Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery

Very detailed and mesmerizing read. I was waiting for someone to write a book
about those poor young prostitutes that were murdered and left to rot in the
dunes off Jones Beach on Long Island. We needed to know about them and their
lives and their deaths. Reads like a detective novel. Great book.

I read Robert Kolker's "Lost Girls" in one sitting, so immersed was I with this "unsolved American mystery." I would urge you to read it as soon as you can, but first let me give you a few reasons why you should. Without trying to give too much away, let me describe you (partially) the main narrative of Kolker's story. Almost the first half of the book is concerned with the story of four young women: one chapter narrating their personal histories (with their actual names) and the other recounting their descend into prostitution (with their respective pseudonyms). Briefly, these are their stories:

- Maureen/Marie: A telemarketer who wishes to be a poet, or a song composer for rap artists. Unable to launch her career, she is astonished by the amount of money that escorts (working for certain agencies) can actually make. Maureen sees Craigslist as an opportunity to make money without having to pay escort services.

- Melissa/Chloe: A girl whose dream is to open a hair-salon, she grows up in Buffalo, NY, in a neighborhood where hers is one of the only white families. "The race thing was a peculiar subject for all of them." Melissa feels like she was born on the wrong body since she wants to be black. That is why she finds herself a black boyfriend, a boy involved in drug dealing, and moves to NYC.

- Shannan/Angelina: Diagnosed as bipolar, and described by her mother as "independent-minded," Shannan decides to grow up in a series of foster homes rather than with her mother. Seeking to have "the best of everything," Shannan wants to pursue a singing career and also moves to NYC.

- Megan/Lexi: As a child, growing up in Portland, ME, Megan becomes the perfect example of misbehavior. She is raised by her father and her father's girlfriend, who gain custody over her mother, and is diagnosed with ADHD. Pregnant at an early age, and unable to pay the bills and feed the baby, Megan is in urgent need of a well-paid job.

- Amber/Carolina: She grows up in North Carolina and experiences a trauma that will haunt her for the rest of her days. She ends up joining Coed Confidential, an escort agency, and her story becomes (at least in my opinion) one of the most interesting in the whole book.

What follows is a roller coaster ride of an investigation. The second part of the book is not divided by the victims stories but rather by the evidence found after the murders. Perhaps what turns out to be the most attractive element of the book is its own structure: it made me think of Rodolfo Walsh, the Argentine writer/journalist, with some inevitable hints to Capote. (Especially the beginning seems to me highly reminiscent of Capote.)

As TChris, the previous reviewer, has very perceptively stated, one of the main themes is the civil/legal differences that exist between prostitutes and wealthy people. Citing a book by criminologist Steve Egger, Kolker asserts that almost 78 percent of female victims to serial killers turn out to be prostitutes. What is more terrifying is that these victims are not reported to be missing until their bodies are discovered.

Although some digressions may appear unnecessary, because they don't seem to add anything to the main narrative of the story, I found those "side stories" to be extremely informative. For example, the historical account of "the exchange of sex for money," or prostitution, from colonial times to contemporary America. Another theme of Kolker's seems to be the terrible effect that the internet (and especially sites such as Craigslist) has had on prostitution: "In the few years that the website had caught on, Craigslist had done more to delegitimize the age-old system of pimps and escorts than a platoon of police officers could."

One of the most harrowing "digressions," however, happens when reporters approach Joel Rifkin, Long Island's most famous and prolific murderer, for his opinion on the case. While critiquing the new killer for leaving all the bodies in one place, Rifkin declares, "America breeds serial killers. You don't see any from Europe."

Kolker's book is a testament to the power of good journalism: its story resonates with us because it is immediate, urgent, necessary, something that fiction is not always able to accomplish.

I grant it five stars (despite its sometimes long, not-so-necessary digressions) because of the urgency in its description of present day America and its "exclusions": namely, the underworld of prostitution.

Highly recommended.

