In 2010, the bodies of four women—Megan, Maureen, Melissa and Amber—were found in an overgrown area of Long Island's Gilgo Beach. All had been escorts who utilized Craigslist to connect with clients. Rather than focusing on their professions, Robert Kolker delves into each woman's life, uncovering drugs, abusive childhoods and a plethora of other life-stunting complications. Referring to a fifth escort, Shannan Gilbert, whose disappearance triggered the search that revealed the other bodies, Kolker reminds us of the ugly, undeniable truth: "Shannan's profession had sealed her fate. Even before she disappeared, she ceased to matter." Four years later, while theories still abound—is one killer responsible for the first four bodies and another for Shannan's? is one person responsible for all five deaths?—still no murderer has been found. The gut-punching power of the book comes instead from Kolker's examination of how judgments of the victims' lifestyles overshadowed any questioning of America's twisted trifecta of sex, money and the Internet.
— Jordan Foster
