Chase Darkness With Me is such an interesting insight into the side of true crime we rarely get to see. Billy Jensen has a very readable style and the writing is great. This is a great book for true crime fans, murderinos and budding investigators. Captivating!

Jensen has an easy, gripping way of writing. It felt more like sitting back with an old friend and a drink, listening to what he’s been up to for the past few years. The middle was a little disjointed—I had a hard time keeping track of all of the different cases. The ending was a bit more “call to action” than I like from nonfiction, but I get it. If you watch a lot of Investigations Discovery at night, this is for you. #netgalley

Journalist Billy Jensen has built his career on solving cold case murders, often using information found on social media and in other places the police don’t think to look. When detectives have no answers, they call Billy, the world’s first digital “consulting detective.” Step inside the world of true crime as Billy solves the Halloween Mask Murder, finds a murder/fugitive hiding out in Mexico, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. Readers will also follow Billy closely as he helps finish Michelle McNamara’s #1 New York Times bestseller I’ll Be Gone In the Dark, after her sudden death. Full of twists, turns, and rabbit holes, Chase Darkness with Me allows readers to ride shotgun with Billy as he uses groundbreaking techniques to identify the criminals behind seemingly unsolvable murders
This was a pretty good book. Billy Jensen definitely has a way with words that pulls any true crime fanatic. My only issue was getting through how he got started before getting to the crimes! It’s a great read. I highly recommend.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

Billy Jensen is a master storyteller and a brilliant "detective". If you have any interest in true crime, this is the book for you! Jensen starts from the beginning of his writing career and takes you through the major events that have modeled him into the man he is today. This story is riveting and emotional. From losing Michelle McNamara to solving the case of the Green Hoodie Man, you will learn just how hard it is to live in the world of unsolved mysteries.

4.5 star read for me. The book helped me understand the journey the author had undertaken in his life. The story made me feel so much for all the people who have lost their loved ones to crimes, murders and killings. I found the book to be powerful in the way it portrayed each case and helped us understand the gravity of each of them. True crime lovers should definitely pick this book up and give it a read. Don't miss it.

For many years, the author, Billy Jensen, was an investigative journalist, writing about unsolved crimes and trying to help the families of victims by bringing renewed attention to these cold cases. He became increasingly frustrated with the many cases that remained unsolved. Despite diligent police work, the sheer number of cases made it impossible to investigate them all fully. Existing resources weren’t sufficient to investigate cold cases as well as the increasing number of new cases.
Shaken by the unexpected death of his dear friend, Michelle MacNamara, who had spent years searching for the identity of the Golden State Killer, he decided to become more actively involved in tracking down criminals. His background in the digital world led him to take full advantage of social media to investigate these crimes. Finding this innovative method to be very effective, he was able to help the police to catch and convict at least ten vicious killers, including the elusive Golden State Killer.
Although police gave little credit to Michelle MacNamara for her invaluable help, without her exhaustive investigation, the Golden State Killer probably would not have been caught as soon as he was. At the time of her sudden death, MacNamara had been writing a book about her search for this killer. Billy Jensen, with the blessing of MacNamara’s loved ones, was able to finish this book. It was entitled I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, and it became a bestseller.
The overwhelming backload of cold cases led Jensen to begin recruiting others like him who had the time and determination to help. He produced a television series called “Crime Watch Daily” and co hosts a podcast called “The Murder Squad”. His success in doing this important work of bringing killers to justice, he credits to his father who instilled in him the tenacity and dogged determination to make wrong things right.

Fascinating and unforgettable. Recommended reading, especially for true crime aficionados.

Note: I received an advance copy of the ebook from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was great! I wanted to read this one since I found out Billy Jensen was writing a book, but I honestly did not expect to love it so much.
Billy has a way to explain things, that make you feel very much part of what he's doing, and his zeal and energy is so contagious. As a true crime enthusiast (I'm obviously not a fan of the crime itself), it is so important to see someone take that same enthusiasm and make it into something altruist and good and kind and amazing. And the fact that he explains, in a very detailed way, how you can do the same at home, is even better.
I hope he gets all the funding he needs in order to find as many bad guys as possible, and I also hope he writes another book sometime, because I really enjoyed his writing style! 5 stars!

If you've heard about the Golden State Killer or read Michelle McNamara's fascinating book, I'll Be Gone in the Dark, you'll want to read Chase Darkness with Me, by her friend and fellow crime writer, Billy Jensen. Jensen, a journalist who says he's written about crime for some 17 years, was inspired to help track down several missing persons and solve or help solve ten homicides. He also helped finish McNamara's book, which was left incomplete after her unexpected and sudden death.