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery, by Robert Kolker, delves into the biased way the people we look up to as authority, that keep us safe and in peace, ignore the disappearance of many young women due to their occupation; prostitution. Lost Girls is a non-fiction journey through the search of the serial killer who was, specifically, murdering young prostitutes in the Long Island-New York area. Kolker goes farther than just investigating the crimes, but actually digs deeper into the stories of some of these girls to further understand the lives of the murdered women and for the audience to see inside the world of prostitution.
Kolker looks into the lives of five of the girls, Maureen, Shannan, Melissa, Megan, and Amber, that were murdered by the unknown serial killer. All of these women were escorts advertising on Craigslists, young moms, had a troubled childhood, and had some kind of substance abuse. Maureen, an aspiring model, became a mom at age sixteen, and eventually slip up from her baby’s dad. Melissa, who acted like she was black, whose mother worked too much to pay any attention to her. Shannan was a girl who had the talent of singing. She had other sister, but she was the only one that grew up is fosters homes. Her mother seemed not to care, or if she did she was too busy worrying about her boyfriend. Megan was born with a mother who seemed to love her, but her grandmother found good enough excuses to take custody away from her and get her welfare check to pay for her living expenses. Megan rarely saw her mother.
The most aggravated story is Shannon’s. She was last seen in Oak Beach running out of a house screaming and pounding on doors, screaming that someone was trying to kills her. She ran off into the darkness and was never seen again. She called the police and it’s like they didn’t bother to listen to her and never went to look for her. Many people saw her running hysterically, and no one cared to help her. When the police found out she was an escort, they did not bother to search for her. That was the problem with all of these girls, they were prostitutes, and police said they were probably off with a client, or thought that that’s the risk they put themselves into.
Kolker describes events in so much detail that some time while reading the book I felt frightened. It’s haunting how so many people, all with very similar lives, could be missing and for the police not to think that there is something wrong.
Kolker describes in detail a couple of phone calls Melissa’s little sister would get, after her disappearance. It was a man who would ask and make comments about Melissa. It was creepy and haunting. The last call she received he said, “I’m watching your sister’s body rot” (214). Just that gives your body chills.
These missing girls were paid no attention to until their remains were unearthed, and even after, the police were in no hurry to find their cause of death or their murderer. As Kolker claims,
“Shannan and all the others were failed by the criminal justice system not once but three times. The police had failed to help them when they were at risk. They’d fail again when they didn’t take the disappearances seriously, severely hobbling the chances of making an arrest. And they’d failed a third time by not going after the johns and drivers” (364).
Lost Girls is divided into two section or books. The first goes into detail about the missing girls’ lives, how they started escorting, and the last time they were seen. He makes the picture for us of how their families were and how they were. These girls lived with drug abuse, parental neglect, and poverty. And that is what led them into prostitution. The second part goes into the police investigation and the lives of their families after their disappearance, and how the police dropped the ball. They let go of valuable clues and suspects that could have led to the murderer, but instead they put the blame on these girls, who no matter what their occupation was were the victims.
This book is not a book you read to enjoy. It’s a book you read to inform yourself. To be aware that our criminal justice system isn’t so fair, like they claim, and that obviously they are not here to keep us ALL safe, or bring justice because they have failed to do so in this case, and I would say it was negligence. Kolker puts us right in the middle of his investigation and opens our eyes to how our country might not be as fair and brings “justice for all” as our “Pledge of Allegiance” claims.

This is an interesting true crime investigation of the unsolved murders of young women who happened to be working as prostitutes. Their remains, as well as remains of others, were all located in the Ocean Beach area. Kolker did a good job of putting a human face on the murdered girls who all had some of the typical childhoods and reasons for becoming call girls. They had families and friends who were left to cope with the fallout. These women were loved. They had friendships. Some of them even had children. They are missed. They were not simply 'throw aways' as people and police tend to assume when crimes like this occur.

I sincerely hope the murderer (s) are apprehended. It is a tragedy that their murders remain unsolved.

The author has done a great job humanizing these girls and their families. Too often the girls in stories are cast as just "hookers or strippers" as if thats all they ever were or would be. The killer becomes the star and the victims just bit players. I hope one day there will be an updated version, telling readers that the killer has been found.

The stories of the girls early lives were interesting because they showed why young girls would chose a life of prostitution and drugs. There were several stories of girl's lives. In the second part of the book, it was difficult to remember which girls were being talked about as the cases were being discovered. I kind of gave up during the last 1/4th of the book. It was tedious reading.

