Gone at Midnight
The Tragic True Story Behind the Unsolved Internet Sensation
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3.6 • 31 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A missing young woman. A Los Angeles hotel with a haunting history. A perplexing real-life mystery. With stunning new insights and impeccable research, investigative journalist Jake Anderson explores the case that captivated a nation and inspired the Netflix series Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel! Exclusive interviews and photos included.
Twenty-one-year-old student Elisa Lam was last heard from on January 31, 2013, after she checked into downtown L.A.’s Cecil Hotel—a 600-room building with a nine-decade history of scandal and tragedy. The next day, Elisa vanished. More than a week later, guests’ complaints of poor water quality led to a grim discovery: Elisa’s nude body floating in a rooftop water tank. The only clue was a disturbing elevator video of Elisa, uploaded to YouTube in a plea for public assistance.
As the video went viral, journalist Jake Anderson set out to uncover the facts. In Gone at Midnight he chronicles eye-opening discoveries about who Elisa Lam really was and what—or whom—she was running from, offering stunning new insights into one of the most chilling and obsessively followed true crime cases of the century.
“Outstanding . . . What really happened to Lam may never be known, but true crime buffs won’t want to miss this gripping search for the truth.”
–Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW
“Extremely detailed and featuring new evidence. . . . Anderson’s thorough research and passionate writing make a fascinating read.”
--Booklist
“Gone at Midnight is the type of true crime book that you stay up all night reading.”
--New York Journal of Books
A Fortune magazine“Most Anticipated Books of the Year” Selection
A Goodreads Featured Release
An Oxygen Best True Crime Book of the Year
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Investigative journalist Anderson looks into the case of 21-year-old Elisa Lam, a student diagnosed as bipolar who vanished from L.A.'s seedy Cecil Hotel one day in 2013, in this outstanding debut. As days went by, residents of the hotel began to complain about the water quality and pressure. Finally, a maintenance worker went to the roof to check the hotel's cisterns, only to find Lam's naked, dead body floating in one of them. The coroner ruled her death an accident by drowning with bipolar disorder a contributing factor. But Anderson found too many inconsistencies in the case, and the internet went wild with conspiracy theories. Lam was no stranger to the blogging world, having a Tumblr account where she documented her mental health problems and where her scheduled updates appeared for months after her death. That Anderson's obsession with the case led him to examine his own mental health issues adds depth. He ponders whether it was suicide or a psychotic breakdown or something more sinister that killed Lam. Anderson also vividly details the dark delusions he suffered while making a documentary at the Cecil Hotel. What really happened to Lam may never be known, but true crime buffs won't want to miss this gripping search for the truth.
