published, supposedly by some of her assistants. And I can attest to the fact that IGD is a very good read as I bought, downloaded, and read it myself.
But then again, I’ve read many books about the GSK. “Killers Keep Secrets” (KKS) which is an interesting book written (from memory) by the ex-brother-in-law of JJD. “The Case of the Golden State Killer” (CGSK) which is a slightly unpolished effort but nonetheless informative read about the case where you will learn information probably not found anywhere else. “Hunting a Psychopath” (HAP) which is an oddly humorous look at the case written by one of the original detectives on the EAR case, Richard Shelby. I’ve even taken on a couple others which I found nearly unreadable. But of course now I’ve just read “Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases” (UNMASKED) which might be the most interesting of them all, mostly because it is written by the CSI-slash-DNA Expert-slash-detective Paul Holes, maybe the most important person in the case as he finally solved it around 45 years after it all started. But of course a big assist goes to Barbara Rae-Venter, the genealogist who helped Mr. Holes with research and building family trees for the case.
Now, the GSK case isn’t the only one included in “Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases” as the title implies. Mr. Holes returns periodically throughout the book to discuss his progress on the GSK case, intermingled with other cases he worked alongside stories about his own personal life as well. Some of that life Mr. Holes seems to be very happy about — investigating and solving cases is his “purpose on Earth” to risk misquoting him — and some of that life Mr. Holes seems to be not always proud of — perhaps how chasing serial killers and other bad guys had detrimental effects on his family.
And I’m assuming that Mr. Holes has had three of them. Families, that is. His original family included his parents and siblings. Then he was married in his mid-twenties and started having children of his own perhaps before he was really ready, as he even admits. Then he was divorced and was married again to his second wife and then had a couple more kids. Mr. Holes has had at least four more children than I have but I still am able to empathize with him as he tells his story about feeling guilt, guilt that maybe he wasn’t there enough for those children. But if you take my strong recommendation to buy and read UNMASKED you can read about that yourself.
I just watched an interview this week — the week of April 28, 2022 — with Mr. Holes where the interviewer actually brings up the fact that he discusses a lot of his private life in the book. I would say that usually, most true-crime “fans” — fans of the genre and not fans of the crimes themselves, of course — aren’t really much interested in “personal stuff.” They want to read about the crime! And they want to read about how the detectives investigated the crime! And they want to read about how the UNSUB became the suspect who became the Number One Suspect who became a convict sitting in an 8 x 10 cell so he can realize why committing that crime was such a bad idea in the first place! That kind of stuff. But to me I actually like the parts in the book where Mr. Holes discusses his private life. I was a fan of his television show — “The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes” — even though each episode didn’t necessarily have a tidy conclusion, and I actually wanted to know more about him, and not just his investigations. It was just that he seems like a nice guy and so I was interested to learn how he became that nice guy. It’s either that or he does one heck of a job faking it. But I’m so rarely “accused” of being a nice guy myself I found it interesting to see how someone else can pull it off. Ahem.
In reality this review could become a book in and of itself if I wrote about everything that I liked, disliked, or maybe was simply neutral about. Instead I’ll keep it short and just create a bulleted list of highlights or interesting points, at least for me, in no particular order:
- I thought it was interesting that Mr. Holes and his family, after he retired, moved to the same town where Joe Kenda had been a detective, and Mr. Kenda had moved out of that same town when he retired.
(I guess maybe detectives find it necessary to “Get out of Dodge.”) - There is a show called “Real Detective” on the Investigation Discovery (ID) Network that I really like. Season 2, Episode 1, entitled “Blood Brothers” is a must see. John Conaty, a friend of Mr. Holes, is heavily featured during that episode. At any rate the story in that episode is included in UNMASKED.
- I really like the fact that Mr. Holes uses the first-person “I” throughout. I do it myself in reviews, usually to alert the reader that what I’m writing is my opinion.
