Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases

How it reads

Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases is narrative nonfiction (true crime memoir, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in several locations, in the recent past, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are justice, secrets and redemption. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 288 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.