audible audiobook

Summary: Have you ever wanted to solve a murder? Gather the clues the police overlooked. Put together the pieces. Identify the suspect.

Journalist Billy Jensen spent 15 years investigating unsolved murders, fighting for the families of victims. Every story he wrote had one thing in common - it didn't have an ending. The killer was still out there.

But after the sudden death of a friend, crime writer Michelle McNamara, Billy became fed up. Following a dark night, he came up with a plan. A plan to investigate past the point when the cops have given up. A plan to solve the murders himself.

In Chase Darkness with Me, you'll ride shotgun as Billy identifies the Halloween Mask Murderer, finds a missing girl in the California Redwoods, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. You'll hear intimate details of the hunts for two of the most terrifying serial killers in history: his friend Michelle's pursuit of the Golden State Killer which is chronicled in I'll Be Gone In The Dark, a book Billy helped finish after Michelle's passing, and his own quest to find the murderer of the Allenstown 4 family.

Gripping, complex, unforgettable, Chase Darkness with Me is an examination of the evil forces that walk among us, illustrating a novel way to catch those killers, and a true crime narrative unlike any you've listened to before.

My review: ALL THE STARS!!!!

PEOPLE. I'm in love with this book. I love how this wasn't just pure true crime, but that it was Billy's story. That he told us about his life. And also told us about the work he is doing and the cases he worked on.

The writing/the audio book was so damn good and so entertaining, he kept my attention the whole way through.

Hi there!

I have just joined the BookLikes community and I'm looking forward to connecting with fellow booklovers, especially fellow crime-fiction addicts!

I've been hooked on crime fiction in books and on screen since about the age of six, thanks to some awesome mystery and adventure writers. It was about then that I decided I wanted to be a crime writer. It took a while...

Being a crime-fiction addict and lover of series books, you can expect lots of my reading to fall into these categories. You can also expect to only hear about the books I have enjoyed as reading enjoyment is subjective – but as I have honed my selections to my tastes over the years, I am rarely disappointed anyway. I rate books as I go and post my standouts in a “Good Reads” column each month on my website, including just a little blurb about each.

As for reviews of my books, I appreciate readers reading my works and sharing what you think. So, thank you.

I'd also love you to connect with me at my website, Instagram, Facebook or Amazon.

Happy reading!

Cheers,
Sandi

As some of you may know, I've been reading more books by and about Patricia Highsmith over the past year, so when The Crime Writer crossed my path - Thank you, Tigus! - I had to give it a try.

In the book, Jill Dawson uses Patricia Highsmith as the lead character. Dawson thoroughly researched Highsmith's life and work, which - from what I gather - makes for a believable character in the book, although of course we will never know as Highsmith herself was a bit of a recluse (by her own choice) and a bit of a mystery. All this adds to the credibility of Dawson's imagined character of Pat.

As for the story, it describes Pat withdrawing to the English countryside, trying to work away from the distractions of her fans and her family.

During her stay, she seemed to be pursued by a stalker and by a journalist, whose motives are not clear. Is she being investigated? Is her clandestine relationship with a married woman being put at risk of discovery? Are all of these things connected? 

In time, Pat is entangled in a web of intrigue and concealment. 

It's an engaging enough plot, and my only criticisms are these: 

1. Part of the plot strongly reminded me of Sarah Waters The Paying Guests, which I actually enjoyed but it did take away some of the plot development.

2. Although this is a fictional account, some of the plot hinges on actual facts in Highsmith's own life, and as such I could not help but notice a couple of anachronisms. The most, to me, irritating of which is in connection with Highsmith's book The Price of Salt (later re-published as Carol). Highsmith published the book under a pseudonym, and it was not widely known (according to Andrew Wilson's biography Beautiful Shadow) until much later than when The Crime Writer is set. Accoding to Wilson's biography, which is largely based on Highsmith's own diaries and records, Highsmith was not aware that anyone (other than her immediate family and her publisher) knew she had written The Price of Salt until the 70s after a neighbour of her mother's tried to discuss the book with her. Officially, Highsmith only acknowledged the book at the time of its re-publication in 1990. So, the developments in Dawson's story which involved The Price of Salt  threw me a little.

All in all, however, The Crime Writer was an enjoyable way to re-imagine one of the most puzzling and contradictory writers I like to ponder about.

Oh, what to do, what to do, when you find out a read you have been enjoying so far does have some major anachronisms in it and basically uses a similar plot-hook as another favourite book by a different author?

I guess, I'm just being picky. This is fiction after all, and never pretended to be anything else... Still I need more tea and my blankie.

Hey Tigus!

Look what was waiting for me at the library today.

:D :D :D

This is why it takes me forever to actually finish books.....I get distracted so easily by shiny new arrivals.