Pub Date: March 28, 2023
5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow! This book exceeded my expectations in all ways! It was captivating and fast-paced and kept me on my toes the entire time.

Thoughts:
-I absolutely loved the different storylines meshing into one
-The different timelines kept the book moving at a fast pace
-All of the characters were interesting and had a purpose. I loved Alex and her strength and dedication to solving her families murder throughout the book
-Donlea crafted such a unique storyline with unexpected twists
-I enjoyed how we got watched Alex through all stages of life and grief
-The book showed the good and the bad of law enforcement and the legal system
-Alex’s crime board gave the criminal minds energy that I love
-I felt like I was trying to solve the case as much as Alex was

I flew through this book in just a few days (quick for how I’ve been reading physical books lately). I could not recommend it more if you’re looking for a good thriller!

Thank you Charlie Donlea, Kensington Books, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars rounded up to four. I didn't quite enjoy this one as much as I have others by Charlie Donlea. I felt like there were way to many characters to keep track of, the timeline jumping from place to place was difficult to follow at times and the plot seemed a little unbelievable and didn't feel as solid as some of his other books, a bit far reaching . There were some decent twists at the end which did help but didn't save it either.

The additional .5 star is for the badass female characters in this novel!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Books and Charlie Donlea for the opportunity to read and review Those Empty Eyes.

I enjoyed this book so much. It is different than anything I've read in a long time and grabbed me right at the start. The clever plot, filled with twists and turns kept me flipping the pages as fast as I could. My heart broke for the young girl accused of killing her family and her show of strength and determination throughout the book had me totally invested.

Charlie Donlea sure knows how to keep readers guessing. In his latest thriller, Those Empty Eyes, with every new chapter comes a new twist. The story begins in 2013, when Alexandra Quinlan survives the brutal slaughter of her parents and brother, only to be charged with their murder. She then sues the state of VA for defamation after she is found to not be guilty.

Fast forward 1o years later to 2023, and she's still searching for her parent's killer.

Honestly, I haven't read a book with that many surprises in a while. The chapters are short and kept me turning the pages. The ending really shocked me. If you're looking for a great thriller, look no further than Those Empty Eyes.

Thank you Kensington Books and NetGalley for the eArc!

Alexandra Quinlan still hasn't gotten over that night ten years ago. That night when her mother, father, and 13 y/o brother were killed and she was accused of murder. With a new identity and a new job, she has reestablished herself and escaped the true crime fanatics who referred to her as "Empty Eyes" ... but she's never stopped looking for her family's true killer.

I am a huge fan of Charlie Donlea, and particularly love his Rory Moore stories. I enjoyed the cameo that Lane Phillips (and Avery Mason) makes in this story, connecting his books into the same universe - little things like that make me happy :) I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down to do things like eat, sleep, and, you know, live. There were a lot of different threads and characters early on, and I was curious to see how they would all connect in the end. And boy, did they! Charlie Donlea is pretty much an auto-read for me at this point, and Those Empty Eyes did not disappoint.

I luckily stumbled upon this author while perusing the books my library had ordered that week and I’ve been a fan ever since. He writes medium to slow paced methodical mysteries.

I was a little concerned about this one in the beginning as the story started out with murders and a trial, then fast forwarded to years in the future. I was so interested in the trial, but I should have known it would all work out. There are multiple story lines happening at once. Alex is still trying to solve her parents murder, while she also works on cases for her employer. It is an ambitious and complex book and a lot for the reader to remember while the focus shifts from storyline to storyline. Alex is the constant throughout the book.

It seems every time I was sure I knew where this was heading, there was a twist. I did ultimately figure it all out. Pages before the end. LOL

I had both the book and audio and flipped back and forth, liking both versions. Vivienne Leheny is a terrific narrator, bringing life to all the book’s characters.

And for anyone that is an avid reader of the author, there is a surprise visit from an old favorite character. I loved that he finds a way to interweave his stories.

If you are on the lookout for a great complex mystery with suspense and twists, you should add this one to your TBR.

*4.5 Stars On My Instagram Account*

"There is no coincidence, only the illusion of coincidence."

There's a lot of coincidences, a lot going on, and a lot of characters in the in depth murder mystery thriller by clever author Charlie Donlea but in the end the twists unravel, the coincidences, except for the one that sets everything in motion, are debunked and each character plays a role in those empty eyes.

