Unmasked My life solving America's cold cases

Review by Booklist Review

True-crime superstar Holes takes readers on a gripping journey into the mind of a cold-case detective. Best known for unmasking the Golden State Killer, Holes provides a realistic look at the painstaking process of solving the unsolvable and the emotional toll it takes on everyone involved, from the victims and their families to the detectives themselves. Holes' passion for his profession leaps from each page, but that passion and unfettered focus on the job adversely affected his personal life. He does not shy away from exposing the unglamorous side of detective work: frequent late nights and distractions are not the recipe for a perfect husband or father. Holes also bestows readers with an inside glimpse at famous cases like the murder of Laci Peterson and the kidnapping of Jaycee Duggard while elucidating lesser-known investigations like the mysterious murder of wealthy recluse Emmon Bodfish. Holes presents a thoughtful yet fast-paced and absorbing amalgamation of personal memoir and true-crime novel. Crime junkies and nonfiction fans will be eager to get their hands on this book. HIGH DEMAND BACKSTORY: Podcaster and true-crime superstar Holes has a large audience who will clamor for this book.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Retired cold case investigator Holes debuts with an exceptional memoir coauthored with bestseller Fisher (After the Fire). 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. The grisly violence he witnessed responding to crime scenes so pervaded his consciousness that sometimes, as he writes, when he looked at a woman "rather than seeing the beauty of the female body, I dissected it, layer by layer, as if she were on the autopsy table." Holes was drawn to criminalistics as a child, fascinated by the TV series Quincy, and when he was 22 began his law enforcement career as a forensic toxicologist. Holes rose through the ranks, eventually concentrating on older, unsolved cases. He spent decades hunting the predator originally known as the East Area Rapist in the 1970s before his work led to the 2018 arrest of Joseph DeAngelo, identified as the Golden State Killer via DNA evidence. Holes's lifelong struggles with panic attacks only make his professional achievements more impressive. This is an essential companion to Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer. Agent: Meredith Miller, UTA. (Apr.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Library Journal Review

Criminalist Holes may have achieved some measure of fame from the coverage of the search for the Golden State Killer (and the killer's eventual arrest), but he had a long career apart from that case. In this memoir, he shares details of a variety of cases, mostly homicides, that he helped investigate both in the lab and on the street. While the professional details will interest true crime fans, listeners may be put off by some of the personal anecdotes, particularly Holes's clear disdain for the members of his staff who raised concerns about his romantic relationship with a woman who reported to him or his frustration with lab workers who balked at interrupting their active casework when he ordered them to work on cold-case materials. The author narrates clearly, though he has a tendency to over-enunciate. VERDICT Holes's acolytes will drive demand, but the work is not likely to appeal to those who aren't established fans. An optional purchase.--Stephanie Klose

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Occasionally overwrought but absorbing tale of criminal investigation long after the crime has been committed. A forensic specialist in California, Holes spent a long career studying cold-case crimes. When he started, four cities in the Bay Area were on the FBI's list of 100 most dangerous places in the country. Many crimes went unnoticed by the general public, but then there were the cases such as Laci Peterson and her unborn son, washed up on a beach in Contra Costa County after her husband murdered her. "What kind of monster kills his eight-and-a-half-months pregnant wife and goes about his life knowing she and his unborn son are anchored to the cold ocean floor with concrete blocks?" asks the author, who chronicles the stories of many monsters, including the criminal first known as the East Area Rapist, later as the Golden State Killer. The author's account of his chase for the GSK--much done surreptitiously since his boss ordered him to stop looking at cold cases--takes up much of this narrative. Interestingly, he writes, one helpful tool, besides DNA and other forms of biochemical and evidential analysis, is simply the use of genealogy websites to find relatives to help pinpoint the whereabouts of perpetrators (as well as collect corroborative DNA). Holes writes of panic attacks and PTSD, of marriages threatened and undone by his obsession to exact justice. The narrative is also occasionally gruesome. "We were on a steep slope," he writes of one murder, "and decomposition fluid ran out of the plastic wrapping onto the ground, forming a puddle. One of the dead woman's legs dropped down into the pool of foul liquid, splashing it up on my face and my leather crime scene boots." Holes is sometimes a little too worked up and a little too focused on himself, but the stories he tells--and the solutions to the crimes--are fascinating. Grisly, matter-of-fact, and just the thing for aspiring detectives. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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