Patton Oswalt couldn’t be happier that his late wife’s nonfiction crime novel has debuted at the number one spot on the New York Times Best Seller’s list.
The actor made the happy announcement in a tweet on Thursday, sharing a photo of the New York Times Best Sellers list which shows Michelle McNamara’s novel, I’ll Be Gone In The Dark, sitting at No 1.
‘I hope you know, sweetie. I feel like you know. And I hope you know it when your work leads to his capture,’ he posted. ‘#IllBeGoneInTheDark debuts at #1 on the @nytimes bestseller list. I’m so proud of you.’
Patton Oswalt praised his late wife Michelle McNamara after her posthumous crime novel debuted at No 1 on the New York Times Best Seller’s list
‘I hope you know, sweetie. I feel like you know. And I hope you know it when your work leads to his capture,’ Oswalt wrote in a tweet
The book details McNamara’s hunt to identify The Golden State Killer, a serial rapist and killer accused of more than murders and at least 45 sexual assaults
The Golden State Killer terrorized California in the 1970s and 80s but was never identified or apprehended. The FBI released these two sketches of what the killer may look like
McNamara, a journalist and author known for her blog True Crime Diary, died suddenly in her sleep at the age of 46 in April 2016.
Up until her death she had been working on a book about California serial rapist and killer The Golden State Killer, who is believed to have murdered at least 12 people and committed more than 45 sexual assaults in the 1970s and ’80s.
He has never been identified or apprehended.
Oswald wrote the afterword for the book and her friends helped finish the crime novel.
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer was inspired by an article McNamara wrote for Los Angeles magazine called In the Footsteps of a Killer, in which she described her hunt to identify The Golden State Killer.
The book was published on February 27 by HarperCollins. Oswalt also commemorated that moment with a tweet about how excited he was.
‘You did it, baby. The book is excellent, the writing brilliant. You tried to bring kindness to chaos, which was your way’, Oswalt captioned a photo of the book sitting on McNamara’s gravestone.
McNamara died as the result of a previously undiagnosed heart condition that caused blockage in her arteries combined with prescription pills she had been taking, the 49-year-old actor said in a statement to the Associated Press last year.
He said she had been taking Adderall, Xanax and the pain medication fentanyl.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark was released on February 27. Oswalt, who helped finish writing the book, announced the news on Twitter
McNamara, pictured above with Oswalt, died in her sleep in April 2016 at the age of 46. Her cause of death was a combination of a previously undiagnosed medical condition and medication she was taking
Oswalt got engaged to actress Meredith Salenger 15 months after McNamara’s death. The couple, pictured above, married in November 2017
McNamara and Oswalt, who married in 2005, had a daughter together, Alice Oswalt, who is now eight.
Oswalt announced his engagement to actress Meredith Salenger 15 months after McNamara’s death.
The actor defended his relationship on social media after critics lashed out at him for moving on too quickly.
‘I expected some bitter grub worms to weigh in (anonymously, always always always) with their much-needed opinions when I announced my engagement,’ Oswalt wrote thanking blogger Erica Roman, also a widower, for coming to his and Salenger’s defense.
Oawalt went on to marry Salenger, 47, in November 2017.