Lost Girls: Unsolved American Mystery by Robert kolker
Author : Robert Kolker
Title : Lost Girls: Unsolved American Mystery
Publisher : Harper Perennial
Published :05/06/2014
Pages : 416
Genre : True Crime
Award-winning investigative reporter Robert Kolker delivers a humanizing account of the true-life search for a serial killer still at large on Long Island and presents the first detailed look at the shadow world of online escorts, were making a living is easier than ever and the dangers remain all too real. A triumph of reporting, a riveting narrative, and "a lashing critique of how society and the police let five young women down" (Dwight Garner, New York Times), Lost Girls is a portrait of unsolved murders in an idyllic part of America, of the underside of the Internet, and of the secrets we keep without admitting to ourselves that we keep them.
It seems to me that every serial killer that has been or is out there now comes with there own true crime book. It doesn't seem to take long for an author to pop up with a detailed look at the killer's life and how the police put the peace together and sent them where they belong. So what then happens when the killer is not caught, when it seems like the police are chasing their own tails and no suspect has ever been named. Here we enter the world of Lost girls: Unsolved American Mystery. What can this boo offer the true crime lover?
When I first started this book I was expecting more on the side of the police investigation. If you have read a few true crime books they mostly follow a certain layout. As the chapter roll on you have a good sense of what is to come. But with this book it's different, to the best of my knowledge this killer or killers are still at large. So we have none of the usual tropes, what we do get is an in-depth look into the lives of there victims. It is harrowing look into the dark side of the American dream and the length some women chose to go to earn money. In each case, we get a semi-detailed look into events that would shape them into becoming this killer's perfect victims. And how people can disappear from their lives and no one seems to notice for months on end. I would hope that should I suddenly not be there my friends and family would notice a lot sooner. But I suppose my life is more stable and as such my absences would leave a bigger hole.
The author writes with a light touch making it easy to follow along with each of these women lives. This is a look at how a chain reaction of decisions leads them to come face to face with this unknown killer. As best I can tell he has not tried to gloss over aspects of there lives, and at no point did I feel he was coming across as judgemental about the dissension each of them made simply trying to convey the harsh reality of there lives and the modern world of prostitution. It is through this exploration that we can see how those women who use to work street corners now use the internet to find potential clients and tout there business. I am still none the wiser as to if this makes things safe for them, I would think not as it gives a great anonymity to these men who pay for sex. There is, after all, the reason why serial killers victims more times than not are sex workers. I can still member these crimes coming up on the nightly news, and for a week at least they were there. But then just as quick they where gone lost in another news cycle, and to be honest if it had not been for this book I probably would not have given it another thought. This I think has become the world we live in for better or worse, Horrendous crime happens then are easily forgotten. He does give a few chapters over to theories as to what took place, but as he admits they are just that and could be easily explained away as the usual feuding that goes on in small communities, why not blame the person of family you have a problem with for these crimes. People like to give faces to the unknown boogie man in the night.
I felt this book stand on its own, just to the side of others in its genre. To me, it has this incomplete feeling, without the apprehension of anyone for these crimes the reader is left at a slight loss. What I will say is that it for once gives you a better understanding of the victims and who they were. Their lives may not have been all they hoped for but they did not deserve to end up in a shallow grave off a highway.
It seems to me that every serial killer that has been or is out there now comes with there own true crime book. It doesn't seem to take long for an author to pop up with a detailed look at the killer's life and how the police put the peace together and sent them where they belong. So what then happens when the killer is not caught, when it seems like the police are chasing their own tails and no suspect has ever been named. Here we enter the world of Lost girls: Unsolved American Mystery. What can this boo offer the true crime lover?
When I first started this book I was expecting more on the side of the police investigation. If you have read a few true crime books they mostly follow a certain layout. As the chapter roll on you have a good sense of what is to come. But with this book it's different, to the best of my knowledge this killer or killers are still at large. So we have none of the usual tropes, what we do get is an in-depth look into the lives of there victims. It is harrowing look into the dark side of the American dream and the length some women chose to go to earn money. In each case, we get a semi-detailed look into events that would shape them into becoming this killer's perfect victims. And how people can disappear from their lives and no one seems to notice for months on end. I would hope that should I suddenly not be there my friends and family would notice a lot sooner. But I suppose my life is more stable and as such my absences would leave a bigger hole.
The author writes with a light touch making it easy to follow along with each of these women lives. This is a look at how a chain reaction of decisions leads them to come face to face with this unknown killer. As best I can tell he has not tried to gloss over aspects of there lives, and at no point did I feel he was coming across as judgemental about the dissension each of them made simply trying to convey the harsh reality of there lives and the modern world of prostitution. It is through this exploration that we can see how those women who use to work street corners now use the internet to find potential clients and tout there business. I am still none the wiser as to if this makes things safe for them, I would think not as it gives a great anonymity to these men who pay for sex. There is, after all, the reason why serial killers victims more times than not are sex workers. I can still member these crimes coming up on the nightly news, and for a week at least they were there. But then just as quick they where gone lost in another news cycle, and to be honest if it had not been for this book I probably would not have given it another thought. This I think has become the world we live in for better or worse, Horrendous crime happens then are easily forgotten. He does give a few chapters over to theories as to what took place, but as he admits they are just that and could be easily explained away as the usual feuding that goes on in small communities, why not blame the person of family you have a problem with for these crimes. People like to give faces to the unknown boogie man in the night.
I felt this book stand on its own, just to the side of others in its genre. To me, it has this incomplete feeling, without the apprehension of anyone for these crimes the reader is left at a slight loss. What I will say is that it for once gives you a better understanding of the victims and who they were. Their lives may not have been all they hoped for but they did not deserve to end up in a shallow grave off a highway.
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