THIS is the suspense, murder thriller of the summer!
5 stars! 🤩
Seriously, you have to read this thrill ride.
I've been dying to get my teeth into a really good, meaty, suspenseful, twisty, gritty thriller for ages and finally got my wish!
An incredible story with so many shocks, thrills, twists galore, and captivating characters.
This will be the thriller novel of the summer that will be hard to top.
Surprises, storylines that intertwine and throw you for loops, and just impossible to put down.
Well done 👏 this was exactly what I was craving 🤌
I can't give enough praise for this one, I'd be surprised if it isn't a top hit of the year with how well done it is just throwing out more twists than a bag of twizzlers.
Easy 5 stars 👌

I'd so glad I recently discovered Charlie Donlea. I've enjoyed all of his books that I've read but this one may be his best for me. Lots of red herrings, duel timelines and an ending I did not see coming. Highly recommend.

Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy.

I received an ARC of this upcoming novel (due out in July, 2025) through NetGalley.

I look forward to everything this author publishes. As always, this book delivers with a mystery that grabs the reader’s interest immediately. This is about Ethan Hall, now an ER doctor, but previously a crime investigator. He had a perfect record solving crimes and, after 10 years as an ER doctor, he was begged to return temporarily to his former job to solve a cold case: the disappearance of the 17-year-old daughter of Wisconsin’s governor.

This book has a lot of characters and it can be somewhat confusing. And none of the characters are particularly well-developed. There are also some secrets about some of the characters that aren’t revealed until late in the book. And it is quite a finish! The strength of this book is its complex plot, enhanced by a rapid pace,

This was the best one yet!!! I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time trying to figure out who did it!

The end!!!! It was so good! I am ready for the next one!

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest review!

#NetGalley #GuessAgain

Take this with a grain of salt because I seem to be an outlier on this one!

📖: Ethan Hall left his job as a detective years ago. Even with a 100% solve rate, the mental and emotional toll got to be too much. But when a cold case is re-opened, Ethan is approached. Since the case involves the serial killer who killed his father, Ethan decides to take it on.

🤝: This may be a good fit if you enjoy:
- serial killer thrillers
- intricate webs of secrets
- action-packed endings

💭: Guess Again was certainly entertaining and fast-paced. It's plot-driven with short chapters. It has a lot of elements thriller-readers will love. I couldn't have predicted some of the reveals. And it's always fun to read about familiar places as a Wisconsinite!

There were a few things that wore on me as the book went on. There were multiple times the dialogue felt unnatural in efforts to get information across. I also thought two of the reveals were interesting, necessary, and surprising. Others felt like too much. Finally, I'm not usually one to notice little details, but there were multiple times that I was like "how did this happen?" that felt convenient.

Rating: I liked it! (3)

Thank you to Kensington Publishing, NetGalley, and the Thrillers by the Book Club MKE leaders for the early copies of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. Love Charlie Donlea's books and this did not disappoint! Fast moving and the twists! Omg is all I can say

Prepare for a pulse-pounding, mind-bending journey with Charlie Donlea's upcoming release, "Guess Again," hitting shelves on July 29, 2025! This suspense mystery thriller is an absolute masterclass in keeping readers on the edge of their seats, and trust me, the title is no exaggeration – you'll be guessing at every turn, only to be delightfully, repeatedly, proven wrong.
From the very first page to the jaw-dropping conclusion, "Guess Again" delivers shock after shock. As a seasoned thriller reader, it's rare for me to be completely blindsided by an ending, but Donlea, a true pro in his genre, managed to do just that. The final reveal left me stunned in the best possible way.
Adding another layer of excitement for me personally was the novel's setting. As a Wisconsin resident, it was thrilling to recognize towns only an hour's drive away, immersing me even further into the story's chilling atmosphere. And for a California transplant like myself, the character of Christian, a transplant from Wisconsin to California, offered a fun, relatable detail that added a touch of unexpected charm.
At the heart of the narrative are Ethan and Maddie, whose love story blossoms from the ashes of shared trauma. Ethan's fiercely protective nature and Maddie's remarkable ability to compartmentalize create a dynamic that is both compelling and, given the inherently unhealthy nature of trauma bonds, deeply unsettling. Be forewarned: if you're hoping for a conventional happily-ever-after, "Guess Again" might not be the sweet escape you anticipate. But fear not, I'm a staunch anti-spoiler advocate, so that's all I'll reveal on that front!
While "Guess Again" appears to be a standalone novel, the audacious cliffhanger left me desperately hoping for a sequel in the near future. This book is an absolute five-star read, a testament to Charlie Donlea's unparalleled ability to craft a truly unforgettable suspense mystery. Mark your calendars for July 29, 2025 – you won't want to miss this wild, thrilling ride!

+++I was given a copy of this eARC in an exchange for an honest review+++

I want to thank #Charliesonlea #Netgalley and #Kensingtonpublishing for allowing me to read this amazing eARC. I truly feel honored to have had the privilege to read and review it.

Thank you to Net Galley, Kensington Publishing, and Charlie Donlea for the ARC of this book. It pulled me right out of a reading slump. I love the back and forth of characters, it kept me guessing and kept me on my toes. The twists be twisting! I wanted a little more from the ending but overall still 5 stars for me! Another banger!

Wow, what a page turner!! And, boy, does this one have a heck of a twist at the end! The characters are likable and well developed. There are lots of twists and turns that made this book a mental workout. I think my mouth may have been hanging open by the end.

Thank you to Net Galley and Kensington Publishing for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Ethan Hall is a former investigator turned ER doctor who is sucked back into his former career after retiring due to the toll it was taking on his mental health by a governor with a personal connection to a cold case. With Ethan’s 100% success rate on his caseload over the course of his investigative career and his connection to the former lead investigator on the cold case, he agrees to look into it. This decision takes him on a crazy ride that will keep the reader on the edge of their seat the whole way!

