Charlie Donlea's Blog - Posts Tagged "thriller"

The Making of a Medical Examiner:
By Dr. Livia Cutty

The summer after my sister graduated high school, just as she was preparing to head off to college, she disappeared. She and another girl, actually. They both vanished from a beach party in our small North Carolina town. Their abduction sent Emerson Bay into panic.

Every resident, neighbor and friend looked for these two girls, large packs of volunteers walking shoulder-to-shoulder through the woods hoping to stumble across any clue that might help located them. We held vigils, too, lighting candles late into the summer night in some strange show of faith that our girls would be returned to us.

This went on for two weeks, just long enough for me to secretly lose hope. And then Megan McDonald, the other girl who was taken along with my sister, resurfaced. She had escaped from a bunker hidden deep in the woods, ramrodding her way through the forest on a dark, rainy night until someone spotted her wandering on Highway 57.

My sister? She was never seen again.

That was last August. Back then I was finishing the fourth year of my anatomical pathology residency. I’d completed my undergraduate degree, endured four years of medical school, and had settled into residency prepared to spend my four-year stint learning how disease affects the human body. Back in that old life, a cushy hospital pathology job waited in my future. Maybe a teaching gig at the university. Then my sister disappeared and my priorities changed. After my residency, I applied for a forensic pathology fellowship—a one-year program that would turn me into a medical examiner. My thinking was this: Someday, my sister’s body would show up in someone’s morgue. It would be up to a forensic pathologist to use his skills to uncover the clues my sister’s body left behind, and to hand those clues over to the authorities who might track down her killer. I wanted those skills, simple as that.

The following July, nearly a year after my sister went missing, I started my year of fellowship at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in North Carolina. I also started reading the bestselling memoir that was sweeping the nation. It was the true story account written by Megan McDonald, the girl who disappeared with my sister. Megan had miraculously escaped her captor, and her riveting story of survival was a blockbuster topping every bestseller list in the country. The memoir bothered me, the whoring of such personal tragedy for monetary gain infuriated me, and the fact that the book never once mentioned my still-missing sister unnerved me.

It was about that time, on a hot Monday morning, that the body of a young man rolled into my morgue. That body changed my life forever. It changed Megan’s life as well, since after I completed the autopsy I began to question every page of her bestselling book. My biggest question: Was this hunk of three hundred pages a memoir, or pure fiction?

To find out how things transpired the summer I started my forensic fellowship, pick up The Girl Who Was Taken. It’s a hell of a story. And the way things end will have you gasping like a brand new path fellow the first time a zipper rips down a body bag and their maiden corpse is dumped in front of them.

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A New Book. A New Website.

A new thriller by Charlie Donlea.
A tropical island. A grisly murder.
And a documentary filmmaker looking for answers…

Dear Friends,

I’m excited to share the news with you about my third novel, Don’t Believe It , to be released on May 29, 2018. In the tradition of Serial and Making a Murderer, my latest thriller follows the journey of Sidney Ryan, a filmmaker who looks into a ten-year-old murder and creates a hit documentary around her findings. But as ratings soar and Sidney edges closer to the real heart of the story, she must decide if finding the truth is worth risking her newfound fame, her career . . . even her life.

Along with my new novel, I’m also eager to announce the launch of my new website and blog!

One of the best parts of writing Don’t Believe It, was deciding to place the setting on the beautiful island of St. Lucia, where I was lucky enough to visit while putting the final touches on the manuscript.

Now, my website allows me to share some of my experiences with readers. I will be including photos and stories about my adventure to Sugar Beach Resort, the site of the grisly crime in the novel, and offering some behind the scenes details about how this picturesque resort where Matt Damon flew his Hollywood friends to celebrate the renewal of his wedding vows ended up being the perfect location for murder. Read More

The Setting: Sugar Beach l St. Lucia Eastern Caribbean Jalousie Plantation
March 29, 2007 l A Murder




From the Author

Don’t Believe It might be my favorite novel out of the three I’ve written. I’m a True Crime junkie. I loved listening to the podcast Serial, got hooked on Making a Murderer, and I’m a sucker anytime 48 Hours or Dateline taunts me with a murder case that seems open-and-shut, but is really anything but. My gripe about some of the most popular True Crime documentaries is that the endings rarely satisfy. They tend to raise more questions than they answer. And that’s because the filmmakers are dealing with real life, they’re not making it up.