High schooler Alex is not only a victim of whoever entered her home and brutally shot and killed her parents and brother but a victim of the media who labeled her "empty eyes" when she is rescued by the police. Reasonable people would assume she's in shock but it's much more juicy to say she's an uncaring murderer. Soon social media and the tabloids have there next obsession and forget about the truth.

Alex's lawyers prove her innocence and successfully sue the police for destroying her life and never pursuing the real killer.

Ten years later Alex has changed her name and appearance and works as a investigator for the lawyers who saved her. No one knows about the murder board at home that is filled with leads about who killed her family. When a student journalist goes missing before breaking a big political story and her boyfriend is targeted as the perpetrator, Alex works to prove him innocent. She never thought it would lead to the jaw dropping reason her family was murdered and the WTF guilty party.

I absolutely loved narrator Vivienne Leheny using a breathy voice during some anxiety ridden scenes that had me gasping at the edge of my seat. I read parts that made me uncomfortable when the seediness of it all comes to light. There is nothing empty about this thriller so keep your eyes open for the guilty.

I received a free copy of this book/audiobook from the publishers via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

Charlie Donlea is one of those authors who seems to slip under the radar a bit. Which is unfortunate, as his books are always first rate, very enjoyable, and have good, interesting central characters. His latest, Those Empty Eyes, is no different and easily maintains the high standards of its predecessors.

Those Empty Eyes opens ten years ago with the brutal murder of a family in Virginia. The only survivor is the teenage daughter of the family, who the police initially suspect as being the murderer. Alexandra Quinlan, nicknamed Empty Eyes by the media, is eventually able to prove her innocence, and even wins a highly publicised defamation lawsuit, but many still consider her a murderer.

Ten years later, Alex lives under a new name far away from the media spotlight. She has an interesting job as a legal investigator, and her latest case involves her in a complicated missing person case. Matthew Claymore is under suspicion in the disappearance of his girlfriend, a student journalist named Laura McAllister, and Alex is sure of his innocence. Laura was about to break a major story about rape and cover-ups on her college campus, but the police are happy to blame Matthew for her suspicious absence. As Alex investigates she discovers links back to the killing of her own family.

Those Empty Eyes is a tightly structured and very clever thriller that keeps you constantly surprised. Donlea does not waste words on flowery descriptions, but instead keeps the plot ticking over at a good pace, with plenty of surprising twists and unexpected changes of direction. The shifting point of view, and an intriguing sub-plot, keep the suspense at a good level, and the final outcome is tense and exciting, and full of surprises.

There is a nice contemporary feel to the novel, with references to the damage done by internet media and podcasts, and the thorny issue of consent and campus rape. Regular readers of Donlea, will also enjoy the references to past novels and the reappearance of a minor character from one of his earlier books.

A good read

Reading Between the Wines book review #33/115 for 2023:
Rating: 4 🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book 🎧: Those Empty Eyes
Author: Charlie Donlea
Genre: General Fiction (Adult)
Available now!

Sipping thoughts: The opening of this book was so intriguing and thrilling. I needed to know what happened that night then it took a little turn. I lost a little bit of investment but then the plot revved up again. I would say the first 25% and the last 25% were so good. Had the middle been a little bit tighter for me, I would have rated it 5 stars. Either way, I am really loving Donlea’s writing between this book and last year’s Twenty Years Later. I look forward to the next release.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @KensingtonBooks for an advanced copy of @ThoseEmptyEyes.

#ThoseEmptyEyes #CharlieDonlea #KensingtonBooks #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing group for the eARC… I loved this book! 4.5 stars and I will now be seeking out past work by this author.

The novel starts with a bang. Alex’s family is brutally murdered in the beginning, and the police find her with the weapon, next to her parent’s bodies. She’s in shock, and as she is led out of the house in handcuffs, reporters say that she has these crazy “Empty Eyes”— A label/name that true crime fans and a news reporter will use for her for over a decade.

Over the course of the book we follow her all around the world as she navigates this new life without her family and how she tries to create a new identity, all while searching for the real killer. We have many characters, and Alex even creates a murder board to keep everyone straight. The job she holds starts leading her down a path where she starts to see similarities in various cases but she needed people in high places to finally put it all together. (This allows us to have more depth, more than one case in the story.)

