HarperCollins

The Adventurer’s Son: A Memoir

Filed Under: Books Read

The Adventurer’s Son: A Memoir

The Adventurer's Son: A Memoir by Roman Dial
Published by HarperCollins on February 18, 2020
Format: audiobook
Genres: Memior, Nonfiction
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

A brave and marvelous book. A page-turner that will rip your heart out.--Jon Krakauer
In the tradition of Into the Wild comes an instant classic of outdoor literature, a riveting work of uncommon depth. I'm planning on doing 4 days in the jungle. . . . It should be difficult to get lost forever: These were the haunting last words legendary adventurer Roman Dial received from his son, before the 27-year old disappeared into the jungles of Costa Rica. This is Dial's intensely gripping and deeply moving account of his two-year quest to unravel the mystery of his son's fate.
In the predawn hours of July 10, 2014, twenty-seven-year-old Cody Roman Dial, the son of preeminent Alaskan scientist and National Geographic Explorer Roman Dial, walked alone into Corcovado National Park, an untracked rainforest along Costa Rica's remote Pacific Coast that shelters miners, poachers, and drug smugglers. He carried a light backpack and machete. Before he left, he emailed his father: I am not sure how long it will take me, but I'm planning on doing 4 days in the jungle and a day to walk out. I'll be bounded by a trail to the west and the coast everywhere else, so it should be difficult to get lost forever.
They were the last words Dial received from his son.
The Adventurer's Son recreates the author's two-year quest to learn the truth about his child's disappearance. Immediately after Cody Roman's planned departure date passed without a word from him, Dial set off for Costa Rica. As he trekked through the dense jungle, interviewing locals and searching for clues--the authorities suspected murder--the desperate father was forced to confront the deepest questions about his own life. Roman had raised his son to be fearless, to seek out adventure amid earth's wildest places. Was he ultimately responsible for his son's fate?
A harrowing story of drama, adventure, and a father's love for his son, set in the most beautiful and dangerous reaches of the planet, The Adventurer's Son is a mystery, the memoir of a father and his son, and an unforgettable story of love and profound loss.

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

Filed Under: Books Read

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer

I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara, Gillian Flynn, Patton Oswalt, Gabra Zackman
Published by HarperCollins on February 27, 2018
Format: audiobook
Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime
See it @ Goodreads


Synopsis

A masterful true crime account of the Golden State Killer—the elusive serial rapist turned murderer who terrorized California for over a decade—from Michelle McNamara, the gifted journalist who died tragically while investigating the case.

"You'll be silent forever, and I'll be gone in the dark."

For more than ten years, a mysterious and violent predator committed fifty sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated ten sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area.

Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.

At the time of the crimes, the Golden State Killer was between the ages of eighteen and thirty, Caucasian, and athletic—capable of vaulting tall fences. He always wore a mask. After choosing a victim—he favored suburban couples—he often entered their home when no one was there, studying family pictures, mastering the layout. He attacked while they slept, using a flashlight to awaken and blind them. Though they could not recognize him, his victims recalled his voice: a guttural whisper through clenched teeth, abrupt and threatening.

I'll Be Gone in the Dark—the masterpiece McNamara was writing at the time of her sudden death—offers an atmospheric snapshot of a moment in American history and a chilling account of a criminal mastermind and the wreckage he left behind. It is also a portrait of a woman's obsession and her unflagging pursuit of the truth. Framed by an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by her husband, Patton Oswalt, the book was completed by Michelle's lead researcher and a close colleague. Utterly original and compelling, it is destined to become a true crime classic—and may at last unmask the Golden State Killer.