- Believe it or not I got some really good laughs while reading. One: “Guns don’t kill people, I kill people.” Everything is funny dependent upon context, I suppose. Two: “Hurricane Holes.” Supposedly that was Mr. Holes’ nickname given to him by his coworkers and I used it for comic relief in the title of this review.
- The Jaycee Dugard case. I read her book “A Stolen Life” — I recommend it — and I actually once drove past the house in Antioch where she was held for 18 years, mostly out of curiosity. (I drove past JJD’s old house in Citrus Heights once too but THAT story is for another day as it is just too crazy to include here.)
Well, if you’ve ever seen Paul Holes on TV you’ll probably think that he at least seems like a nice guy. And that is true even though his coworkers gave him the nickname “Hurricane Holes.” But how about changing that nickname to “Hilarious Holes” as he does have a way of periodically bringing some humor into an otherwise dark story. But to finally wrap this up before I overstay my welcome, to Mr. Holes I will write, “Enjoy your retirement! You deserve it!” although it seems he’s working harder nowadays than he ever has, what with his book and television deals alone. But then I’d add, “Thanks again for catching the Golden State Killer. Even if that painter guy didn’t know who that was.”
3. MARILYNW review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes
I started this book, and except for a few breaks to get my circulation going again, I could not stop reading it until I finished. I was aware of almost every crime mentioned in the book, including the kidnap and killing of a girl who went to a high school near mine, at the same time I was in high school. Former detective (and many other things) Paul Hole writes of his constant immersion in cold cases, from the beginning of his working career to beyond his retirement from law enforcement. Cold cases get set aside for a lot of reasons, including the need to deal with current crimes and the lack of time and funds to work both current and past crimes at the same time. But there are people out there who aren’t going to let go and Paul Hole is one of them.
The Golden State Killer terrorized, raped, tortured, and killed and it took more than forty years to catch this man. His targets were people living and sleeping in their homes, the place where they should be safe from evil monsters like him. For a long time, several of his crime sprees were attributed to more than one person. Also, various law enforcement departments were unwilling to share information, tools, and leads with other departments, allowing the killer to run free and commit more crime for decades. But people like Paul Hole and others did not give up and finally the Golden State Killer is caught.
I am fascinated with all that goes into catching a person who terrorizes, maims, and kills innocent people and am thankful for those who commit themselves to this almost impossible task. Hole makes no secret that his obsession with cold cases had a negative impact on his home life. He not only spent his free time staying at work to keep on tracking down leads even when his superiors forbid him to do so, he also spent his home time locked in his office, working cold cases. He admits that he couldn’t even focus on conversations with his family or with neighbors because his mind was always on the cases he was working. I’m very thankful that the capture of people like the Golden State Killer should keep others like him from thinking they will never be caught. Paul Hole knows what he wants to do, what he feels compelled to do, and he and others like him are not going to give up on bringing monsters to justice.
4. JANB review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
True crime is having a moment, but I’ve been a true crime fan since my teenage years. My interest is not in rubbernecking or a voyeuristic desire to peek into other people’s misery. I don’t think it is for anyone who works in the field, or for those who read about it. It’s driven by empathy for the victims, a desire for justice, and how that justice came about. It’s delving into the psychology of a person who is far removed from what we think of as being human, and the investigative techniques used in solving the mystery. This book delivers all that and more.
Many people live with the pain and horror of not only losing a loved one to murder, but of knowing the killer is still out there. Cases grow cold, and law enforcement agencies are overwhelmed. Luckily, there are people like Paul Holes who never give up.
Many of us know Paul Holes as the investigator who was instrumental in catching the elusive Golden State Killer (GSK), AKA ‘Night Stalker’ and ‘East Area Rapist (EAR)’, the monster who raped, terrorized, and murdered throughout the state of California between 1974 and 1986. Paul also worked with Michelle McNamara, who wrote the book, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (also excellent). It took more than 20 years, but just days from his retirement, the monster was caught using DNA technology. It was fascinating to read how it all came together. Despite having read McNamara’s book and watching the documentary I learned new things.
