Informative and chilling

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While I'm not one to read much non-fiction, growing up I've always been fascinated by CSI and murder mysteries that were usually glorified due to TV shows. Unmasked unveils what the everyday person doesn't see. Being a criminalist, you have to have a strong stomach for and also be meticulous with details and evidence collecting, and be able to connect the dots - who, how, why with motive and intent being a huge factor. Trying to picture what the victims go through is terrifying and gutwrenching. These people are brutally murdered and Paul doesn't just do his job, it becomes his obsession finding out who so they can be brought to justice and bring peace to the victims families and the community.

There were a few things that really stood out to me and I found upsetting. But I guess it's the reality we live in. I think it's something that needs to change. Yes, I'm all for police REFORM.
1. We already know that the news only wants to show is what THEY want to show. To the media, it's not news when it's a poor neighborhood, people of color, or gang violence, etc. But it's news when it's people from affluent neighborhoods who are murdered.
2. The department's budget doesn't always allow for all cases to be worked on to be solved. So after some time or when the statute of limitations has expired, those cases go cold so they would focus on more recent homicides instead. While that's understandable, but it's not an easy feeling knowing that a serial killer still has not been caught and there's no point after a certain amount of time because any new evidence can't be used.
3. People within the department complaining they are being given too much work so it takes months, even years to get results. This would coincide with budget issues. Not enough employees in the lab or working on the case. By then the statute of limitations could have expired and all that previous work is now moot.
4. Department and county jurisdiction and territory. Instead of working together when a serial killer is moving around the state, sometimes they don't work together because they want to be the ones to solve such a huge cold case. The egos of *some* of these people who work in law enforcement need to get over themselves. It's disguisting and the power trip *some* have these days is astounding. Especially when these atrocities are done by either one of their own or by a former law enforcement officer. These are the types of people who don't care about other people, only themselves and getting the credit and recognition is more important. That's scary to me.
5. The politics. Interoffice relationships, coworkers you think you were good with are actually jealous and feel so and so is getting preferential treatment. Being told which cases they can and cannot work on because the "higher ups" want you to work on a "more important" case. This is all of the points above combined.

I thought that this was a very informative and personal story from Paul. He also talks about his personal life and how his job and his focus on the job leads him to unintentioanlly neglecting his family. The sacrifices he has made to find the killers is noble in my opinion. While there were parts that can be hard to read due to the graphic nature of his job, I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to BookishFirst and Celadon Book for the ARC. My opinions are my own.