Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery Paperback – May 6, 2014

I’m almost never interested in true crime writing, but found this book after an article I recently read regarding this heinous case. Kolker does an incredible job here— he treats each woman (and her family) with a gentle decency and grace, compassion, and genuine curiosity. I couldn’t put it down; it was some of the best non-fiction writing I’ve ever read.By bizarre happenstance, I was a few pages from the end of the book when the news broke that they finally arrested the suspected killer (July 14th 2023). I burst into tears at the news, genuinely surprising myself. The book had moved me so deeply, engaged me so thoroughly, and enraged me so fiercely on behalf of the victims and their families, that it felt like a true miracle to see this monster finally found and arrested. God rest the souls of these women, their families who are still alive and those who have passed on without ever knowing what happened, and God bless Kolker for shining a light (beautifully) on this horrific case.

I am an avid reader of murder mysteries. I don't know why I prefer this genre over others. I will leave that question to the social sciences. As books go, this one is well constructed, readable, and all the commas are in the right place. But It's a downer. And because it's a downer, I think it's good for people like me to read. It's good to be reminded that real people end up subject to brutality. It's good to be confronted with evidence that our culture does not, in fact, regard all human life as equally worthy. It's good to be compelled to acknowledge that violent crime leaves more than just the victim in pieces: It tears families apart, it leaves loved ones sick with guilt over wondering how they could have prevented it, it turns friendly--or at least civil--neighbors into beasts snarling at one another, straining at the chains of restraint or wisdom, wanting only to tear into one another. Finally, it is sobering to learn that in the real life versions of stories that I read for entertainment, seldom do grim-jawed heroes come bursting through the door at the last second, to save the innocent and bring the evildoers to justice. Lost Girls left me immensely sad because of its truth, I'm thinking of switching to comic books for awhile.

I must admit, I chose to read this book because it was listed as a New York Times Notable Book for 2013. I'm not usually a true-crime fan, but this story seemed quite gripping, and I felt sorry for these five women whose lives were almost nonexistent even before they died.Mr. Kolker obviously did a lot of work in tracking down the details of these women's pasts and how their bodies came to be found in marshland on a forgotten barrier island. The first half of the book talks about their childhoods, mostly about how awful they were. Other commentators have noted how hard it is to keep the details of each individual woman's story straight, as most of them were so similar in their experience of absent parents, foster care, abuse, drugs, and poverty. I had a lot of trouble myself, and had to go back in the book a few times to make sure what I was remembering about one woman was in fact the truth. Pictures of each woman would have helped a great deal, but there are none in the book.Their families and friends of the victims are given a lot of book time, probably too much. The amount of dysfunction every single one of them demonstrates becomes numbing after a while. Half of them accuse the other half of playing to the news cameras. The other half accuses the first half of not being upset or sensitive enough. Some are genuinely sympathetic, but most are alternately self-pitying, self-aggrandizing, and self-deceptive. And the 24 hour news cycle covers it all with salacious glee.There is also a lot of book time given to the community where the women's bodies were found. These people make Greenwich Village seem like Mayberry. They're almost totally cut off from the outside world, and they like it that way. All the outsiders coming into the area for the investigation seemed to bother them more than the dozen bodies that were discovered. And don't even get me started on how petty resentments between neighbors all of a sudden turned into accusations of murder, warranted or not.The police in charge of the investigation didn't come off as particularly intelligent or sympathetic either. They seemed more interested in dismissing the missing persons reports because the women were prostitutes, then covering their butts after actual bodies were found. The one cop mentioned by name who is even remotely heroic or motivated is a canine cop named Mallia who, along with his dog, discovered the bodies in the first place.I understand the book was meant as a commentary on how easy it is for women to sell themselves for sex in the internet age, and how dangerous their lives are. It was meant to humanize the faces of those who most of society considers, "throwaway people", prostitutes, drug addicts, the homeless. It was meant to show how callous and dismissive the police and society can be when these "throwaway people" go missing or are found murdered. But what came across to me most strongly was how pathetic and sad and similar these women's lives were.And here's the thing: each and every one of these women made a choice. It may have been the best choice out of a bad bunch, but they still made it. Yes their childhoods were terrible, yes their families were dysfunctional and poor, yes they were probably doomed from the time they were toddlers. But their profession was their choice. And not a one of them didn't have the opportunity to make different choices. Did they deserve or ask to be murdered? Of course not. The killer deserves to rot for what he did, and may still be doing. But to hold all of society responsible for these women's deaths is ridiculous.I'm giving this book three stars because a lot of it was very well-written, but there were enormous holes in the narrative. As others have commented, there is next to no firsthand information about the investigation itself. Sloppy as it seemed to the families and the media, I find it hard to believe that's the whole story. Second, the lack of pictures is a serious drawback, if only because it makes it that much harder to keep the women straight. This does them a huge disservice, and was part of the reason the author wrote the book in the first place, to make them known as individuals. A third problem is the lack of a conclusion. I understand the investigation is still ongoing, and that's no reason for journalists not to write about it, but a book would be more appropriate when there is more information.Overall, it was a very sad book. And I feel like I need a shower after reading it.

fast and easy, no hiccups

Robert Kolker's Lost Girls is an excellent read with a serious purpose: to tell the stories of five murder victims who worked as escorts while ensuring that they are seen as the whole human beings that they were. It is a sober examination of the lives and intersecting deaths of five women, and a reminder of the complexity of real life, as opposed to the simple, morally unambiguous narratives of most fictional crime stories in books or on TV.The book begins with Shannan Gilbert's panicked run from an escort out-call, calling 911 and banging on doors to ask for help, before she disappears into the darkness, never to be seen alive again. From there, Kolker winds back in time to delve into the background of the lives of Maureen, Megan, Melissa, Amber and Shannan and their families, exploring how they ended up working as escorts, their often-chaotic lives (many of the women struggled with addiction), and eventually their disappearance and death, and its effect on their loved ones.The Long Island serial killer (or killers) has not been caught, and the book makes it clear just how easy it is for women who live on the margins to go missing without much of a fuss being made, with police and emergency services either seeing them as "just" a prostitute, or not believing that the women are genuinely missing, instead putting their disappearances down to their messy lives. The other bodies found in the area and the questions over whether this was the work of one or multiple killers are more than a little chilling.Kolker interviews the families and friends of the women, local residents, suspects, and the police, taking as an objective a view as possible. His writing about the community near where the women were found evokes a strong sense of place as well as a sense of the close ties and simmering grudges of a small isolated town. He also draws a fascinating picture of the mixture of heartfelt support and infighting amongst the closest relatives of the victims once the bodies were found.This is an excellent and well-written piece of longform journalism that avoids the schlocky tendencies of a lot of true crime books. The focus is on the victims' lives, not their deaths or the person who killed them. Bubbling under the surface is an indictment of how our society treats women who work in the sex trade, both in life and in death. Highly recommended.

Agree entirely with first reviewer - could not have said it as well. We condemn these girls and treat them as disposable. The account of what happened to these escorts is factual and yet compassionate. It is thorough as far as we know and the author has organised the material remarkably well. Sad but true.

Fairly good overview of the Long Island Serial Killer mystery.

This is a superb book analysing the deaths of 5 prostitutes. Unlike more conventional true crime narratives it focuses on the women more than the police. What Kolker does is humanise the girls showing the myriad reasons why they came to sell their bodies. It's a very human, heart-breaking book which explores working class life in modern America; shocking police attitudes to prostitutes and the suspects in the case many of whom are diabolical people out for publicity.There is no gawky shock or cheap thrills. This is a book about five women that were murdered.