Paul’s career and successes reach far beyond the most well-known cases, bringing some measure of peace and resolution to many families. He obtained a college degree in biochemistry and began his career in a crime lab, but ultimately his career path led him to work on the investigative side of things. He blew the dust off of old case files and worked to solve them, often in his free time. The EAR (GSK) in particular became an obsession. His talent, keen insight, and background in science was invaluable.
This well-written book is part true-crime, and part memoir. Paul details some of the cases he has worked on. No one LIKES to read grisly details of crimes, knowing they were real people who lived and whose lives were cut short, but I did like hearing how he and the other investigators work a case, the methods they use, as well as the science behind it, both behavioral and hard science. Paul details how DNA is a game changer and, from his explanations, it is clearly not as simple as it sounds, or as clear cut as it is depicted on TV. Paul makes a complicated subject easy to understand.
Paul doesn’t shy away from the toll his career has taken on his mental health and his relationships. To cope, he exercises, spends time outdoors, and enjoys an occasional bourbon. Still, he suffers from nightmares and the occasional panic attack. He lifts the veil and tells it like it is. The job is not as romanticized as we see on TV. It is not easy to immerse oneself daily into depravity, but we, as a society, owe him and others in the field a debt of gratitude for their dogged determination to let no case go unsolved, and no murderer go unpunished.
The most touching moment in the book was when a woman who was a victim of the GSK called Paul to ask if the news of his arrest was true. She cried tears of relief after spending 40 years living in terror that he would come back for her. It must be moments like these that make it all worthwhile.
Paul retired in 2018, but as he is still a relatively young man, he continues to use his investigative skills throughout the country, and he co-hosts the excellent podcast, The Murder Squad, with Billy Jensen, an investigative reporter. His goal continues to be solving cold cases, not exploiting victims. One of the things I admire the most about Paul Holes, is the utmost respect and empathy he has for victims and their loved ones.
5. JULIE review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes is a 2022 Celadon Books publication.
I may be the only true crime fan who has never gotten into podcasts. But even if you aren’t aware of Paul’s wildly popular True Crime podcasts, you may still recognize him from his many appearances on true crime television shows. You might also be familiar with his name in connection with to the East Area Rapist/Golden State Killer case- which was the case for me.
While this is a memoir- it might be better described as a ‘true crime’ memoir, as for the most part, the book is focused on Paul’s career path, the cases he worked and the outcomes, but does delve into his personal life, as well.
The main criminal case the book is centered around is the East Area Rapist/Golden State Killer case, but he tells of many other cases he helped to solve and described how his career started, how he got bitten by the ‘cold case’ bug and why he often had to work those cases ‘off the clock’.
Unlike some of his crime solving buddies, Paul is not an amateur sleuth. He has a background in criminology, having worked in the Sheriff’s department in Contra Costa. But, it is his work on cold cases that he seems the most proud of.
If not for Paul’s dedication, and near obsession with cold cases, many of these cases would still be sitting in an unsolved folder somewhere, I’m sure. Now, though, many families finally have the answers they deserved, justice was served, and some people were exonerated from suspicion.
That said, I admit I do have some misgivings, if that is the right word, about the ‘obsessive’ mentality of folks like Billy Jensen, Michelle McNamara, and Paul Holes. On one hand, I greatly admire their tenacious dedication, but on the other, I see a lot of collateral damage.
When it came to Paul’s personal life, he was not as heroic, in my opinion. With memoirs it can be hard to keep an unbiased view or maintain neutrality if one disagrees with the writer’s perspective, though I really did try to talk myself down and keep it in perspective.
In this case, Paul’s work/family balance was hard for me to fully accept and speaks to the ‘obsessiveness’ he seems to deliberately chose over his loved ones. He also blames the wrong entity for all the evil in this world, and I felt offended by his critical views on faith and God.