As I quote in Don’t Believe It

“In feature films, the director is God. In documentary films, God is the director.”

But rest assured, the ending of my fictional take on a True Crime documentary provides closure—and, I hope, some jaw-dropping surprises. I hope you love this one as much as I do!

Charlie Donlea

Check Out My New Website!

My New Book: DON'T BELIEVE IT Coming May 29, 2018 (US) April 30, 2018 (AU)

From acclaimed author, Charlie Donlea comes a twisting, impossible-to-put-down novel of suspense in which a filmmaker helps clear a woman convicted of murder—only to find she may be a puppet in a sinister game. Read More


Advance Praise

"Riveting"
—Publishers Weekly

“[A] timely thriller that builds into a shocking conclusion. Don’t Believe It is sure to appeal to fans of true crime docu-dramas, along with readers of Mary Kubica or Shari Lapena.”
—Library Journal

“Fast-paced, gripping and addictive, this one will feed your true crime obsession and then some."
—POPSUGAR Book Club: 5 of May's Best New Reads

“Donlea’s framing of the story as documentary research proves an effective device, and his work reads like the best nonfiction: clear, crisp, and fast-moving.”
—Booklist

“A perfectly executed and entirely satisfying read, Don’t Believe It is a gripping thriller that will blow readers away, from the first page right up to the very last words. Charlie Donlea’s best book yet!”
​—Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl and Every Last Lie

“Chilling and suspenseful. I was gripped from the first page.”
—Candice Fox, bestselling author of Crimson Lake ​

“It’s easy to get hooked on the book’s heady cocktail of highly rated television and high-stakes subterfuge...a highly topical thriller." 5 Stars
—Foreword Reviews

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Unlock the Truth with Charlie Donlea.

Follow the Clues from 5/15-5/22 to discover a thrilling surprise.

Keep your eyes peeled!

Look for the image on my BLOG online below; from 5/15-5/22 and collect the clues each day to reveal a secret phrase. With five clues total it’s up to you to put them together.

On 5/22 you will have the chance to use your secret-phrase and enter to win a thrilling sweepstakes, and get an exclusive first look at Charlie Donlea’s DON’T BELIEVE IT.

What to Watch

We’ll help you get started with our game! On 5/15 our very first clue will be revealed in our Mystery & Thriller eNewsletter. Sign up to receive the eNewsletter here→ http://bit.ly/2Jsuoye

The remaining four clues will be revealed daily on one of the below sites. Be sure to stay tuned and keep watching each day to find them!

Charlie Donlea’s Facebook Page
Kensington’s Facebook Page
Kensington’s Twitter
Charlie Donlea’s Website
Kensington’s Instagram (Stories)


Don't Believe It Coming May 29, 2018

From acclaimed author, Charlie Donlea comes a twisting, impossible-to-put-down novel of suspense in which a filmmaker helps clear a woman convicted of murder—only to find she may be a puppet in a sinister game.

The Girl of Sugar Beach is the most watched documentary in television history—a riveting, true-life mystery that unfolds over twelve weeks and centers on a fascinating question: Did Grace Sebold murder her boyfriend, Julian, while on a Spring Break vacation, or is she a victim of circumstance and poor police work? Grace has spent the last ten years in a St. Lucian prison and reaches out to filmmaker Sidney Ryan in a last, desperate attempt to prove her innocence.

As Sidney begins researching, she uncovers startling evidence, additional suspects, and timeline issues that were all overlooked during the original investigation. Before the series even finishes filming, public outcry leads officials to reopen the case. But as the show surges towards its final episodes, Sidney receives a letter saying that she got it badly, terribly wrong.

