4.5 stars

I haven't been fooled like this in a while, so bravo to the author for the twists and turns in the story!

This story has two separate plot lines but when they intersect that's when things get really interesting! First you have the secret identity/family plot line surrounding Avery Mason, the host of a hit ratings boosting TV show. This was my least favorite of the two but it grew on me as the story progressed. Second you have the recovery of a bone fragment of Victoria Ford from the Trade Center ruins. Avery's digging into this uncovers all sorts of questions regarding an unsolved murder case and this is what kept me really interested.

The writing is descriptive and sets a great scene, intermingling with real places and events one can picture in their mind, the reader can really get immersed and place themselves in the story. Avery and Walt are likable and have good rapport and chemistry building up to the big reveal. I wasn't sure how much I was going to like the characters at the start of the book, but the writer does a great job of slowly letting them shine as the book draws to a crescendo. I enjoy books that are character driven and this one certainly was. If you like mystery/suspense books with a crime aspect I highly recommend checking this one out!

Thank you to NetGalley, Charlie Donlea and Kensington Books for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

The Suicide House was one of my favorite books last year, so I was really excited to get my hands on this one! It was just as good as I have come to expect from Donlea. It was an intricately weaved mystery with many different moving parts that kept you invested in the story. I really liked the two main characters and how they come together to solve the crime, when only one of them is sure that there is still one to solve. All through this novel I had assumptions about the ending and man was I wrong. But I absolutely loved the ending and the twist we are left with!

I am a huge fan of Charlie Donlea’s Rory Moore/Lane Phillips’ series and so I was extremely excited to get an Advanced copy of Donlea’s upcoming releases Twenty Years Later. One of my favorite things about Donlea’s writing is that characters from his series tend to make small appearances in his standalone books. It really brings the writing together for me, and gives the standalones the same comfortable feeling you get while reading a series.

The story follows Avery Mason as she researches her newest story for her popular prime-time program American Events. This season she’s doing a 20th anniversary special on 9/11 and the efforts that are still on-going to identify the remains of victims. But that’s just one of the reasons Avery is in New York. The second reason happens to be tied to her father, who is one on the run from the FBI after he was convicted of one of the largest Ponzi schemes in the history of the US.

We really have two stories tied into one here. On one hand we have the mystery of our 9/11 victim that has recently been identified may not have actually died during the attacks. Avery is determined to uncover the truth and bring those events to her viewers. On the other hand we have the mystery surrounding Avery’s personal life which she’s trying very hard not to expose to the general public. The two plot lines weave together throughout most of the story and while they’re well done, I think the story would have been better with just one big plot line.

We also have a ton of characters that get introduced in the first few characters of the story. Each with their own POV, which made it hard to actually get the story going. In retrospect, it makes sense why Donlea introduces them that way, but regardless it really doesn’t draw a reader in. Though we mainly only follow Avery Mason and retired FBI detective Walt Jenkins, there was just too much movement for me starting off.

With that said this wasn’t my favorite of his books and it’s probably the least memorable one that I’ve read from him. I didn’t get around to writing my review immediately after reading, and honestly had to go back and read the synopsis to remember what it was about. I did enjoy the TV show angle though, and both plot lines are interesting enough on their own to carry the story. I also really liked the main characters, and wouldn’t mind see either Avery Mason or Walt Jenkins again. However, I honestly don’t think I’m ready to read about plots centered around 9/11 yet. I wouldn’t say it’s written in bad taste, I just personally am not ready for it.

All in all, it’s a good mystery with some solid twists and turns. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Twenty Years Later comes out December 28, 2021. Huge thank you to Kensington Books for my copy in exchange for my honest review. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof_books.

Love or the law. They're man's only two problems in this world.

Avery Mason didn't quite know where her live now started and her old life of Claire Montgomery ended. Getting to know the current Avery Mason - you like her right away. She is vulnerable, strong, and she has a secret. A secret that is rooted in loyalty. Avery is a host of the American Events her own special news show. She has been successful and she is gutsy. Avery had a gift of making stories come alive for her viewers. She saw opportunities and took them. She has a lead for a story in New York City on the anniversary of 9/11. Some remains of been identified. The story becomes personified for Avery when she interviews the victims sister. A sister who wants her sister Victoria Ford exonerated for a crime of murder that she was facing. Piecing together the crime scene with those familiar with the case, Avery feels a special kinship to the sisters.

Walt Jenkins was caught in a downward spiral. He was isolated in Jamaica trying to forget a past he could not change or forgive himself. He had no future but just lived in the present drinking rum. The FBI had fired him and now they have a proposal that includes Avery Mason and the the case of Victoria Ford. Victoria's case his first case twenty years ago. The FBI was working on the case that included Avery's true identity and the past she was trying to escape.

