Unmasked

February 1, 2022

In this candid, poignant memoir, Holes, with cowriter Fisher (After the Fire: A True Story of Friendship and Survival), reflects on a long career as a criminalist and detective. Though Holes was involved in high-profile investigations, including the murder of Laci Peterson and the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, it wasn't until he helped identify the Golden State Killer that he was catapulted into the public eye. Holes began searching for the Golden State Killer in 1994 after coming across an old file detailing years of crimes, and the case stayed with him over the course of his career. He retired in March 2018, and the alleged Golden State Killer was arrested the following month--in large part because of Holes's work gathering evidence and using emerging technology in DNA profiling. Holes effectively balances true crime and memoir, writing with empathy and self-awareness about the emotional impact of his work and the toll it took on his marriage. His refreshing honesty sets the book apart from similar memoirs by detectives, who aren't always this forthcoming about coping with trauma. VERDICT A captivating memoir of a life dedicated to cold cases. Hand to readers who appreciated Sue Black's All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes.--Kate Bellody

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Starred review from February 21, 2022
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.

March 1, 2022
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.

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March 1, 2022
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.

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