Sidney has just convinced the world that Grace is innocent. Now she wonders if she has helped to free a ruthless killer. Delving into Grace’s past, she peels away layer after layer of deception. But as Sidney edges closer to the real heart of the story, she must decide if finding the truth is worth risking her newfound fame, her career … even her life.

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"Inspiration Behind Some Choose Darkness"



I grew up in Chicago, and like many in my generation, I did things as a kid that are unfathomable today.

My friends and I walked everywhere. And if we didn’t walk, we rode our bikes for miles to reach our destination. In the city, these miles took us across busy streets, over dangerous bridges, and through questionable underpasses. We did all of this unsupervised and without cell phones.

Our mothers simply assumed we made it to our intended endpoint; there was no checking in once we arrived. The greatest tab my mother kept on me was expecting me home “when the street lights came on.” It was part of growing up in the city. I knew no other way of life.

I played baseball in the street. Our main intersection offered a perfect combination of four sewers as bases, and a fifth manhole coved in the middle of the street as a pitcher’s mound. Playing in the street kept us off lawns and was welcomed by the neighbors who lived next door.

We put a Slip n’ Slide on the sidewalk, and used a swimming pool cover for padding. Why? Because there was not a strip of grass large enough to handle the twenty feet of slippery plastic.

The above ground pool in my postage stamp backyard was filled each year by fire hoses borrowed from the local firehouse and attached to the corner hydrant. The hydrant was opened with a huge monkey wrench the firemen gave us when they handed over the hoses. Since the power of the water was tremendous, the stream would topple the side of the pool if sprayed directly at it.

To avoid this catastrophe, three volunteers would climb into the empty pool with a card table that they’d use as a shield and break the force of water shot from the fire hose, which rested across the shoulders of three other volunteers as they aimed the rush of water into the pool and held on for dear life. This routine worked every year, and if any adults supervised the process, I don’t remember them. Alas, I survived the miles of bike travel, the street ball, and my swimming pool.

Things are much different today. Technology and hyper-parenting (of which I’m guilty beyond a reasonable doubt) have allowed us all to keep much greater tabs on our own kids. Is this good?

I’m not so sure. But one thing is for certain: my kids are living a different existence in the suburbs today than I led at their age.

This became startlingly obvious to me when I took my kids on a tour of my Chicago neighborhood—something my friends and I call the “old neighborhood.”

Everyone who grew up in the city has an “old neighborhood.”

Many of my childhood friends still live there. As we drove through the neighborhood, my kids asked some interesting questions:

“Why are the houses so close together?”

“Because they’re bungalows. Long, narrow homes with barely enough room to ride your bike between them. They make up many Chicago neighborhoods. And if you’re lucky enough to live next door to your best friend, simply opening the window at midnight gave you instant access to each other.”

“Why are the front yards so small?”

“Because they’re in front of bungalows, I just explained this. And you don’t need a big yard when you have a perfectly good street to play ball in.”

“What happened when a car drove down the street while you were playing baseball?”

“You played around it, and sometimes caught the Wiffle Ball when it ricocheted off a windshield. It still counted as an out as long as it never hit the ground.”

“Did the drivers get mad?”

“Sometimes, but not usually. They’d blow their horn a lot, but were usually gone before the next pitch was thrown.”

I fielded these questions with great delight as I showed my kids where I grew up. But when I drove up to my childhood house, my kids asked a bizarre question that caught me off guard. They pointed to the alley behind the house.

“Why is there a little road behind the house?”

Dear God, I thought. My children don’t know what an alley is.

“It’s an alley,” I answered in a dejected voice.

I didn't know how to explain that it was a little road, but it was so much more, too.

Alleys were the quintessential part of my upbringing.

They were where my friends and I hung out. They were where we hid during games of tag (chase, as it was called in the old neighborhood). Alleys were shortcuts and hiding spots and escape routes. Alleys were where our garage doors opened to, and where our father’s hung out on Saturday mornings completing projects that were perpetually unfinished and occupying the garage. And alleys were where we kept our garbage cans, and where kids had to venture at night (always at night!) to deposit black plastic bags filled with trash.

