Our Take

True crime memoirs from investigators are rarely this candid. Holes doesn't position himself as a hero—he's too honest about the psychological wreckage of his career for that. The darkness he absorbed over decades of working homicides seeps into the writing itself, and the result is something unusually raw for the genre. This isn't a procedural dressed up as a memoir; it's a genuine reckoning with what it means to dedicate your life to evil so others don't have to face it alone.

The case material is gripping on its own terms—Holes has an investigator's eye for the detail that matters and a storyteller's instinct for when to slow down—but the memoir threads give Unmasked its staying power. Readers who've followed Holes through his podcast work or the Golden State Killer coverage will find new dimensions here. Those coming in fresh will find one of the more complete portraits of investigative obsession the genre has produced.

Readers who devoured I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara or American Predator by Maureen Callahan will find Holes in essential company. A True Crime Tuesday pick that lingers well past the last page.