Donlea has a gift of story telling. Drawing you in with the characters and a plot filled with ironies. Ironies that include Walt and Avery and the past that they were escaping and how the ironies of how they came together. I have to admit he also always includes a twist that you never see coming. There was two that came with this one that completely took me by surprise. For me, the twists were rushed. I am not sure what was missing for me but it just left me without closure. However, that does not change the fact that I am a big fan of Charlie Donlea and always look forward to what he will come up. He is the real deal.

A special thank you to Kensington Books and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

In “Twenty Years Later” by Charlie Donlea we are thrown into the life of Avery Mason, the host of an investigative tv program. She attaches herself to the story behind a victim of 9/11 who was identified by a twenty year old bone fragment which used a breakthrough technology to analyze the DNA. The new discovery is a great cover for her planned trip to New York – where Avery’s investigation starts to bring her far more questions than answers.

Great book with wonderful characters and all kinds of twists. I received this book through Net Galley and this is my honest review.

Thoughts
The story starts in the Catskill Mountains July 2001, two months before 911, and then skips to the morning of 911. In July a well known author is murdered, and suspect #1 is Victoria Ford who is in the towers on 911 meeting with her lawyer. Twenty years laters her tooth is discovered through DNA. Well known American Events Host Avery Mason gets wind of the DNA discovery, and believes it is the story that will take her career to new heights. Off to NYC she goes with two different agendas. One is to finally put her tumultuous past to rest, and the other is the DNA story.

This was a fast paced story that threw a lot at you from the beginning. In true Charlie Donlea fashion his newest book is full of twists and turns. It was confusing at first skipping from month to month and then fast forwarding twenty years later, but it all comes together in a shocking conclusion. If you're a fan of this author, then you'll love Twenty Years Later.

Grab your copy on December 28, 2021!

Thank you Kensington Publishing, Author Charlie Donlea and NetGalley for my #advancedcopy!

Book Rating: 4.5/5

Wine Pairing: Conundrum Red Blend

4+ stars! Gripping. Twisty. Edgy.

Avery Mason is a famous tv host who is investigating the story behind a victim of 9/11 identified by a bone fragment found twenty years later. Breakthrough technology allowed scientists to determine the DNA within a tiny piece of bone sifted out of the large pile of rubble left after the twin tower attacks. Twenty years later, there remains a team that is still trying to find answers and give closure to the many families who never heard from their loved ones after that devastating day. Avery’s investigation brings forth far more detail and answers than she ever anticipated.

It’s brave for an author to take on 9/11 as a subplot. It’s a tragedy that many of us still cannot process and will never fully understand. I felt the author did an excellent job weaving this devastating part of history into the story.

I enjoyed the tv show angle. It kept the plot fresh and relevant. I really liked the main characters and how their own unique back stories brought suspense and tension to the storyline.

The ending was shocking and highly entertaining! Loved it! Readers will definitely have a “love” or “hate” feeling for the conclusion. For me, I felt it was clever, twisty and absolutely perfect!

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy!

This is my third read by Donlea and the first time I saw him mentioned in New York Times. NYT is notoriously (and quite tediously) highbrow so it was very odd to see his book there, because Donlea is very solidly a midlist author published by a very midlist publisher. It’s almost like NYT wanted to throw a bone to the great unwashed and plucked a random thriller out of the midst.
Is any of it relevant? No, not really, just peculiar. So now on to the book itself, which was very much in line with Donlea’s other books but longer. And much too long at 400 pages for the beach read which it is. It even takes place over July 4th’s time.
This unwieldy and unwarranted length, which Donlea produced by padding the book with numerous place descriptions (quite decently to be fair, making his locations to be additional characters) and numerous oversimplifications and overexplanations, which were not so decent. Being a midlist author, Donlea already peddles to the lower hanging fruit of an audience, but he obviously wants to make sure he covers everyone, everyfreakingone, but overexplaining every single plot aspect in repetitive pre-sliced fashion that might seem anywhere from annoying to insulting to many seasoned genre fans.
Length aside and some questionable oversimplifications aside, this was actually quite entertaining. Pure popcorn fiction, but fun enough, with some fun twists thrown in.
The basic plot involves a popular investigative journalist, Avery, with her own tv show and her own dark family secrets who sets off to investigate a twenty-year-old unsolved murder of a popular thriller writer who appears to have been modeled on Donlea himself, at least aspirationally (not the character’s sordid personal life, just him as an author of popular best-selling thrillers). In fact, Donlea appears so enamored by the concept of writing the writers of cheap commercial thrillers, he puts more of them in the book, where you’d think one would have been enough.
Anyway, Avery teams up with a retired special agent who once worked the case and has secret motives of his own for this pairing. Sparks do that thing sparks do in books like this and now the two of them have to contend with juggling their projects (secret and otherwise) and their passions. Ta-da. That’s about it.
Too long, but it reads quickly and entertains sufficiently, much like the author’s other books. This one appears to be slightly more sophisticated of a narrative, but it never rises above the comfortably average place that Donlea has proclaimed as his comfort zone for a while now. So fun enough, nothing special writing wise, but some nice twists. Thanks Netgalley.