Jensen gives fascinating insights into how criminals are pursued and caught, and his compassion for victims is clear and compelling. Highly recommended for true crime readers.

“People read and watch and listen to true crime because it restores order from chaos.” Telling the real stories of searching for, and sometimes finding, murderers that eluded the police, Chase Darkness with Me is true crime at its best.

A crime reporter decides to use targeted Facebook ads and crowdsourcing to solve cold cases. Through hard work, he finds some killers along with his crime-solving partner, Michelle. When Michelle dies, he finishes her book about finding the Golden State Killer. He starts a podcast. He looks for more killers.

The completely new method of using crowdsourcing to solve crime is detailed here. The last chapter is a handbook on how to do what he has done—chase criminals. If you are a murderino or a true crime buff, Chase Darkness with Me is going to be your favorite book of 2019. For casual thriller or mystery readers, the stories showing how the author catches criminals are surprising and fascinating. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars!

Thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book is amazing. Billy Jensen is amazing.
Jensen's career path has been a noble one, and it appears that he is not slowing down any time soon. The stories that Billy tells are fascinating, and the hard work and money he has poured into helping families find answers is incredible. I particularly enjoyed reading about his decision to ONLY chase cold cases. I was frustrated for him, and with him as stories that feel like they should be possible to solve remain cold.
Read it. Learn about Billy Jensen. He's amazing. His life is fascinating.

If you read the true crime book I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, you would be familiar with the name Billy Jensen, an investigative journalist who together with Paul Haynes and Patton Oswalt (McNamara's widow) completed her book following her sudden death in 2016. Imagine how thrilled I was when Billy Jensen published his own story. I know I had to read it.

Chase Darkness With Me chronicles Jensen's journey from his humble beginnings as an investigative journalist to how he later on known as the world's first digital "consulting detective." This is a part true crime book and part memoir. It is an eye-opening book for me. I am aware that there are a lot of cold cases out there, but what I did not know was there are way too many cold cases, and under-resourced police departments is one of the reasons that these cases are piling up each day. Jensen started his crime solving career by crowdsourcing - seeking help from the public through social media. I think it is brilliant! What Jensen has achieved here and is still doing plays a pivotal role in solving cold cases especially giving a closure to the family of the victims.

This is a wonderful read and would be appealing to true crime fans, although some sections of the book seem "jumpy" and repetitive. There are litany of cases (solved and unsolved) discussed in this book and it is such a great feeling when cases are solved, more so when they are solved with the help from the public. At the end of this book, Jensen gives three rules and some practical tips on how to help to solve murders as he believes that "crowdsourcing can be the most powerful tool next to DNA to help solve cold cases." I couldn't agree more! The help from the public is powerful and we need to get loud. "If the police claim they don't have the manpower to build the family tree, we need to get loud. Start fundraisers. Recruit volunteers. You reading this book are deputized. Go get a megaphone."


***I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from SOURCEBOOKS (non-fiction) through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed in this review are my own and was not influenced by the author, publisher or any third party.***

This book was truly amazing. i loved how we can still find people in this world that aren't so self-absorbed and go to lengthways to help others.
From tragedies rise empathy always, especially for a journalist that has to write about said horror crimes and always having in mind the family or people closed to those deceased. After witnessing so many unsolved crimes, he takes his own work on the field and shows us how, with a little willing and with a bit of more awareness, some clues can help to solve mysteries.
I'll be recommending this book to anyone who enjoys a really good read.

If you're into true crime in general or the podcast My Favorite Murder in particular, you know who Billy Jensen is. He helped finish Michelle McNamara's book (I'll Be Gone in the Dark) after her sudden death, and now he's written his own book. He discusses the Golden State Killer, of course, and his search to identify the woman and three children found in barrels (his two most well-known cases) but he discusses other cases, too.

Perhaps most valuable, he discusses how people can help him solve cold cases. (There's an addendum with tips, including important things not to do.) There's also a conversation with Paul Holes, which is very fun for true crime buffs and fans of their podcast, The Murder Squad.

I know we have a lot of true crime books out now, and you may be feeling incredibly burned out on the topic. Billy Jensen's book will likely help you turn that around. His writing style is engaging but it also is full of passion to get these cases solved and find answers for the victims' families. It's a combination that I think many people will...I don't want to say "enjoy," because this isn't a particularly fun book to read. It's full of many people's worst moments. But if there's one thing that I hope brings solace to those people, it's knowing that others care as much as they do, and will not rest until they can find answers. Possibly the worst thing about grief is feeling like you're the only person who remembers the person lost, and Billy Jensen is careful to keep the focus on victims and not on the murderer. (For example, most people can't name the women that Ted Bundy killed, but everyone knows his name and appearance.)

