num_pages: 288
description: From the detective who found The Golden State Killer a memoir of investigating Americas toughest cold cases and the rewards--and toll--of a life solving crime. I order another bourbon neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I dont even know how I got here to this place to this point. Something is happening to me lately. Im 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 cant 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 Ive had plenty of both. But I had always taken pride in the fact that I can keep my feelings locked up to get the job done. Its 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 joyeven fatherhoodbecause the pursuit of evil always came first. Did I make the right choice? Its 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 dont 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.
language: English
title: Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases
publisher: Celadon Books