Chase Darkness with Me
by Karen Kilgariff
Why You'll Love This
Billy Jensen got so fed up with unsolved murders he decided to solve them himself — and then he actually did.
- Great if you want: true crime that puts you inside an active investigation
- The experience: propulsive and raw — grief and obsession drive every chapter
- The writing: Jensen writes like a journalist on a deadline — direct, punchy, no filler
- Skip if: you prefer emotional distance from victims and their families
About This Book
There's a particular kind of person who has always been drawn to the dark — not out of morbidity, but out of a desperate need to understand it, to name it, to make sure victims aren't forgotten. Billy Jensen is that person. A crime journalist who spent fifteen years writing about unsolved murders, he eventually grew tired of stories without endings and decided to do something about it. Chase Darkness with Me follows him as he crosses the line from reporting on crimes to actively trying to solve them — a decision that is by turns thrilling, reckless, and deeply human. At its core, this is a book about grief, obsession, and what happens when someone refuses to look away.
What makes this book work on the page is Jensen's voice — blunt, self-aware, and unexpectedly funny for someone writing about such heavy material. He doesn't pose as a hero, which makes the moments of genuine breakthrough hit harder. The structure moves between past and present, between cases and personal reckoning, giving the book a momentum that feels less like a true-crime timeline and more like an honest memoir that happens to involve murder. Readers who appreciate confessional nonfiction with real investigative stakes will find plenty to chew on here.