Good book! This book was very twisty lol it had so many twists and turns that I did get a little confused at times lol but it also had suspense, intrigue, and a great storyline! There were a few things that happened that blew my mind! All and all it was a very good read! I will definitely recommend reading this one! Its well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

One of the MANY things that I enjoy about Charlie Donlea’s work, is that his stories take place in actual locations which bring them to life for me.

If you have visited, Negril, Jamaica, you may have sampled Hampden Estates rum or watched drunken tourists dive off of the 35 ft cliff at Rick’s Cafe.

Manhattanites in turn, may be drinking their rum at The Rum House, or enjoying a steak at the iconic Keen’s Steakhouse, the only survivor of the Herald Square Theatre District, hoping for a glance at the largest collection of Churchwarden Pipes in the World. It’s pipe club at over 90,000 members over the course of its history, including names like Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Albert Einstein and “Buffalo Bill” Cody to name a few…

But, let’s talk about this story…

It opens with a death in the Catskill Mountains on July 15, 2001-two months before 9/11 . A newly minted, police detective has been called to the scene-a naked Victim, hangs from a rope from a second story balcony, twirling in the night.

September 11, 2001-Lower Manhattan: A woman named Victoria Ford, has been accused of murdering our Victim from the Catskill scene, and she is meeting with her attorney on the eightieth floor of the North Tower, when American Airlines flight 11, hit its target.

Manhattan, NY-Twenty Years Later: The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office is still working to identify Victims from the Twin Towers, using a newly developed technology which could extract DNA from pulverized bone fragments.*** An identification is made from a tiny fragment. It matches the DNA sample provided by Victoria Ford’s sister.

Avery Mason, the lead anchor for American Events-the most popular prime-time newsmagazine program on television needs a reason to go to NY. She decides that this new technology and identification will be her “cover”.

Her story, and what she uncovers about the newly identified Victim will unfold in six parts:
The Sting
Fate
Deception
Evidence
The Long Game
Repayment

I figured out one piece of the puzzle early on, but was surprised by a second piece, and by the clever revelation in the epilogue. This would make for a fantastic Blockbuster movie, so the Hollywood ending worked for me.

***The 9/11 Project is still ongoing-as of September 11, 2021 there are still 1,106 Victims whose remains have not been identified, per a NY Times article.

This title will be available on December 28, 2021

Thank You to Kensington Publishing Corporation for the gifted copy provided through NetGalley. It was my pleasure to offer a candid review!

Beautiful cover and amazing plot. The characters are developed perfectly and the amount of characters were easy to keep up with.
The story had alot of details but there's a reason for this. These details come together to provide an explosive ending that I thought about after finishing the book.
You should read this book if you like mysteries and thrillers. No trigger warnings needed unless you lost a billion dollars to a ponzi scheme.

Another great book from one of my favourite authors. A twisty thriller though admittedly with some sections that I wasn't very keen on.

Thank you to Kensington Books, NetGalley, and Charlie Donlea for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Twenty Years Later in exchange for my honest review!

Avery Mason, the host of American Events, and a somewhat overnight sensation, has the next true crime story that will equate to ratings galore. Twenty years after the tragic events of 9/11, new DNA technology has allowed for the identification of the remains of Victoria Ford, who was accused of murdering her lover before meeting her tragic end.

Avery meets with Emma Kind, Victoria's sister, where she listens to Victoria's last words: "Please believe that I’m innocent. Please... Find a way, Em. Find a way to prove it. Please? Just find a way to prove to the world that I’m not the monster they’ve painted me to be. I’ve gotta go now. I love you.”

Unbeknownst to Avery, there is someone else who's very interested in Avery's dark past.

This was one doozy of a mystery! There are two separate storylines, and what I enjoyed the most was that I wasn't particularly more invested in one story than the other. This is told from alternating viewpoints and every so often from alternating timelines. I was plenty invested in how the mysteries would resolve themselves, and I found this book to be incredibly well-written.

If this plot sounds even remotely interesting to you, I can assure you you'll likely find it entertaining.

Twenty Years Later will be on US bookshelves December 28, 2021!

3.5 stars

A news reported trying to prove she has what it takes. A twenty-year-old murder. A sister wanting to clear her sister’s name. A retired agent called back to investigate. A horrible tragedy.