I suddenly realized my kids had a lot to learn about the place where I grew up. It occurred to me then that I needed to set a novel in Chicago.

Rory Moore
So, to kick off the launch of Some Choose Darkness, and a new character named Rory Moore—a forensic reconstructionist who specializes in cold cases—I thought I’d describe a few of the landmarks that made it into the book.

Maybe my kids will read it when they’re old enough and decide that the dark, dangerous city isn’t so bad after all. Actually, this is a thriller and parts of it are creepy as hell, so my idea of this book turning my kids on to the city will likely backfire.

Alley
As opposed to eastern cities, Chicago is organized in a grid pattern of city blocks. These blocks are divided by narrow lanes called alleys. In New York, garbage is piled on street corners, in Chicago, it is placed in the alley. In Some Choose Darkness, Rory Moore looks for clues in the alley where a character disappeared forty years earlier and starts down a road of no return.

Bungalow
A common architectural design of many Chicago homes in the Bungalow Belt neighborhoods. These homes are long, narrow, and spaced close together. They were constructed this way to house the ballooning middle class that was expanding the Chicago population.

Rory Moore lives in one of these Chicago bungalows, and it is in her home office where she pins photos of victims of the cold cases she investigates. It’s also where she keeps her antique china doll collection—broken dolls that she restores to perfection and keeps flawlessly lined on shelves. It’s a creepy hobby, but keeps Rory balanced and suits her perfectly.

Grant Park
Grant Park encompasses more than 300 acres and is located in the Loop. The park's centerpiece is Buckingham Fountain, where park-goers can sit and enjoy breathtaking lakefront views. The Park is also home to baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and acres of gardens. It is in one of these gardens, hidden in a shadowed corner of Grant Park, where a body is found. The mystery surrounding the death sends Rory Moore on the hardest case of her career.

Starved Rock
Starved Rock State Park is a wilderness area on the Illinois River about an hour or so outside of Chicago. Sandstone canyons provide the backdrop for beautiful waterfalls and hiking trails. One of these trails leads to Lover’s Leap Overlook, with views of the river and Starved Rock Dam. In Some Choose Darkness, another one of these trails leads to a creepy cabin isolated in the woods. I mean, come on, what would one of my thrillers be without a creepy cabin in the woods?

3 Floyds Brewing Co.
3 Floyds Brewery is actually located in Munster, Indiana, but their beer is a popular adult beverage for many Chicagoans.
Some of their lagers and ales have produced a cultish following. Rory Moore’s favorite is Dark Lord, an imperial stout that weighs in at 15% alcohol and can knock even a seasoned beer drinker on their butts.

Rory drinks it often. It helps her think, especially when she’s staring at the face of a victim whose case is as cold as a Chicago winter night.

I hope you love Some Choose Darkness, and the city in which it is set. It’s a thriller that’s dark and moody, like the beer Rory drinks, the hobby that balances her life, and the haunting cold cases she takes on.

—Charlie Donlea



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Some Choose Darkness Available NOW!

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Delighted to be in great company!

From SHEREADS

Being a homebody is easy when you live in Upstate New York and have to deal with incredibly harsh winters. But one thing that I really look forward to every year? Summer reading. That’s right, I absolutely love summer reading. Although I am hours from any beach, I have a great outdoor space with a pool to lounge around and use that space to immerse myself in sunshine, water and, you guessed it, summer thrillers. As we’re heading into spring, I have already received some fantastic ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) that have made me ridiculously excited for the hot months ahead. Here are the most anticipated thrillers of summer 2019:




By Charlie Donlea

"One of my favorite summer reads and one of the very first books I covered on GareIndeedReads was the novel The Girl Who Was Taken by Charlie Donlea and it completely captivated me. He also blew me away last summer with Don't Believe It, which intertwined a psychological thriller with a Netflix-inspired documentary storyline.

Well, it looks as though Charlie Donlea is going to be captivating me yet again with his newest thriller. Some Choose Darkness focuses on a forensic reconstructionist looking into a cold case about five women in Chicago who went missing in the summer of 1979. Need I say more?