This was a fun ride! Despite the reveal and end sequence feeling a bit like a Scooby Doo attempt at killing Alex, I truly enjoyed it!

What an amazing book! It took a minute for me to follow all the pieces, but once they all started to fall into place, I could not put it down! I highly recommend this for a fabulous read.

I received an ARC copy of Those Empty Eyes by Charlie Donlea.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Alexandra Quinlann's family was massacred in their home. She survived and was ultimately pinned for the crime. We see how Alex has tried to move past this tragedy and everything else that followed, but it would seem that the past has followed her to the present as she begins to make new connections years later. We follow the journey of a few other plotlines and crimes that eventually all get woven together in the end to find out what truly happened the night her family was killed and what ultimately led the killer to do the things they have done.

EXCERPT: 'Please!' Donna said. 'I know I'm putting you in a bad spot, but please do this for me.'
'What if you're wrong?'
'Then the truth will come out in a day or two, and you punt the case to someone else. But if I'm right, they have a seventeen-year-old girl in an interview room in the middle of the night. She just saw her family slaughtered and now they're grilling her for a confession without consent from a legal guardian. They'll keep the pressure on her until she tells them what they want to hear, and then it'll be too late.'
Garrett looked at the precinct building, lighted with spotlights shooting up the facade - a beacon of justice glowing in the middle of the night.
He cocked his head toward the entrance. 'Let's go.'

ABOUT 'THOSE EMPTY EYES': Alex Armstrong has changed everything about herself—her name, her appearance, her backstory. She’s no longer the terrified teenager a rapt audience saw on television, emerging in handcuffs from the quiet suburban home the night her family was massacred. That girl, Alexandra Quinlan, nicknamed Empty Eyes by the media, was accused of the killings, fought to clear her name, and later took the stand during her highly publicized defamation lawsuit that captured the attention of the nation.

It’s been ten years since, and Alex hasn’t stopped searching for answers about the night her family was killed, even as she continues to hide her real identity from true crime fanatics and grasping reporters still desperate to locate her. As a legal investigator, she works tirelessly to secure justice for others, too. People like Matthew Claymore, who’s under suspicion in the disappearance of his girlfriend, a student journalist named Laura McAllister.

Laura was about to break a major story about rape and cover-ups on her college campus. Alex believes Matthew is innocent, and unearths stunning revelations about the university’s faculty, fraternity members, and powerful parents willing to do anything to protect their children.

Most shocking of all—as Alex digs into Laura’s disappearance, she realizes there are unexpected connections to the murder of her own family. For as different as the crimes may seem, they each hinge on one sinister truth: no one is quite who they seem to be . . .

MY THOUGHTS: Those Empty Eyes is a mixed bag. There were times I contemplated abandoning this read (twice) and a couple of times when I avidly flipped the pages. The remainder of the time I read with no connection, no emotion.

Two things were major drawbacks for me. The first: the characters are very flat, two-dimensional. I felt nothing for any of them. The second is the writing style. That, too, is very flat. There's no emotion, no suspense, no excitement. It's like reading a newspaper report, or an essay.

I did enjoy the twist at the end and, no, I didn't figure out who the killer was.

I usually love Charlie Donlea's books, but Those Empty Eyes was merely an okay read. Love the cover. Not over-keen on the title.

⭐⭐.7

#ThoseEmptyEyes #NetGalley

I: @charliedonlea @kensingtonbooks

T: @CharlieDonlea @KensingtonBooks

#contemporaryfiction #crime #murdermystery #thriller

THE AUTHOR: Charlie Donlea resides in Chicago with his wife and two young children.

He spends a part of each year fishing with his father in the far reaches of Canada, where the roads end and lakes are accessible only by floatplane.

DISCLOSURE: Thanks to Kensington Books via Netgalley for providing an digital ARC of Those Empty Eyes written by Charlie Donlea for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Thank you to Kensington Books & NetGalley for this advance copy. This book was quite the adventure. While it was definitely a fast paced page turner throughout, I enjoyed Part 1 the most. I felt like the writing and suspense were strongest in that first part. My only complaint is that there was more “telling” and not as much “showing” throughout the story as I would have liked, but that is just my own personal preference. I am interested in looking into this author’s backlist, as I have heard great things.

I did not care for the writing style of this author. The narrative kept repeating itself without any particular reason. I was disappointed as I had been looking forward to finding a new mystery author.

