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Well, I think I was the real winner of our Summer Reading Retreat book exchange game! 😂
I ended up with Guess Again during our book exchange at our Summer Reading Retreat, and since Charlie Donlea was a new-to-me author, I really didn’t know what to expect. Now I guess I need to add his backlist to my TBR!
If you love action-packed thrillers with a detective story at the center, Guess Again is definitely one to check out. It has that small-town mystery feel I love, a cold case that has haunted the community for ten years, and plenty of secrets waiting to come out.
Ethan Hall was such an interesting main character. He left his career as a detective because of the stress and became…an ER doctor instead. Hmm…seems like an interesting career choice if you’re trying to REDUCE your stress. 😂 But when his former partner is dying and asks Ethan to help solve the one case he could never close—the disappearance of 17-year-old Callie Jones—Ethan gets pulled back into his old life.
And from there, this story takes off!
Donlea has such an addictive writing style. The short chapters, new clues, twists, and constant feeling that there was something else I wasn’t seeing made this one really hard to put down. I’m always trying to figure out the mystery before the characters do, and there were a few things I almost figured out, but there were definitely some surprises waiting for me, too.
I also really enjoyed the cold-case aspect of the story. Going back through evidence ten years later, questioning what might have been missed, and uncovering secrets in a small town where everyone seems connected somehow made this exactly the kind of mystery that keeps me reading because I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.
Overall, Guess Again was a fast-paced, addictive thriller that kept pulling me back in until the last page. This was my first Charlie Donlea book, but it definitely won’t be my last.
So yes, I’m officially declaring myself the winner of that book exchange. 😂