The anxiety and deep cleansing breaths will be a must with this serial killer thriller!"

Read More and the others mentioned:

March 26, 2019
SheReads
Garrett Billings
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Publisher's Weekly Review

SOME CHOOSE DARKNESS




“Donlea smoothly mixes red herrings and genuine clues...readers who relish a good puzzle will be rewarded.”—Publisher's Weekly

This engrossing novel from Donlea (Don’t Believe It) pits forensic reconstructionist Rory Moore against a smart serial killer. In Chicago in the summer of 1979, five young women disappear, all of them victims of a man known as the Thief.

They’re presumed murdered, but their bodies are never found. Angela Mitchell, who has “a gift and a curse to remember everything she ever saw,” is able to identify the Thief , but she goes missing before the police can question her. There’s enough evidence, however, to convict the Thief of Angela’s murder and send him to Illinois’s Stateville Correctional Center, where he’s a model prisoner.

In 2019, the Thief is released on parole, and through circumstances beyond her control, Rory, a nonpracticing lawyer, becomes his attorney. Soon she’s immersed in trying to figure out exactly what happened to Angela. Donlea smoothly mixes red herrings and genuine clues. Notwithstanding some unanswered questions left hanging at the end, readers who relish a good puzzle will be rewarded.

—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Some Choose Darkness
Charlie Donlea. Kensington,
$26 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4967-1381-0
May 28, 2019
Read More about SOME CHOOSE DARKNESS

Visit Charlie Donlea's
Website

REVIEW:

"A full-throttle thriller, “Some Choose Darkness” is unapologetic and relentless, a harrowing ride full of twists and turns, a real joy between the pages of a book."—Press-Republican




“Some Choose Darkness”
By Charlie Donlea


In the summer of 1979, five women went missing in Charlie Donlea’s absorbing new suspense novel, “Some Choose Darkness.”

Rory Moore, a forensic reconstructionist, sheds light on a cold case involving the last days of one of the victim. Donlea creates Rory’s charming personality and backstory wonderfully, and the character’s profession in reconstruction generates enough interest for the reader that it is not only entertaining but also educational and enlightening.

After thorough research on the notorious 1979 serial killer nicknamed The Thief, Angela Mitchell has identified the man who she thinks is responsible for the abduction and murder of five other women.

She confides in her close friend Catherine about what she has discovered about the missing women in local newspaper clippings and newscast reports. But the alarming information she provides to her friend is met with confusion and shock.

Catherine is stunned to read the startling homicide statistics of the missing women. Concerned for Angela’s safety, Catherine urges her friend to be careful in her investigation.

A full-throttle thriller, “Some Choose Darkness” is unapologetic and relentless, a harrowing ride full of twists and turns, a real joy between the pages of a book.
The novel’s time frame is told in different periods and points of view, which add depth and tension to the already wicked good read. Donlea is an expert at building doubt in the reader’s mind, and the rising tension on every page reaches a taut conclusion, which leaves the reader anticipating his next novel.

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Video Review: The Woman In Darkness— Here is what the QBD crew thought



Note: The Woman In Darkness (AU) is the same book as Some Choose Darkness (US).
Different title and cover for different parts of the world.

A fun Video! "If You "Love Law and Order or Criminal Intent, you will love this book . . . If you’re looking for the perfect stand-alone thriller to bundle under the covers with this autumn, this is the book for you!"

BD Reviews Lee and Vic's Book Club

VIEW VIDEO

"If You "Love Law and Order or Criminal Intent, you will Love this Book!"

The Woman In Darkness
by Charlie Donlea
April 9, 2019

Here is what the QBD crew thought…
The Woman In Darkness is a taut and gripping tale of two women and a series of murders that links them together through time.

Rory Moore, a forensic reconstructionist, investigates cold case homicides by shedding light on details others have overlooked. In the midst of clearing out her father’s old office, she finds a cryptic file that plunges her into a 40-year-old murder mystery.

Flash to 1979 and we meet Angela Mitchell, a woman who disappeared in suspicious circumstances, after unmasking The Thief, a murderer suspected of killing 5 women.

