Lost Girls

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery (2013) by Robert Kolker. Investigative reporter Kolker delivers a true-life account of the search for a serial killer still at large on Long Island, in a mildly compelling tale of unsolved murder and Internet prostitution. There are several murder victims enumerated in this book, and some of them have not yet been identified. Kolker provides us with several possible suspects, but the police are yet to be convinced who is responsible for the deaths of about ten prostitutes who used Craigslist to hook up with their clients. Perhaps the book's most interesting aspect is how Kolker has researched and revealed the shadowy world of Internet prostitution, and how it makes it so easy for a would-be killer to find his victims. The details that Kolker gets into about the reactions of the families of the murdered escorts are less interesting, and begin to feel like just padding. I found this book readable, but the plethora of victims and their relatives and suspects just got to be too much after a while. Grade: B