I loved this book and I hope that we get a follow up. Highly recommended.

I was introduced to Billy Jensen because of his help/involvement with "I'll Be Gone In The Dark". Chase Darkness with Me is the story of Billy's involvement with true crime and solving the unsolvable.

I loved this book. LOVED IT. There's so much to say about it but putting it into words is difficult. This is a man who grew up with a father who hid nothing. A man with a passion to solve crimes at any cost. A man who lost his friend and helped finish a masterpiece that led the solving a long unsolved serial killer mystery.

Billy, much like many of us, is living for his father, his family, and for those who no longer have a voice.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and Billy Jensen for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A must read for true crime junkies! I was so excited to receive approval for this book. This is the perfect way to end my summer filled with true crime books.

Chase Darkness With Me is as much memoir of Jensen himself, detailing how his relationship with his father - one of the strongest parts of the book for me - inspired his desire to uncover truths, as it is about the crimes he investigates. He becomes a man on a mission. After years of frustration from covering crime for a number of newspapers and online publications, but being unable to do anything to help the victims or their families, he turned investigator. 

Jensen begins the account of his investigative life telling the story of how he used the power of social media to track down the "man in a green hoodie" that was involved in the murder of Marques Gaines in Chicago. He describes how he used both Twitter and Facebook's targeted advertising tools to force his posts searching for information about a key suspect in the case to go viral. And it worked. A number of other cases using the same methods followed - with varying success. 

It is these descriptions of using new technology to solve old crimes that I found the most fascinating part of the book. Jensen is a big advocate of using methods as disparate as social media and the DNA databases attached to genealogy services to solve as many crimes as possible. 

The book has a vague structure but Jensen dots around all over the place. Talking about one crime in one sentence and jumping onto another in the next before returning to it chapters later. I enjoyed this scattergun aspect as it follows the chaos of undertaking all these different investigations simultaneously. Along with Jensen's warm writing style it makes for a fast paced and intense read that I really appreciated.  

There were some aspects of the book that rubbed me the wrong way. At the end Jensen includes an addendum detailing how anyone can get involved in being citizen detectives. While I appreciate that this is well intentioned, and Jensen is looking for ways to get more people involved in his nigh on impossible task of solving hundreds of thousands of murders, I worry this isn't the way to do it. 

Jensen sets out clear guidelines and rules about what to do, and what to absolutely not do, as a citizen detective. But in the days of online witch-hunts and numerous cases of the digital mob we have seen time and time again how these things can go south incredibly rapidly. I would hope that anyone taking this task to heart would follow the guidelines laid out by Jensen but others shouldn't be encouraged. 

That said, overall I enjoyed Chase Darkness With Me, Jensen manages to write true crime, and recent cases at that, without losing sight of the fact he is dealing with real victims, real families of victims and, potentially, people who might be falsely accused. I just hope that the people who have been encouraged to join him also keep sight of this.

It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized I wasn’t alone, that I wasn’t weird for being incredibly intrigued by true crime. Billy says we all have an origin story. That if you think about it for a minute, you just might realize what first got you interested in crime. For me, it was Silence of the Lambs. I wanted to be Jodie Foster so, so bad. Then there was the OJ trial. I remember watching the chase in my basement, the trial after that. Then there were the crime novels and then a book called “The Most Infamous Serial Killers in History” that I found at a bookstore. There was the family member/detective that would share old police reports with me. I would go over those like Indiana Jones with a treasure map. I went to school for criminology and criminal justice. I wanted to investigate, I wanted to profile. I wanted to catch the bad guy. Then CSI made everything cool and jobs scarce and I got married and had kids.

It wasn’t until years later, after I packed my killer books away because my husband said it probably wasn’t appropriate for our girls to see them, after I started working again after being a stay at home mom, that I met Sarah. Through Sarah, I found sort of a kindred spirit. “How have you not heard of My Favorite Murder?!” she asked one day after we stumbled upon the realization that we both loved true crime. From Sarah, I found Karen and Georgia. From Karen and Georgia, I found Michelle McNamara and others like me. We are called ‘murderinos’. Through them and Karen and Georgia, I found Billy.

Billy Jensen’s Chase Darkness with Me is an ode to true crimerinos everywhere. We’re no longer the weird ones. The ones who have a weird affinity for death and crime. We’re the ones who want answers. We’re the ones who might just find those answers. We’re Batman. Chase Darkness with Me is Billy’s journey to what he’s doing now. He talks about the late nights, how social media is changing the way crimes are solved, how people like you and me and him are starting to make a difference. He even lets you in on his relationship with his dad. I feel like that’s an honor in and of itself.

