“Open the door. Show us your face. Walk into the light.”

I first heard about the man now known as the Golden State Killer back when I first read about Richard Ramirez. A throwaway line about someone else, known as the Original Night Stalker (ONS), who remained uncaught captured my interest and sent me down an internet rabbit hole as I started to discover the horror of the East Area Rapist/ONS, a home invader and serial rapist and murderer who terrorised Sacramento and the wider California area through the seventies and eighties. I soon shied away from it all – I find unsolved cases maddening, knowing I’ll never have the answers and, more importantly, horrifying that such a person could still be roaming free. Being something of a true crime junkie, I didn’t hesitate to buy when Michelle McNamara’s book was released, but I’d still found reasons to leave it lying untouched on my shelves. Until I woke up from my Night Nurse haze on Wednesday to the news that the bastard had finally been nailed. I instantly grabbed the book and have been busy imparting unwelcome information to all of my acquaintances ever since.

I won’t here go into the long litany of horrendous crimes committed by this monster. What I will say is that McNamara is a very, very good writer. Instead of a recitation of facts and gory details, McNamara has written a very personal book that chronicles her obsession with the case, and that of the many investigators who’ve worked it over the decades, and the incredible highs and lows of chasing potential leads. I cried on more than on occasion when reading the memoir parts of the book, even while I recoiled at the chilling details of the cases. There is a literary quality to McNamara’s writing that is missing from your average true crime book, and she places you easily into a time, place or feeling while being able to quietly demolish you with a sentence (a mention of a 13 year old victim, asking her dog who had been in her room ‘why didn’t you do anything, you dummy?’ nearly made me lose it entirely). The quality of McNamara’s writing is never more apparent than when her voice suddenly stops, and is replaced by those trying to finish the book for her.

Knowing what we now know about DeAngelo, apparently nailed through a 100% DNA match (the initial identification of which is apparently setting of ethical worries regarding the uploading of DNA to genetic ancestry websites, although I have to say that if my own DNA happened to catch a serial rapist and murderer who happened to be related to me, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it), I couldn’t help but read with an eye to where certain clues may have pointed the way or led astray. And, of course, to feel the disappointment shared by those who knew her that McNamara didn’t live to see him caught.

Much will be revealed about the Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker/Visalia Ransacker over the coming weeks and months (welcome to the light, motherfucker), but if you’re looking for a good place to start, try this.