Now The Thief is about to be paroled, and Rory is drawn further into Angela’s story. Drawing connections between the past and the present she discovers dark truths about Angela, her own father and the criminal nicknamed The Thief.

I love Charlie Donlea’s writing style throughout this book.

The story developed beautifully, and while you find out who the killer is early on, it’s the continual slow burn to the conclusion with a few added twists that makes you sit on the edge of your seat until the very end. Buy the Book

If you’re looking for the perfect stand-alone thriller to bundle under the covers with this autumn, this is the book for you!

"Would LOVE to have this one on a beach holiday just sitting up late at night . . . reading."
"Got me straightaway!"

You know that Charlie Donlea wrote the books: The Girl Who Was Taken and Don’t Believe It. He has cornered the market of female thrillers in whodunits, hasn’t he?. . . A very creative market and he has done very well.”

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“Donlea’s cinematic style puts readers squarely into the scenes, and his skillful prose takes his work to a higher level.”

Some writers choose tried and true tropes and straightforward story structure. For Some Choose Darkness, Charlie Donlea treads literary ground not often traveled.

Different time periods, different points of view, and characters who don’t fit into neurotypical norms are all bold choices for a bold writer.

The plot hops back and forth between 1979, 1981, and 2019. We experience the story through the eyes of the killer, those who hunt him, those who fear him, and those who are forced to help him.

Two of the point of view characters struggle with autism and mental health issues. These characters are faced with the challenges of dealing with society’s expectations and prejudices along with the difficulties of their own personal demons.

“Angela would forever be aware of the sideways glances she encountered from most of the world, but she took solace in the fact that Thomas accepted her, despite her many idiosyncrasies.”

In 1979, a serial killer finds the noose, literally, tightening around his neck as he’s brought to justice. In the present, Rory Moore—a forensic reconstructionist with a law degree—finds herself forced to handle his appeal for parole.

Despite her honesty, “Sir, I’m not suited for a courtroom. Or parole boards. Or for lawyering, in general,” a judge requires she brush off her bar card to complete the negotiations started by her recently deceased father. Forced into contact with the convicted killer, Rory does what she does best: reconstruct his crimes.

Her reconstruction, augmented with information she discovers going through her father’s records, unravels secrets held hostage for 40 years.

The year 1981 tracks the experiences of Rory’s father, the one-time attorney of record for The Thief, as he was named during his killing spree in 1979.

All of the jumps in time and multiple points of view provide readers with more information than any one character. Because of this, Donlea creates suspense not through wondering what happened so much as what will happen next.

Despite the various point of view characters, Rory Moore is the clear protagonist. She is a compelling character in the vein of Lisbeth Salander and Temperance Brennan.

She’s on the spectrum, extremely bright, and socially awkward, but able to maintain relationships when she wants to. Rory brings her expertise in understanding victims, and the crimes perpetrated against them, to solving the unsolvable. Her quirky thought processes and near eidetic memory make her a formidable if unconventional, investigator.

Faced with aiding The Thief, she goes down the rabbit hole, following her hunch that the only murder her client was convicted for is the one crime he didn’t commit. She takes his history, and ultimately her own, apart piece by piece, then puts it back together again, whole.

Donlea’s cinematic style puts readers squarely into the scenes and his skillful prose takes his work to a higher level. “The woman reached into the garden, pinched the clippers to the base of the rose, and severed its stem.”

Donlea also does a good job of keeping readers located in time and place despite the complicated timeline and numerous characters. Though sometimes to a fault, as information becomes repetitive when characters reiterate information readers already know.

Donlea’s autistic characters have active roles, not just supporting characters or victims. They have autonomy, skills, and lives more complex than simply being strange women, out of step with society.

The pace might be faster, however, if he relied more on showing us these dynamic characters in action rather than telling us about their challenges.


Despite the sometimes slower pace and occasionally repetitive passages, Donlea’s unique characters and complicated story create enough tension to satisfy most mystery readers. More psychological than thriller, the novel fits into Donlea’s impressive list of titles with uncommon protagonists.