Usually, true crime focuses on the perpetrator; here we learn more about the victims and their families. What brought these girls to their chosen profession, and their ultimate fate is fascinating reading. Spoiler alert: as of this writing, the killer has not been caught, leaving an unfinished feeling to the book for me. I look forward to an update.

An account of the lives which intersected because of these tragic events, at once sharply observed while also compassionate and respectful. As another reviewer so astutely put it, all it lacks is the still at large malefactor.

Street life and sex workers should be allowed to be out in the open with their business model. All of the secrecy is literally creating a shadow culture and putting valuable lives at risk.
We should take a look at some of the European cultures for guidance so we can possibly legitimize these women's lives and add some measure of security to their very vulnerable world

Unlike a lot of true crime, Lost Girls focuses primarily on the victims and their families. This is a good thing. Kolker admirably explores, without judgment, who these women were and the often times dangerous world they inhabited.

I purchased this book after reading a well written piece by the author in the NY Times. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the young women, as well as the other victims, is compelling and should make for a great story. Alas, this book comes up short. I was never able to feel much sympathy for the women or their families, perhaps partly because the author has a way of disparaging many of his interviewees (way too much verbatim narrative that makes a lot of them look like fools). Moreover, he introduces several suspects in the case, but more because of community gossip than anything meaningful about them. In the end, the book has very little to say: unsympathetic characters, hapless suspects, and the mystery remains. Not a particularly good read.

I purchased this book after reading a well written piece by the author in the NY Times. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of the young women, as well as the other victims, is compelling and should make for a great story. Alas, this book comes up short. I was never able to feel much sympathy for the women or their families, perhaps partly because the author has a way of disparaging many of his interviewees (way too much verbatim narrative that makes a lot of them look like fools). Moreover, he introduces several suspects in the case, but more because of community gossip than anything meaningful about them. In the end, the book has very little to say: unsympathetic characters, hapless suspects, and the mystery remains. Not a particularly good read.

This book tells the story of murdered women who were escorts whose bodies were dumped along a stretch of Long island beach. This story featured the women and hoe they got to the point in their lives when they were prostitution themselves through Craigslist. Unsolved, heart-breaking, complex--- this is a book.worth reading.

This is a remarkable, painful slice of life in 21st-century America. Kolker has shown us a world of family instability, narrow economic horizons, and income inequality that we might prefer to ignore but shouldn't. It's a humane, gripping, and very valuable book.

Tells the back stories of the victims of an unsolved crime. You hear these stories on TV and really don't focus much on victims when they are call girls. Very much like watching a crime show. Only wish they could find the murderer!

I understand that you don't always get resolution, but this feels like a padded magazine article or newspaper special report. Kolker can obviously write well, but I have to question the format where you jump from one victim's story to the next, and the wide cast of relatives involved with each victim is really hard to jeep track of. I would have liked to see a bit more detail about the actual police investigation, rather than the mostly unsympathetic relatives of the victims.

I like a good true crime book, but ultimately this was disappointing. The first half was engaging, as the author described the victims, their lifestyles, and the risky behaviors that put them in the crosshairs of a serial killer.

The second half of the book just runs out of gas, as the leads dwindle down, and the police are unable to identify the killer. Finally, everybody just gives up, including the reader.

I love forensic science and am totally into this book. I just read a chapter or two a day because I don't want it to end - even though I know the result. I love the science behind it and feel so bad for the families. Got to know them and want justice for all of them. Sometimes life isn't fair - however somebody has to solve this.

With a premise this good the book should have been riveting and yet something held it back for me. As others have noted, the book is less about the crime and investigation than it is the victim's families and the aftermath of these women's deaths. This could be seen by some as a noble way to tell the story but I ultimately found it dull. For one, mothers, sisters, brothers and assorted family members blend into one another and it was hard for me to truly tell who was who. One possible suspect emerges but since it's all speculative it feels as though the author is trying to fit that person into the narrative, can't, but still leaves you feeling there is more to tell.

Surely it must be hard to write a book of this type, while the killer remains at large, but it feels as though the available evidence wasn't enough to make what should have been a compelling story a must read.