Ooooh a twist I DID NOT SEE COMING!

This book was great! Charlie Donlea is one of my favourite thriller authors and this book didn't disappoint. Highly recommend!

It's one of the best of his best since Some Choose Darkness came out in 2019. He has a specific way of writing where you don't see certain aspects coming. He keeps the storylines running smoothly, for the most part, and your attention is captured throughout the entire read. I also enjoyed the connection with past book characters. Was nice to get a 'glimpse' of how they're doing.

I just have one con to this book. The magnitude of characters and POVs. Oy!!! Had trouble keeping them straight. Plus the timeline changes. At least those were indicated at the beginning of the chapters. Would have been helpful to include character names as well.

Thank you to Kensington Books and Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved Twenty Years Later by this author so I was so excited to read this one! It was just ok for me! I loved the format of part 1. Then it added in a bunch of characters and other stories and became confusing. It did piece together well at the end but the twist wasn’t super shocking. I still flew through it though. A lot of people loved it so I’d still recommend others read it.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

REVIEW TO FOLLOW.

I think that some tighter organization of this story at the beginning would have made a big difference. The first half of the book had multiple time jumps and then continued with different tangents. I was waiting for them to all start coming together, but that didn’t happen until the very end. It was a surprising twist but it did leave perhaps too many red herrings on the ground along the way. In the end, I feel like better edits in the first half of the book would have had a positive impact on the overall enjoyment.
*Thanks to Kensington and NetGalley for this review copy.

4 1/2 stars

There was a LOT to keep up with in this book. I went back and forth between the ebook and audiobook as I was reading. Since there were multiple story lines and characters, I often had to refer back to the ebook to be sure I didn't miss something along the way with the audio. I would always see that I hadn't -- but it took a great deal of attentiveness to keep up with all the moving pieces. That said, it was worth it because this was a stunningly well- crafted puzzle where all the pieces ultimately come together in the end. You just have to be patient and wait for it.

The primary character in this book is Alex Quinlan ( who later becomes Armstrong). You are first introduced to Alex in the beginning of the book when she witnesses the slaughter of her parents and thirteen year-old brother by an unknown armed intruder in their home. Seventeen year-old Alex barely escapes the same fate but then goes on to be the main suspect of the police and is basically convicted in the media. Her life is thrown into chaos. Ultimately, she's exonerated and goes on to try to live her life under the radar in the hope of avoiding media attention. She is taken in by the female police officer who was first on the scene when her family died and her husband, a high profile defense attorney who defended Alex. As her substitute parents through the years, they provide Alex with the only stability she has when she needs it and try to advocate on her behalf.

Meanwhile, you also get viewpoints from others including a reporter, Tracy Carr who was on the scene the night Alex was arrested for her family's murder. Tracy's career took off when she nicknamed Alex "empty eyes" that night. So, she continued to piggy back off that success each time there was an anniversary date of the murders by televising from the family home or doing something to keep it in the public's minds - - all of which made it difficult for Alex to move on.

Meanwhile, the true murderer of Alex's family had never been discovered. Alex couldn't let it go and kept a board with clues on it as she found them. But everything seemed to be a dead end and it was obvious that the police hadn't put any additional effort into it and had probably lost momentum when they pinned all their initial suspicions on Alex instead of looking for other possibilities.

As the story progresses, you also have other stories that are introduced, including that of an FBI agent, Annette Packard, who is in charge of vetting a potential new Supreme Court justice recommendation. Initially, you wonder how all these story lines will tie together but they eventually do. In addition, there is a narrator whose identity you don't know. An unknown narrator is always good for some twistiness in the plot.

I was mesmerized by this book. Even though the things that happened in the story were flat out heartbreaking, you just wanted to see people get justice. It just shows that things aren't always so simple. But it really made for a great story.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Excellent narration. It really was great to listen to and kept me glued to the story. My only problem was like what I mentioned earlier, I sometimes felt like I missed something and had to reference the actual ebook to be sure I hadn't. But that was probably due to me. It might not be an issue for others. There was a great deal going on in this book. Which was good and bad. Bad because you REALLY had to pay attention and good because it was a crafty storyline. 4 1/2 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for early copies of both the ebook and audiobook. I voluntarily chose to review both of them and the opinions contained within are my own.