Not only does Billy go over his journey, he talks a lot about Michelle and finishing her journey. What it was like when The Golden State Killer, the moniker she penned for the monster, was finally apprehended, found completely clueless with a roast in the oven. All thanks to familial DNA and Michelle’s tenacity.

He talks you through what to do if you want to do what he does. If you want to become a hunter. If you want to help solve crime. He talks of what mistakes to avoid, best practices to use. He makes so many damn good points that I want to highlight them all for you.

Reading Chase Darkness with Me is like being let into a club you didn’t know existed. You feel Billy’s highs, his excitement, you feel his disappointment and his losses. And all of these cases are real. Some still ongoing, some having been solved. Billy is now in partnership with Paul Holes (who once said that Michelle was like his partner) in a podcast called The Murder Squad: Jenson and Holes. While I still haven’t yet listened to every MFM episode (sorry!), Jenson and Holes has been added to my playlist.

If you like true crime, this book is 150% for you. You will love it, highlight it, read it again, and cherish it. It’s a book for us.

I received a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I’d like to preface this review by saying I’m a Murderino, a term adopted by “My Favorite Murder” listeners and fans as a calling card of the subset of people in our society who are fascinated by true crime, mostly by the heinous act of murder, what leads to it, what makes a murderer tick, and finding justice for victims. As I sit here typing my thoughts–days after finishing Jensen’s book–I am watching season 2 of Mindhunter, with BAU agents Ford and Tensch (Jonathan Groff and Hold McCallany) questioning a rather convincing David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam”, played by a prosthetics-clad Oliver Cooper (whom– oddly enough–you won’t find credited in IMDB, even though he does a fantastic job).

That said, as a Murderino, I’m naturally inclined toward a morbid curiosity, one which so often draws me to stories of true crime. I’m also a fan of supporting the interests of our niche community, of which Billy Jensen is a part. However, that does not in any way mean that this book does not fully earn the 5 stars that I have given it, nor that I let that influence me–matter of fact, it made me extra critical. What it does mean is that my interests in it are driven by my own aforementioned inclinations and, quite frankly, whenever I had the chance to pick this up it was often difficult to set it back down.

Chase Darkness With Me is one part memoir, one part true crime anthology, one heaping scoop of how-to manual, and a dash of in memoriam for a fallen friend. It covers pieces of Jensen’s young life, including how he became interested in true crime and his beginnings as a journalist, eventually moving into the convergence of the two halves. As he progresses, it becomes clear how entwined these two pieces became as he tells us bits of his personal life in between descriptions of the murder and missing persons cases he worked on. Some of these cases were rather high-profile. Not just the GSK, but also the Allentown Murders investigation (known by some as the Bear Creek case) and the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting (which happened while he was on vacation in Orlando), among others. However, he mostly wanted to help with the less high-profile cases, the ones that weren’t getting media exposure and were, therefore, less likely to be solved without some help. He described the way in which he was involved and the techniques he used to bring attention and much-needed tips for finding the identity of perpetrators and information on where missing persons were last seen.

It also talks about his relationship with his friend and professional partner, the late Michelle McNamara, the brilliant mind whose interest and in-depth investigation into the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker–whom she coined the “Golden State Killer”–eventually helped to catch the serial offender behind these crimes. Although her partial victory was posthumous, through Jensen we get some insight into who McNamara was to her friends and family and how massively important her legacy was. We get the chance to witness the excitement on the night GSK was captured and justice could finally be served for so many victims and their families.

There is a lot of information within these pages and Jensen does not hide his reasoning behind writing it. As a front-lines champion of crowd source criminal investigation and a forefather of social media tip campaigns, his main interest is the recruitment of the right kind of people to help along investigations in the same way that he has done. It’s too much for one man to take on and too many people are getting away with literal murder every year. The homicide detectives charged with investigating these murders are often so buried that they don’t always have the time or manpower required to do so, especially as crime doesn’t take a day off. However, the victims and their families need justice, and there are things that civilians can do to help, even if it feels like something small. Jensen provides a step by step guide to those who wish to contribute in the same way he has, which has proven successful on more than one occasion, but definitely isn’t for the undedicated or faint of heart.

Chase Darkness With Me is a not necessarily a window into Jensen’s life and passion, it is more like a sliding glass door. He beckons us towards it, allowing us to see not only the things he has experienced and been involved in, but also the details into his methodology–the ways in which he has accomplished the things he’s done. He then asks those who are brave enough to come out of their comfort zone–to grip the handle of this door, slide it open, and follow his lead–and help him chase the darkness.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing an advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review!