I also grew weary of the dissection of his first marriage, which basically felt like defensive grievance airing, with one instance in particular resulting in a hard eye roll on my part. I think I would have preferred hearing more about his current wife, who works in the same profession, and appears to be a much better match for him.
All that said, most people are going to buy this book for the true crime stories, and on that front, Holes delivers wholeheartedly.
Despite my reservations in some cases, and my concern about glorifying and monetizing this manic lifestyle, I am glad we have people like Paul who are willing to go the extra mile, and I’m glad to see that his hard work has morphed into a second career for him.
There is no question that many of us breathe a little easier now that a truly horrifying monster has been identified and is off the streets, and that the victims and their families can finally stop looking over their shoulders, and will get some long overdue justice. For that peace of mind, we can thank Paul and his partners in crime, so to speak, and of course I have utmost respect the people who sacrificed much, and who refused to give up on these cold cases.
Overall, a very interesting glimpse into the life of a cold case investigator. The cases highlighted are well-chosen and have all the elements true crime fanatics want to read and hear about. If you are a fan of Paul’s podcasts, and of the true crime genre, you won’t want to miss this book.
6. LORI review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
What makes this book five-star special is that Paul Holes’s memoir is honest, personal, detailed about crime scenes and victims and killers but never lurid, exploitive or insensitive to the victims, unlike some others I’ve read. Unmasked is the true and honest story of the man who among other accomplishments helped catch the Golden State Killer, one of the most cruel and cunning serial offenders whose crimes Holes discovered on his first day of work in an old cabinet full of cold cases.
It’s about the crimes he worked on the clock and the different aspects of each job he held as he was consistently promoted, and also the cold cases that from day one became his personal obsession. They haunted him, still do. Although he’s retired he still works cold cases. Entwined throughout the memoir is the toll his obsession has taken on his personal life.
I’ve read true-crime books in which other famous figures present themselves almost as god figures or at the least don’t admit to shortcomings or discuss the most intimate details of their lives. It’s understandable those who deal with the worst crimes and killers wall off their work to preserve their life outside the job, as some in other professions do. Paul Holes has never been able to do that. It’s all personal to him, never leaves him even in his sleep. He’s a hero, exceptionally dedicated, who has paid a price for a career of working active cases, sometimes in twelve- or sixteen-hour days, and working cold cases on his own dime in his free time.
In here we read about the impact the work has had on his home life: wives, kids, even sexual problems and the reason why he’s had them, which is chilling. He’s struggled with alcoholism. Panic attacks from childhood have stayed with him, triggered by aspects of cases. Throughout he demonstrates empathy for and understanding of how those who love(d) him best have been affected and hurt by his obsession. It’s written in a straightforward manner without excuses or self-flagellation. I appreciate this openness combined with the fascinating cases and detailed information about how he’s worked crime scenes throughout his career and within that, the role different criminal specialists play. Embedded in the narrative is how they work in concert and separately, and the reader is introduced to some of Holes’s memorable colleagues.
I was curious why Lacey and Connor Peterson are mentioned, wondering if it was hype. Not at all. He was present at the autopsies of Lacey’s torso and of Connor, and this ties into something else impactful I won’t spoil. Most of the cases I’d never heard of, including one that he characterizes as perhaps the oddest case he’s worked. This chapter vividly presents aspects of his work start-to-end, from the time he entered the house alone as first responder smelling the reek of the decaying corpse, his preliminary examination of the body and the scene and his bizarre findings, then the legwork, the twists and turns as he worked out the how and why. Nothing is gratuitous.
Throughout the book are chapters on Holes’s involvement in the Golden State Killer case, the case that he never gave up trying to solve, that made him famous, that didn’t fit the standard profile of serial rapists or serial killers. Holes worked the case on his last day before retiring. Shortly after, GSK was arrested. There’s enough about it in Unmasked so that someone unfamiliar with the horrifying details will understand but not enough to overwhelm. There’s a lot of other information out there on this extremely sadistic rapist/killer. What’s in Unmasked, up until the monster was caught, is there because it relates to work Holes did on the case.
