Unmasked

By Paul Holes

Unmasked - Paul Holes
  • Release Date: 2022-04-26
  • Genre: True Crime
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 173 Ratings

Description

**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.

Reviews

  • Fantastic Inside Perspective

    5
    By Katy1516
    Paul Holes is flawed just like everyone else. I loved reading his insider’s POV on investigating horrific crimes, and how his job affected his personal life. I bought a hard copy of this book as well. 10/10!
  • Amazing job, Paul Holes.

    5
    By Cpity10
    This was an incredible read. It felt like you were right next to him solving these cases. He makes his investigative skills look so easy. And this was a perfect, in-depth, and sometimes painful to read regarding his marriages cracking under pressure of his career. I can’t wait til the next book! Cheers!
  • Yes

    5
    By ELK777
    Read the book. As a woman who grew up in Northern California in the 1980 and 90s then earned degrees in forensics and journalism, I’m telling you buy this book. Excellent execution.