Twenty Years later started slowly for me and I didn't get fully invested in the book until around the 40% mark. The book starts with a strong opening scene, and I was onboard, the book hits the brakes and begins with the back story. Usually, I don't mind this but this one just hit the brakes for me. There are a lot of characters in the mix - don't worry you will be able to remember and keep track of them, but they did add to the slower pace. Once I got to the 40% mark, things began getting interesting, so hang in there if you feel the beginning is slow as I did.

By the halfway mark, I was trying to figure things out and get to the truth myself. There is the main plot and some subplots and when they merge, there was a nice payoff. The second half of the book went much faster, and the pages began turning. As we learn more and more is revealed, things got juicy and just when I thought, I knew what was going to happen, Donlea threw a curve ball and shocked me at the ending. Well, played, Donlea, well played.

Although, this was not my favorite Donlea book, I did enjoy it once I got past the slow beginning. As always, I will be on the lookout for future books by Donlea.

Be aware that this book does use the 911 tragedy in the plot.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing Group, Goodreads and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Read more of my reviews at www.openbookposts.com

Avery Mason is the host of a popular ‘current events’ type show, when she learns that a new type of DNA testing has identified the remains of a 9/11 victim. When it’s revealed that the victim was a suspect in a scandalous and lurid homicide just weeks before the attacks, Avery decides to dig deeper to feature the story on her show. Twenty Years Later has plenty of secrets, revealed slowly over the first third of the book, which then picks up the pace and develops into the type of intriguing and twisty thriller that author Charlie Donlea has perfected. The seemingly unconnected first several chapters all fall into place as the book gathers momentum, and it just takes a while to get there, but the payoff is worth it. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Let me start by saying that I’d rather give this 4 stars. But the fact is, parts of the story dragged. The last 25% made this book mind boggling and I would have given it the full 4 if it had sucked me in all the way through. Since I can’t give it a 3.5 I’m rounding down to 3 because of the slow moving parts but this is definitely worth the read!
Avery is a news reporter who’s set out to try and set herself apart by following the story of a murder that took place 20 years ago of a famous author. Unfortunately, the case was set to begin just before 9/11 took place and the world came to a standstill. In looking into the case, Avery found more than she bargained for and it leads her down some paths that she didn’t expect, including some new relationships and revisiting some old ones. But the story isn’t remotely what she thought it was going to be when she started out.
There’s so much going on in this-and lots of details and history about what happened on 9/11 and lots of police procedures. There’s so much to like that I kind of resent the stuff that took away from it for me lol
Thanks to Kensington Publishing and Netgalley for this Arc in exchange for my review.

I love a good puzzle and this did not disappoint! Nice level of suspense and twists but not too twisty. I really enjoyed Avery as a character and would like to see more from her in the future!

The Real Housewives have nothing on the level of drama in this book. Don't worry if the plot sounds a little bonkers: it is! It's fine! It's better than fine, actually. It's an escape. So pretend your disbelief was just caught smoking in the bathroom at the school you run, and suspend it. Yes, I really had to reach for that, and no I don't really care. This is the second Charlie Donlea book I've read, and while they are all standalones, some of the characters overlap in them. Avery Mason is one, and the one this novel focuses more on. I loved learning more about who Avery is as a person and her motivations. That was a bonus to the cuckoo-for-cocoa puffs thrill ride. You don't need to have read any of the previous books to read this one, either. You can jump right in with Twenty Years Later. Obviously, this isn't a perfect book. I guessed 97% of the twists, and some of the dialogue is clunky. But I had such fun reading this crazy book that I'd rather not rip it to pieces for its flaws, but celebrate it for the smashing success it had in taking me out of my own mind for a while. Thank you to Kensington Books and Netgalley for the chance to review this advance copy.

Suspenseful, clever, and engaging. My first Charlie Donlea book and in short order, it sucked me in. After first glance of the table of contents, I initially thought I would not like the multiple timelines as it is hard to flip back and forth when reading on an e-reader. My thoughts were put at rest early as I realized chapters follow a simple formula. I loved the character dynamics, the flashbacks of 9-11, the inclusion of DNA identification and the intertwined twists.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for the ARC.

🌟🌟🌟🌟 4/5 stars

Another excellent thriller from one of my auto-buy authors, Charlie Donlea. Twenty Years Later is about Avery Mason, host of American Events, who pursues a story about new DNA technology identifying a victim of 9/11. However, when the victim is identified as Victoria Ford, Avery realizes she has stumbled upon ratings gold - Victoria Ford was accused of brutally murdering a famous author with whom she was having an affair. As Avery gets closer to the truth, people from her past get closer to exposing her secrets.

Donlea always manages to make me think I have it all figured out until he pulls one huge twist. This was a crazy rollercoaster of a book with multiple timelines and POVs. It is so well written and hard to put down. I could see this being even better on audio. Charlie Donlea delivered again.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Full review to be posted closer to release date.