Liars and Saints

I'm excited about "I'll Be Gone in the Dark," a docuseries set to premiere on HBO this Sunday. I'm excited for a few reasons: *Liz Garbus. You won't see her on camera, but she is the brain behind the story. Garbus's curiosity and intelligence are often on display on TV. They're on display in "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane" and in "Who Killed Garrett Phillips" -- two of my favorite documentaries. They're on display in "Lost Girls," an intermittently-successful film on Netflix. (Even when Garbus doesn't knock one out of the park, she still gives you a thoughtful study of gender in America, and an opportunity to see Amy Ryan being ballsy, scene after scene.) *Patton Oswalt. "Gone in the Dark" is (oddly) one of the great love stories in recent years, and I look forward to seeing Oswalt describing his efforts to finish his wife's work after her death. *Michelle McNamara. Ms. McNamara ...

Did you spend the weekend contemplating Burke Ramsey's (possible) involvement in the death of Jonbenet? Then tune in here! Some thoughts.... -You can tell a great deal from a title. Michelle McNamara's beautiful site--"True Crime Diary"--has a modest, thoughtful title. (McNamara wrote one of my all-time favorite books, "I'll Be Gone in the Dark," and I wish someone else would do something similarly great this year.) By contrast, the inconsistent, sloppy site "True Crime Diva" has a title that seems to broadcast the fact of its writer's prickliness. And, indeed, the writer is a diva--and not in a "positive" sense. She proudly announces that she won't correct factual inaccuracies in her own writing. She brazenly speculates without a great deal of evidence. (Her Maura Murray post is one example of real *unearned* confidence.) Worst, True Crime Diva is bizarrely rude and aggressive when people raise questions about her the...

Recently, I sat with an acquaintance and discussed books of the year. My acquaintance is rather proper and politically-minded, so he went on and on about Tayari Jones and Roxane Gay, and I imagine it felt good and virtuous to describe these well-respected writers and their widely-lauded works. My choice, though, for book of the year was something far more lurid. It was "I'll Be Gone in the Dark," by Michelle McNamara. I continued to think about it over the weekend. Indeed, how could anyone stop thinking about it? Certain details are etched permanently in my mind. The way the killer would stick a teacup on top of a victim's heaving chest; he would say, "If you make a sound, if that cup moves an inch, everything will fall and crack. If I hear a crack, you are dead." So then, basically, the person couldn't breathe. The way the killer actually went to a town hall meeting and heard someone complain about him--then sought out and targeted this understand...