His co-author is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former features writer for the NY Times. The quality of the writing and organization of the book are excellent. I went in with high expectations and Paul Holes’s riveting memoir surpassed them. Unmasked is now among my all-time favorite true-crime books.
Thank you to Celadon Books for the print ARC
7. PJ review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
Great read
I really appreciate this memoir from Paul Holes. I’ve been interested in his career since reading Michelle McNamara’s book I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. I thought reading about his personal life was actually pretty illuminating-this job can’t be easy on the families of those who choose to pursue it. The book was written well enough for me, and helped pull me out of a reading rut after weeks of travel. He did a good job of not going too deeply into the science, and keeping it easy to follow for those who aren’t focused on that. At less than 300 pages, it was perfectly palatable. I’m excited to see what Paul does next, and am hopeful for a follow up.
8. DENISE review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
If you only read one true crime memoir, make it this one. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Paul Holes himself, and it was powerful. It was rather like reading the diary of a renowned criminologist. By the time I finished, I felt like I knew Holes personally, which I don’t remember experiencing from a memoir before. I have to admit that before reading this book and subsequently watching the HBO series, “I’ll be Gone in the Dark,” I knew little about EARONS/Golden State Killer. I vaguely recalled that DNA profiling/genealogy markers had helped to catch him but that was the extent of it. The actual story is haunting and heartbreaking beyond words.
In Unmasked, Holes covers not only the Golden State Killer, but also his involvement in the Laci/Conner Peterson murders, the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping, and the Joseph Cordova, Jr., serial predator case, which were all fascinating as well. I think what struck me the most though about this book is just how personal it is. Holes is wholly human and wholly vulnerable regarding the fact that his job and his need to catch killers has had a profound impact on his personal life, with his marriages, his children, etc. The impact and closure Holes has given to victims and their families by giving his life to solving cold cases is admirable, but it has come at great personal cost to him. There is much about DNA/SNPs, etc., but even though my eyes wanted to glaze over at times, I am fascinated with Ancestry.com and DNA matches, so I found it more educating than cumbersome.
Fair warning that there are lots of triggers and detailed descriptions of the cases Holes has investigated, but for me, for all the darkness in this book, the light that shines brightly from Holes and others, like Michelle McNamara, was inspiring and uplifting in a way. All the stars.
9. JON NAKAPALAU review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
This book reads like a real life version of The Pledge by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. A raw and immersive look at what it takes to hunt those who hunt others. The price paid for compartmentalization (the only way to deal with the horror) between career and identity slowly starts to erode all other aspects of life – something that is often ‘glossed’ over in the police procedural TV shows and movies that so often frame our reference when it comes to how crimes are really solved. Paul Holes reminds us that there is also a type of ‘metaphysical violence’ that occurs when you ‘gaze long enough into an abyss’ – and you have to face what is reflected back. Highest recommendation.
10. MALLORY review Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases
I wasn’t totally sure what to expect but I really enjoyed this true crime memoir. The author writes about his career and his fascination with cold cases. I found him to be a very interesting person and one I would like to hear more stories from. I liked that I had heard of a good number of the cases and that I hadn’t heard of some and all of them were very interesting. I also liked to hear about the evolution that DNA technology has taken and how it has helped us to be better investigators into crime. Paul Holes spends a lot of the book focused on the cold case he spent the most years on the Golden State Killer. I found his process to be very interesting, but I also liked that he included the toll his work took on himself, his marriages, and his relationships with his children. We need people passionate about finding the truth and keeping community safe, but we also need to help them care for themselves. I would definitely read another book by Paul Holes.
III. [Quote] Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes
Book excerpts: Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes
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