Rather than taking the well-traveled road of a traditional private eye or writing a straight-up police procedural, Donlea upsets story structure and plays with storytelling techniques while simultaneously presenting sleuths we might not have seen before.

Though not every bold attempt is completely successful, Donlea creates an intriguing character in Rory Moore.

Some Choose Darkness ends with enough unfinished threads that the door is open for a sequel. More importantly, Rory Moore is a strong enough protagonist to carry a series. So the final question the novel asks is what will Donlea write next. Read the Review

SOME CHOOSE DARKNESS AVAILABLE NOW!

New York Journal of Books. Reviewed by: Elena Hartwell

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Tags: #copprocedurals #suspense #thriller #mystery #psychological #chicago #fiction #crime #mentalhealth #forensics #scd #charliedonlea #darklord #somechoosedarkness #murder #kestnerdolls #reconstruction #profiling #serialkiller #may2019books #Kensington #femalesleuth #nyjournalofbooks #elenahartwell #bookreview

Ten Facts About Some Choose Darkness
—From the Author, Charlie Donlea

1. Two covers, two titles. Same book



Australian Edition
SOME CHOOSE DARKNESS (5/28/19 US) has a different cover and title than the Australian version. In Australia, the book was released as THE WOMAN IN DARKNESS (4/2/19 AU). It’s the same book for those of you inquiring, and many of you have, hoping that I had put out yet another book in 2019. I wish I could write that fast but my last name is Donlea, not Patterson.

In the publishing world, different countries (and different publishers) warrant different titles and cover art to fit with their buyer audience. “Woman” in titles is still very popular in Australia, and so...a title change.


2. Two different covers for SOME CHOOSE DARKNESS

First Draft
When a book is in development and a publishing house is starting its promotion, one of the first steps is to introduce the novel to booksellers to get their opinion on the synopsis, the logline, and the cover.

Especially the cover! The artwork that drapes the cover of a novel is a carefully plotted storyline all to itself. The cover is what draws a reader’s attention. It’s what gets a reader to grab the book off the shelf and read the cover flap. So, the cover has to be perfect. It has to be eye-catching. It has to match the trends of the season. Or, better yet, it has to lead the charge.



Final Cover
The art department at my US publishing house had designed a fabulous cover for Some Choose Darkness before they nixed it after receiving negative feedback from booksellers.
For the record, I couldn’t be happier with the final cover. The booksellers love it, and so do I. More on that below...


3. Chicago, IL

Some Choose Darkness is my first book set in Chicago, the city where I grew up. I had no plans to set the story in Chicago until I took a trip to my childhood neighborhood with my kids to show them the house where I was raised. They were completely puzzled by the “small road” behind my childhood house and wanted to know all about this curious bit of urban architecture.

Alley

The small road was an alley, and when I realized my kids had no idea what they were or that they even existed, I knew I was going to set my next novel in the city of my youth (and give alleys a starring role). More about this epiphany and my trip to the city in this blog post.


4. Starved Rock, IL

Starved Rock, Illinois is a State Park located 2 hours southwest of Chicago. It was voted the #1 attraction in the state of Illinois. With its towering trees, majestic waterfalls, and miles of hiking trails along the Illinois River, it’s a world apart from the urban setting of Chicago. It plays a major role in Some Choose Darkness, and the two contrasting settings create a great atmosphere for the book. (blog post link)


Ripple

In fact, the tranquil but chilling backdrop of Starved Rock plays such a significant role in the story that the amazing and clever cover design offers a snippet of the things that take place there. Like a pebble dropped in a pond, the events that transpire in Starved Rock will create ripples that go on forever and ever...


Peoria, IL

Peoria is a city 2.5 hours southwest of Chicago. It's perched on the Illinois River and in addition to it's famous Grandview Drive in the heart of the bustling downtown area that looks out over the river valley, the surrounding county is also known for its rolling meadows, miles of cornfields, and farmhouses. Beautiful and majestic farmhouses.

