Unmasked Unmasked

Unmasked

My Life Solving America's Cold Cases

    • 4.4 • 191 Ratings
    • $11.99

Publisher 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.

GENRE
Nonfiction
RELEASED
2022
April 26
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
336
Pages
PUBLISHER
Celadon Books
SELLER
Macmillan
SIZE
15
MB

Customer Reviews

09crazypete ,

Amazing

Easy read, Paul is honest and very descriptive. Could not put it down

Katy1516 ,

Fantastic Inside Perspective

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!

Cpity10 ,

Amazing job, Paul Holes.

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!

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