Choose Darkness With Me is a fascinating account of Billy Jensen’s passion for investigating unsolved crimes, and developing new strategies with which to solve them.

“Whenever people ask me why I only write about unsolved murders, I always say the same thing: because I hate the guy who got away with it.”

Jensen’s obsession with true crime began in childhood, inspired in part by his dad’s rather inappropriate bedtime stories. After earning a degree in Religion, and forays into a range of diverse professions including house painting, web marketing, and professional roller hockey, Jensen became a journalist. Landing a job as a stringer he was on course to be a crime beat reporter but quickly realised that he wasn’t comfortable just writing about the awful things that happened to people. He wanted to help, and turned his focus to the hundreds of thousands of missing persons, and unsolved murders mainstream media deemed ‘low profile’, eventually leading to the development of the website ‘True Crime Daily’, and a desire to reinvent the way true crime stories are told, and solved, through the use of television, mobile and web.

The potential of crowdsourcing crime solving is something Jensen often discussed with the late Michelle McNamara while she was in pursuit of identifying The Golden State Killer. After her untimely death, Jensen helped to complete her book, “I’ll Be Gone In the Dark”, and was motivated to take more direct action.

“I’m not chasing people. I’m chasing shadows, phantoms that flit in and out of a surveillance video. That’s on a good night. On the other nights, I’m chasing darkness.”

Of course online armchair detectives have been active for years, Websleuths was launched in 1999, and they recognised the potential of social media as a source for solving crime early on. Jensen however claims to be one of the first to recognise the value geotargeted social media campaigns could have to help solve crime and set out to prove his theory. In Chase Darkness With Me he documents several intriguing cases in which geotargeting, primarily using Facebook’s and Twitter’s ‘boost’ tools (funded from his own pocket), in combination with other methods, has assisted in generating new leads, and even arrests, in cases deemed ‘cold’ by the police. This, Jensen believes, is something anyone can do, and to that end he also provides tips and advice for anyone interested in becoming a ‘Citizen Detective’.

“We are at the precipice of being able to solve more cold cases than ever before.... we need to get loud. Start fund-raisers. Recruit volunteers. You reading this book are deputized. Go get a megaphone.”

I found Chase Darkness With Me to be absolutely compelling reading. I’m certain those interested in true crime, law enforcement or related topics, will also find it entertaining and informative.

This is a story of a true crime journalist who went from reporting on unsolved cases to helping solve them. Anyone who has a interest in true crime has probably heard the name Billy Jensen before. Maybe it is from his work helping to finish the brilliant Michelle McNamara's book on the Golden State Killer, or perhaps you are a Muderino and know of him thanks to Karen and Georgia, or perhaps you are familiar with his work on Crime Watch Daily. The point is that he, obviously, has a lot of experience. It is this experience combined with his passion that makes Chase Darkness With Me so compelling.

The first thing that grabbed me about this book was the voice. There is a fair amount of humour mixed in and I feel like the reader really gets a sense for who Billy is. If you listen to his podcast, The Murder Squad, you'll immediately notice that Billy writes like he talks. This is someone confident in his voice as a writer and that makes for a strong read.

There is also an empathy that steeps out of the pages of this book. Billy is a man who cares deeply about the victims and the loved ones trying to get answers. You get the impression that some of these cases haunt him because of how much he cares. Any voyeristic or sensational tendencies that true crime tends to lean to are stripped away.

Billy takes the reader through various cases he has worked on and the different methods he used to try to solve them. Most fascinating is the way that Billy uses targeted ads to help solve cases. The same algorithms and technology that helps companies target potential customers is also being used to get particular details about a crime in front of the right people.

It's a must read for anyone with an interest in the true crime genre and entirely different from most of the books you would have read. It's a fascinating, and engaging, look at the good one man tries to do and the cases he's helped solve in a way that shines a light on how we look at and discuss true crime. It highlights the work that still needs to be done and gives the reader to tools to safely, effectively, and most important, ethically help if they so wish.

Billy has said before that the villains in true crime are so often the focus because they are larger than life but we need to shine a light on the heroes. He's pointed to Paul Holes as one such hero. I suspect that Billy would be too modest to consider himself to be among the heroes but this book proves exactly that. Billy's passion, dedication, and drive to help not just solve unsolved cases, but to also be an advocate for victims everywhere makes him one in my opinion. Thank you, Billy for not only striving to make the world a little bit safer but for being a voice for the voiceless.