Charlie Donlea is one of my absolute favorite authors as his books NEVER disappoint, so I was confident that Guess Again would be no different and I was right! This book was so fast paced and captivating from the very beginning! I inhaled this book in 2.5 days!

I enjoyed all the characters and was not let down in my desire to have plot twists that I did not see coming! You will not be disappointed when reading this book!

Thank you Kensington Publishing for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Okay .. this book through meeeeeee around like no tomorrow. This book was INSANE, I loved every bit of it.. pleaseeee please please read. Probably one of my favourite books this year so far.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC of 'Guess Again' by Charlie Donlea- expected release date of 07/29/2025

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

Donlea is a favorite author of mine so I requested this ARC blindly, I didn't even care what the synopsis was, I just had to try to get my hands on it before it was released! I have to say, I was a little disappointed with this one...His writing was great (as per usual) but he was quite repetitive in mentioning specific things over and over (some examples, jet black hair, coiled snake tattoo, bells palsy of the face). There were A LOT of plot twists I didn't see coming, (oh you have things figured out, Guess Again lol) but they definitely made the book entertaining, even though some were wildly outlandish. I thought the reveal of Francis's true female accomplice (Harriet) was underwhelming since it wasn't anyone we were introduced to until the very end of the book. Something different than his past books, he left this open ended which suggests there could be a sequel!

Guess Again is a total page-turner. Charlie Donlea does what he does best—pulls you into a twisty mystery that keeps you guessing the whole way through. The story flips between past and present as ex-detective Ethan Hall digs into an old missing person case tied to a creepy serial killer. The chapters are short, the tension builds fast, and just when you think you’ve figured it out—nope. If you’re into thrillers that mess with your head a little, this one’s for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy for an honest review.

I’ve read all of Charlie Donlea’s books so I was thrilled to read his new one! This book was so in line with anll his other work. A very intricate plot with a lot of moving parts so pay attention…. So many twists that by the end I had whiplash!

A missing teenager, an incarcerated serial killer, a prior detective turned ER doctor. What more could you ask for?

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read!!!

“GUESS AGAIN” by Charlie Donlea lives up to its title. I have read all of Donlea’s work and thought I knew most of his tricks but this book really proved me wrong.

The story lives up to his usual structure of multiple POVs to tell the story which does so in an efficient manner leaving the reader on their toes while they root for the (very likeable!) main character.

I really enjoyed this read because there was multiple story lines going on which made it such a quick read and it was all tied up nicely at the end (??? Hoping for a sequel with more Ethan!!). I got into about 75% of this book thinking it was going to be a 4 star but the ending really did it for me in rating this 5 stars. If you love cold cases, great detective work and serial killer reads this one is for you!

Thank you to publisher and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Charlie Donlea does it again with this book! He crafts such great stories with so many different characters and intertwines them in ways that you never see coming. It’s a serious page turner that you won’t want to put down until you know how it all turns out….but do we actually know how this one ends??

Absolutely fantastic. I was on the edge of my seat. This entire time I was guessing and I was never right, and I fell into the story immediately I loved every single character and I loved how the author set it up.

Okay, so this was supposed to be a nice, paced buddy read where we’d read a few chapters a day and discuss like civilized bookworms. But what actually happened? None of us could stop and we all finished it in under 24 hours because… well, Charlie Donlea strikes again.

Verdict? 5 BLAZING HOT STARS 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥. I am now fully convinced this man cannot write a bad book. His stories are whip-smart, meticulously detailed, and packed with heart-pounding stress in the best possible way. And just when I smugly thought I had it all figured out — “GUESS AGAIN, BETHANY!” — plot twist. I was wrong. And I loved every second of being played.

I especially adored how he wrote Ethan, our doctor-turned-sleuth who dusts off his investigative skills to dive back into solving crimes. I don’t even know why I loved that little career detail so much, but I did. Made me love Ethan even more.

Honestly, I can’t think of one thing I’d change about this book. It’s suspenseful, compulsive, loaded with tension, and delivers an absolutely explosive ending that left me reeling. I already need more. Good thing I’ve got three more Donlea books waiting because I am officially obsessed.

A Cold Case..
A cold case, a small town, a veteran detective needing answers. A shocking and unexpected psychological suspense with a credible and well drawn cast, a propulsive narrative littered with countless twists and an atmospheric plot with a deep sense of time and place and where secrets and lies will, eventually, out. A worthy addition to this author’s oeuvre.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing and Charlie Donlea for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved Guess Again! From the first chapter, Charlie Donlea hooked me with the chilling mystery of 17-year-old Callie Jones’s disappearance—and it only got better from there. The plot is full of tension, emotional depth, and just enough small-town eeriness to keep you turning pages late into the night.

Ethan Hall, a former detective turned ER doctor, is reluctantly pulled back into the world he tried to leave behind. As he reopens Callie's 10-year-old cold case, what starts as a favor to a dying former partner becomes something much darker. What truly amazed me was how Donlea weaves in a 32-year-old unsolved case and reveals how it’s disturbingly linked to Callie’s disappearance. That twist added a whole new layer of complexity—and completely blindsided me in the best way.

The ending was a shocker. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, the story flipped everything on its head. It’s one of those rare thrillers that manages to be both clever and emotionally satisfying.

If you enjoy atmospheric psychological thrillers with deeply flawed characters, buried secrets, and twists you won't see coming, this book is for you. I’d highly recommend it to fans of Riley Sager, Karin Slaughter, or anyone looking for a gripping read that stays with you.