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(More customer reviews)A lot of other reviews note the stretches, hunches and speculation that appear in this book as its primary weaknesses. None of them, however, note that most police work is based on hunches and stretches, and most crimes are solved through nearly blind speculation. In fact, crafting the opening salvo of solving a crime is all speculation, as the only people who were actually at the scene as the crime took place were the victims and their killer, not the police. Thus, the speculation is necessary to approach the task of solving any crime. As a result, the loose ends in this book are a very necessary and a common component to solving any crime.
The Zodiac killings are very close to me as I am a lifelong resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. David Berkowitz was in New York City, Jack the Ripper was a phantom of London and the Manson Family had operated primarily in Southern California. All were far, far away. The Zodiac was right in my backyard. To this day I still get chills when after passing over the Benicia Bridge, I see the green traffic sign hanging over the highway that reads, "Lake Herman Road, Next Right". Lake Herman Road of course, being where the Zodiac first struck by murdering teens Betty Lou Jensen and David Faraday, as they sat parked in a remote lover's lane.
The constant interest and apparent obsession with the Zodiac murders is concentrated around two facts of the case: firstly that the Zodiac was never caught. All this book and most others do is outline what the author believes to be the best, most likely suspect. The other reason why people are so drawn to this case is the odd and mysterious way the killer stalked his victims and taunted the police after the crimes. After a killing, the Zodiac would usually call in and report his own crime. More shocking than that, he usually did it within sight of the police stations he had been taunting. If that weren't enough, he wrote ciphers, or coded messages, and sent them into the local newspapers. Some of these ciphers were solved, yet many were not despite the best efforts of the law enforcement community throughout North America.
Graysmith takes us on a rollercoaster ride as the crimes are committed. The reader can visualize and feel the cold, dark night on Lake Herman Road. The same feeling is present when the man who stalked Darlene Ferrin for months prior shows up just a few miles down the same Lake Herman Road where the first double murder was committed, on a turn out for the golf course at Blue Rock Springs. It's here where he takes the life of Darlene and leaves Mike Mageau clinging to life. The reader is transported to the remote, grassy peninsula by Lake Berryessa where the Zodiac first donned his executioner's costume, and where he stalked his victims, leaving only one of them barely alive. Finally, we get inside Paul Stine's cab with the Zodiac as he commits his most infamous crime on the cold, damp streets of the Presidio Heights of San Francisco. Graysmith goes into great detail to make the crimes as real as possible to us, allowing the reader to view the crimes from nearly every angle. The Zodiac's infamous calls to the police and letters to the newspapers are sprinkled throughout, setting the stage for the nationwide manhunt.
After the rollercoaster ride that is the Zodiac's killing spree, we are immersed into the facts of the crimes, the strange coincidences and the lives of those chasing the Zodiac. We are even introduced to unsolved murders that are not credited to the Zodiac, but have the same traits as Zodiac crimes and are within what is considered to be the Zodiac's territory. Graysmith explains to us how he became involved and how a novice approach yielded the best Zodiac suspect and the one widely excepted as the most likely by the law enforcement officials closest to the case. In a pure literary sense, this book is as engaging and riveting as they come. I don't believe it to be a scary book; some people mentioned that they wouldn't read it late at night or while alone. In fact, those are the only times I did read it. The setting in which a book is enjoyed is an important element to how the book's presentation comes off to the reader. I remember reading it on a cold night, with the rain beating against my windows. It took me out and made me think of how quiet and cold Lake Herman Road must have been at that moment. A place where people say that a haunting, grey fog still sits over the road and the place of the murders...even after the rest of the fog as blown inland, or on a night where no fog is present anywhere else.
If you're into true crime or even some Northern California history, this book is a must read. Take it all with a grain of salt, don't allow the author's conclusions to automatically become yours. Instead, take the book in, try and put yourself into the scenes and try to solve the crimes yourself. The Zodiac murders have captivated the minds of novice detectives and common folk alike; so don't be surprised if you end up with the urge to read this book a second and third time. I know I did.
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