I Will Find You: Solving Killer Cases from My Life Fighting Crime
Written and Narrated By: Joe Kenda
Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
Wow—I had no idea Colorado Springs was so freakin’ disturbing…!
A couple of things up front:
I’ve never ever watched “Homicide Hunter,” and I’m sooo totally NOT interested in watching “Mindhunter” because I think (retired) FBI agent John Douglas is just way into himself. I’ve seen interviews of him where he sits, all priggish-like, and in a most “self-deprecating” manner, puts himself out there as THE only person who thought of profiling serial killers. Smug smug smug.
Then too, when I told my sister that I wanted to do this audiobook, I Will Find You by Joe Kenda, she interjected that golly, the dude seemed full of himself as there were a multitude of photos of him, juuuust hiiiim. So I got kinda sorta worried, but then I started listening to it.
Let’s just start off with the fact that the man reads his own work very well. I thought it was a bit dry, but fairly soon his sense of humor won me over. Talk about a dead pan (Oooh! A pun) delivery! He twiiiiiiists the gory bit, then POPS ya with a wry one-liner! HiLARious!
Also, this isn’t a too terribly graphic book. I mean, sure, it’s not for the faint of heart, but I dunno. Maybe I just did way too much True Crime reading back when I was in my twenties (Ever heard of PeeWee Gaskins? Oh. My. GOD!), but I didn’t have nightmares after listening to this audiobook. Neither have I found myself all twitchy walking by myself to the nearby Walmart at night (Which is probably pretty stupid of me, now that I think about it).
But it is indeed a haunting work, and I can very much see how Mr. Kenda came to be haunted, came to be angry, came to be completely and unutterably traumatized and suffering from PTSD. I mean, he’s seen some really twisted stuff that people do to each other, and some of the things he’s seen done to mere children? Well, I dunno. I never fancied myself to be weepy about children (Tho’ I do get a tad Mama Bear-ish about the kids I work with), but Mr. Kenda, Joe if I may, is an exTREMEly intelligent and insightful man, and his manner of describing such things is awful… to say the least…
I s’pose what I liked the most about this was the way he ended his book with a sort of healing of the spirit, a sort of airing of his nightmares. He’s made some odd-seeming choices which have benefited not only him but many others as well (Don’t believe me? Just listen to when he gets to the part about deciding to drive a “short bus” after his retirement as a detective. The guy just has a way with kids, with the disturbed, with those needing a firm yet kind hand).
If you want True Crime, but you don’t want the TOTAL horror show, give this one a try. Gruesome and haunting without being unbearably traumatizing to the self, plus it’s written with style and with wit.
Whoulda thunk that crime could be so entertaining? And who wants any ol’ fake police show on TV when there’s Joe with a story of terror, and a desperately clever quip or two?
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