Book Review: I Know Who You Are

 

I Know Who You Are

How an Amateur DNA Sleuth Unmasked the Golden State Killer and Changed Crime Fighting Forever

Pub Date 07 Feb 2023 

 Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine,  Ballantine Books

 Biographies & Memoirs 

I am reviewing a copy of I Know Who You Are through Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine Books and Netgalley:

The Golden State Killer terrorized California for twelve years, stalking victims and killing without remorse. During the next forty-four years, he simply disappeared, until an amateur DNA sleuth opened her laptop and discovered his identity. In I Know Who You Are, Barbara Rae-Venter reveals how she went from researching her family history as a retiree to searching for a notorious serial killer—and how she became the nation’s leading authority on investigative genetic genealogy, the most brilliantly novel weapon available for combating crime for decades. 

Throughout the book, Rae-Venter guides readers through the many cases she worked on, often beginning with little more than a DNA sample. From the first criminal case she ever solved-uncovering the long-lost identity of a child abductee-to the heartbreaking story of the Billboard Boy, whose skeletal remains were discovered along a highway-to the search for the Golden State Killer-Rae-Venter shares haunting, sometimes thrilling accounts of how she helped solve some of America’s most chilling cold cases within just three years.

For each investigation, Rae-Venter provides an insight into her unique "grasshopper mind" as she analyzes DNA data and examines obituaries, marriage records, and old newspaper articles. The reader joins her on urgent calls with sheriffs, FBI agents, and district attorneys as she details the struggle to obtain usable crime scene DNA samples until, at last, an important piece of the puzzle falls into place.

Throughout I Know Who You Are, Rae-Venter conveys both the exhilaration of the discovery and the sheer depth of emotion that lingers around cold cases, which informs her meticulous approach to her work. It is the story of relentless curiosity, of constant invention and reinvention, and of humans striving to answer the most fundamental questions about themselves: What is identity? Where do we belong? And are we truly who we think we are?

I give I Know Who You Are five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!