Book Description
Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the investigation was abandoned. But TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past…
Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience’s attention. Her latest story—a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal—is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner’s office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover. In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence.
Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won’t be complete until she can clear Victoria’s name. Alone she’s had no luck, but she’s convinced that Avery’s connections and fame will help. Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive. Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria’s DNA.
But the twisted puzzle of Victoria’s private life just the beginning. And what Avery doesn’t realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery’s own secret past—one she has kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried . . .
Accused of a brutal murder, Victoria Ford made a final chilling call from the North Tower on the morning of 9/11. Twenty years ago, no one listened. Today, you will.
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
TWENTY YEARS LATER by Charlie Donlea is an exciting and intricately plotted mystery/thriller. A top-rated television news show host is on the hunt for her next big story in NYC, even as she has her own secret reasons for being there.
Avery Mason is looking for a story to grab her TV audience’s attention and keep her top rating as host of American Events. She looks into the first discovery of an individual’s identity from a new DNA bone technique from the Twin Towers disaster in many years. The woman Victoria Ford was accused of the murder of her famous married lover and has all the mystery, kinky sex, and betrayal to bring in top ratings.
Avery talks to the woman’s sister and listens to phone calls from Victoria from the North Tower. Victoria claims she is innocent and begs her sister to clear her name, but there is too much evidence against her so no one will help and with her death the case is dropped. Avery is introduced to the retired FBI agent, Walt Jenkins who investigated the murder twenty years ago, but he has his own agenda involving Avery’s life before her fame and in regard to her infamous father.
I love reading Charlie Donlea’s books. Everyone has secrets and there are always plot twists that throw everything you believe completely upside down. The beginning was a slightly confusing until the separate characters and motives began to come together and the varying plot threads and motives begin to take shape and when they do, the story took off and I could not put it down. I was surprised many times during the investigations and especially by both plot twist endings. I loved them!
I highly recommend this mystery/thriller and this author!
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About the Author
Charlie Donlea is the #1 internationally bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, Some Choose Darkness, The Suicide House and Twenty Years Later. Praised for his “soaring pace, teasing plot twists” (BookPage) and talent for writing an ending that “makes your jaw drop” (The New York Times Book Review), Donlea has been called a “bold new writer…on his way to becoming a major figure in the world of suspense” (Publishers Weekly). A late bloomer, he was twenty years old when he read his first novel––THE FIRM by John Grisham––and knew he would someday write thrillers. His books have now been translated into more than a dozen languages across thirty countries.
He was born and raised in Chicago, where he continues to live with his wife and two children.
Social Media Links
Website: https://www.charliedonlea.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charliedonlea
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CharlieDonlea