The Illinois River links Peoria to Starved Rock, and both of these rural settings are perfect contradictions to the urban setting of Chicago that makes up most of the book.


5. Art Imitating Life (Imitating Art)

In Some Choose Darkness, a serial killer who stalked the streets of Chicago in 1979 is released from jail after spending forty years at Stateville Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison in Crest Hill, Illinois, not far from Chicago.

Because of public outcry (and outrage), the judge grants this “reformed” killer some leniency so that his whereabouts will not be made public upon his release.

After a friend read an early copy of Some Choose Darkness, he sent me a text alerting me to an eerily similar situation that was currently playing out in the Chicago media. Apparently, a serial killer who terrorized Chicago in the early 1980s was being released from Stateville Correction Center after spending nearly forty years in jail.

The exact whereabouts of his living arrangements had not been made public at the time of me writing this. The public is outraged. Here is a link to the story.


I had no idea about this story before I started writing Some Choose Darkness. I actually spent a considerable amount of time talking with two lawyer friends to make sure it was possible for a convicted serial killer to find his way out of prison. Apparently, it is. Sometimes coincidences are just too creepy to think about.


6. Forensic Reconstruction

Rory Moore is a forensic reconstructionist. She reconstructs cold case homicides until she finds answers that the best detectives have missed. To the best of my knowledge, this occupation doesn’t exist. But man, it fits Rory and her uncanny abilities perfectly.


Kestner Dolls

Her occupation goes hand-in-hand with her hobby of restoring damaged porcelain China dolls. Both demand attention to detail, a bit of obsession and redundancy, and a mind that sees answers where everyone else sees questions.


7. Mental Illness

Autism plays a major role in the novel. In the 1970s, autism was poorly understood. It was often confused with schizophrenia and mental retardation. This misconception weaves its way into the narrative and forces a main character to overcome stereotypes that have held her back her entire life.


8. Dark Lord Stout
3 Floyds.com

Rory Moore’s vice is a Russian-style Imperial Stout called Dark Lord. It’s impossible to find craft beer produced by 3 Floyds Brewing Company in Munster, Indiana.

In real life, Dark Lord is available only one day a year — on Dark Lord Day — when 3 Floyds holds a ticketed tasting event at the brewery. Tickets sell out in minutes, and are scalped for hundreds of dollars. Rory Moore, of course, has other means of obtaining the beer she loves. They involve the creepy China dolls she restores and some bartering.


9. Murder Accountability Project
MurderData.org

In Some Choose Darkness, Rory Moore is part of the Murder Accountability Project—a company that uses a computer algorithm to track down serial killers. By looking for trends in homicides from around the country, the algorithm finds similarities in homicides in order to identify a pattern of killing.

There is a real-life Murder Accountability Project that is responsible for identifying serial killers, including some that have been tracked down, tried, and convicted. One famous case was from Gary, Indiana, just south of Chicago. Recently, the algorithm has picked up on similarities in killings around Chicago, too, and it is suspected that there may be a serial killer on the loose. Here is the link to the article.

Thomas Hargrove is the founder and CEO of the Murder Accountability Project, and I’m grateful that he took my calls when I was researching this book, and donated his time to explain what he does. He made it into the acknowledgments.


10. Great Aunt, Old Lady, Friend

Some Choose Darkness is dedicated to my great-aunt, Cecilia A. Donat. Aunt Ceil had ten great-nieces and nephews who loved her dearly. I was proud to be one of them and to have gained her wisdom (and sass) during my youth.

If a more independent woman existed on this planet, I never met her. Aunt Ceil lived until she was ninety-seven years old. I called her “old lady” every time we had a visit, and she loved it. Rory Moore calls her great aunt the same thing.





Charlie Donlea is the USA Today and International bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken and Don't Believe It. His fourth novel, Some Choose Darkness to be released May 28, 2019. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages across fifteen countries. He resides in Chicago with his wife and two young children. More about Charlie

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—Charlie Donlea

Originally posted as part of Q&A with Charlie Donlea 6/19 For other interviews like this visit: JudithDCollins.com