Motor Spirit: The Long Hunt for the Zodiac

By: Jarett Kobek

Narrated by: Iphgenia Baal

There’s a California that everyone imagines, a world of Hollywood glitz and Silicon Valley, and then there’s the real California. The one where everything is the color of dirt. Where the speed freaks gangbang on Haight Street, where evil is lurking, where violence erupts like cystic acne. The place was never crazier than the ’60s and the ’70s, a time when Dad transformed from a hippie-hating Reagan voter into a weed-addled swinger with a crash pad in the Valley.

And right in that moment? There’s this guy who calls himself Zodiac. He’s killing kids and cab drivers; he’s a ghost haunting the San Francisco Bay Area. Is he a freak or a square? We don’t know, can never know. All we have is letters and ciphers and a killer who wears a hood and signs his letters with a crosshairs.

Motor Spirit descends into the Californian sewer, down in the depths of Zodiac. Returning to original sources like newspapers and police reports and small-press publications, with extensive literary analysis of Zodiac’s letters, it offers a history stripped of the mystery. We find a Zodiac who embodies the chaos and catastrophes of the American promised land. It’s the portrait of a killer, a place, and a state of mind.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Jarett Kobek (P)2023 Clamor Publishing

Okay book, great performance

Iphgenia Baal is a pleasure to listen to. Great performance.
When confining himself to the Zodiac, this is a very good book. Good common sense review of existing Zodiac information.
Unfortunately, the author feels the need to interject little political jibes which are mostly just worn out liberal cliches.

Objectively the best Zodiac book

Objectively, this is the best book about Zodiac up to date, especially compared to everything that came before. This book separates hard facts from so many fictional and misleading information. I appreciate how he adressed the innacuracies and myths presented as facts in the Fincher movie for example, while also saying it's one of the best movies about San Francisco.
What's especially appealing to me is how the autor immerses the Zodiac story into the realistic historical, political and cultural context of the 60s and 70s in California. And this historical context is not for the faint of heart: it is a trully realistic, dark, decadent, violent, non sugar coated, accurate historical context of San Francisco bay area at the time. When put into this context, the Zodiac killer is actually a product of his culture and he acts in acordance with the culture: his decisions to switch behaviors, like switching from gun to knife isn't at all bizzare when contextualized: he was competing for attention in the media, and there were very specific, murderous, monstruous cirmustance at the time that inspired him to escalate his behaviors the way he did, aiming to be more noticeable in the media.

That being said, there are a few flaws: at times, the autor uses very crude, crass, almost agressive language, which personally was off putting. The editing is a bit lacking, the speaker used for audio sometimes doesn't enunciate well, so the reader or listener should arm themselves with patience.
In this book there is no speculation about a New suspect, that's in the next book if one is interested. I was more interested in this one.
The metaphor about the Motor Spirit is masterfully implemented and brought full circle in the last chapter, which was so good that iz made the flaws worth it.