Thank you Kensington Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of Guess Again in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: July 29, 2025
Summary:
On the 10th anniversary of a teenage girl’s disappearance, her cold case breaks open in dangerous ways…and threatens to tear apart her small Wisconsin town all over again in the masterfully twisty new psychological suspense novel from the internationally bestselling author of Twenty Years Later.
For fans of Riley Sager, Anna Downes, Alex Finlay, Stacy Willingham, and Karin Slaughter.
Ten years ago, 17-year-old high school volleyball star Callie Jones vanished from her quiet Wisconsin lake community. A highly publicized search followed but her body was never found. The case went cold, but the echoes still linger.
Ethan Hall, a former renegade detective turned ER doctor, left law enforcement to escape the horrors of the kid crime division. But on the tenth anniversary of Callie’s disappearance, his former partner, Pete Kramer, makes a desperate request. Pete is the veteran detective who originally investigated the case. Now he’s dying, and to ease his conscience and get closure for the Jones family, he needs Ethan to return to the haunting work he left behind—and solve what happened to Callie, once and for all.
Word soon spreads and everyone in the small town of Cherryview feels a rush of hope that answers will finally be found. Amid a sweltering heatwave, Ethan’s investigation gains momentum, but reexamining old evidence won’t be enough. He needs a new way into the case, no matter how dangerous or unconventional. And it comes from the least likely of sources—an inmate in a maximum-security prison.
Soon Ethan’s methods draw him deeper into a twisted psychological game. Because there is much more to the nightmare of Callie’s disappearance than he imagined, including a connection with his own dark past . . . and secrets that are still worth killing for.
My thoughts:
Somehow this is only the 4th book I’ve read by Charlie Donlea and really need to change that…I just love his books…especially this latest one. OMG…talk about twisted and binge-worthy! I did a buddy read for this one that was supposed to last a week and we all ended up flying through it in 2 days!!
This book kept me on my toes the entire time. The cold case trope is a favorite of mine and the way it comes into play here is so masterfully done. Old secrets come to life as this case is dug back into, loyalties are tested, lies that have held for years are uncovered, making you question everything that is revealed.
The short chapters and shift in timelines propel this story into high gear from the get-go and I found myself constantly switching my guesses.
I cannot recommend this one enough! And you better believe I’ll be reading the rest of Donlea’s backlist ASAP!
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