Charlie Donlea's Blog, page 2

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

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

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"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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‘Some Choose Darkness’ offers mix of fun, education

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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Publishers Weekly Review - Some Choose Darkness

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

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The Most Anticipated Thrillers of Summer 2019

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

The Thriller That Will Put Your Netflix Bingeing On Hold...

US:

AU





SOME CHOOSE DARKNESS.
OTHERS ARE CHOSEN BY IT.
Available NOW!

Dear Friends,

My latest thriller, Some Choose Darkness, was released on May 28, 2019. An early surge of purchases in the first week of release is an author’s best friend, so please consider either pre-ordering the book today or picking it from your local bookseller next week.

Some Choose Darkness has been described as “dark and moody.” It introduces a new character named Rory Moore, a forensic reconstructionist who specializes in solving cold case homicides that have stumped all the best detectives.

Her many “flaws”—like her OCD and her nervousness, her lack of close relationships, and her general avoidance of life— likely explain why she’s so good at what she does. She’s an introvert and a recluse who finds that she’s closer to the victims whose murders she solves than to any person in her life.

The case she falls into in Some Choose Darkness has to do with five women who went missing in 1979, and the mysterious woman who tried to find them before she suspiciously disappeared herself. A strange discovery in her father’s law office becomes Rory’s first lead to finding her...

I hope you love this one!

—Charlie Donlea





Newsletter Originally Published
May 24, 2019

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PRAISE
"In Donlea's skillful hands, this story of obsession, murder, and the search for truth is both a compassionate character study and a compelling thriller." —Kirkus Reviews

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

“Part 1970s serial-killer thriller and part contemporary Chicago crime novel, this deceptively quick read has something for everyone.”
—Booklist

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

"Named one of the most anticipated thrillers of Summer 2019."
—SheReads

“A harrowing ride full of twists and turns.”
—Press-Republican

Video

"Behind-The-Scenes" With Author Charlie Donlea and His Latest Thriller —Some Choose Darkness

"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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10 SLOW-BURN THRILLERS THAT FORM A MASTER CLASS IN SUSPENSE

Slow Reveals, Twists and Turns, and Other Tricks of the Trade" for CRIMEREADS

June 3, 2019

CHARLIE DONLEA

At the heart of every great thriller is an unforgettable climax. This pinnacle moment in a thriller is what defines the genre. It’s where the action takes place, where the reveal is laid bare, and where the twist is sprung on us. But there is an art to creating the climax. If it’s dumped too abruptly upon the reader, even if it checks all the right boxes, it can be a let down—like waking up to discover it’s Christmas morning without having enjoyed the holiday season that preceded it. Sure, it’s fun to open the presents, but without the lead up to the big day, something’s missing. Before the best reveals, in front of the most stunning twists, and ahead of the greatest unveilings of a killer’s identity, is a staircase. Climbing it is where the real fun happens, because it is with each successive step up this staircase where readers find the suspense in a thriller.

When I wrote the draft of my debut novel, I began with a brutal murder in the first chapter, then jumped back a year in the next. Through the rest of the book, I followed the victim through her life leading up to its violent end, dropping clues along the way as to who killed her and why. Then in one quick chapter at the end, I revealed everything in a few quick pages—what she was hiding, who killed her, the twist, the shock, the reveal, the getaway and the aftermath. I confidently turned my novel over to my editor and awaited his notes.

My editor’s comment: “You turned the staircase into a stoop.”

I went back to work. Under my editor’s watchful eye, I revised the novel so the big reveal unfolds over a few well-paced chapters that create an elaborate staircase to catapult the reader into the final, climactic scene. And with each subsequent novel I’ve written, my editor has continued to remind me that with thrillers, just like life, it’s about the journey, not the destination.

Here are ten thrillers that produce chest-tightening suspense by leading us up some impressive staircases.

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Some Choose Darkness Kirkus Review

First Review is in for SOME CHOOSE DARKNESS by Kirkus Reviews

Some Choose Darkness

"In Donlea's skillful hands, this story of obsession, murder, and the search for truth is both a compassionate character study and a compelling thriller. " —Kirkus Reviews

"Forensic reconstructionist Rory Moore knows her odd quirks and obsessive habits are a strength when she’s re-creating a crime, but when she investigates a 40-year-old serial-killer case, even she isn’t sure she can handle what she’s uncovering.

Rory works for the Chicago Police Department, reconstructing homicides. She’s so good at her work that Detective Ron Davidson not only tolerates her preferences (no touching, little eye contact, minimal social interaction), but allows her frequent breaks to recover from her total immersion in her work. One day Davidson asks Rory to meet with the father of a murdered young woman. Rory’s calming hobby is repairing china dolls, and the father wants his daughter’s doll repaired as a memento. But as Rory explores the woman’s murder, she gets pulled into the case of The Thief, a suspected serial killer who murdered young women in Chicago in 1979. Then, after Rory’s attorney father dies, she finds that he had been representing The Thief, who is about to be paroled. Alternating in time, the story follows Angela Mitchell, a woman with autism who becomes obsessed with studying the murders in 1979; and, in 2019, Rory, as one discovery leads to more surprises and questions. Donlea (Don't Believe It 2018, etc.) so vividly describes the tension the two women feel that the reader stays tense, too, as the stories escalate. He's also so careful about describing his characters' particularities that neither woman is portrayed as bizarre (although the people around them may think they are) but rather highly intelligent, tormented women determined to find the truth.

In Donlea’s skillful hands, this story of obsession, murder, and the search for truth is both a compassionate character study and a compelling thriller. " —KIRKUS REVIEWS

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—Charlie Donlea

The Many Faces of Don't Believe It

Spring News
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"The Vacation Read of the Season"
Passport ✓ Boarding pass ✓ Beach Read ✓


DON'T BELIEVE IT
Coming March 26, 2019
Mass Market Paperback

Dear Readers,

Spring has arrived! And, just in time for spring break, so has the paperback release of Don’t Believe It.

Set on the tropical island of St. Lucia, it’s a perfect vacation read. The paperback version has gone through many changes over the last several weeks—multiple covers were designed in an attempt to perfectly capture the theme and mood of the novel.

I thought I’d give you a behind the scenes look at each of them...

THE MANY FACES OF DON’T BELIEVE IT
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Third and Final Cover Don't Believe It

It should be easy to spot on bookstore shelves, or at the airport on your way out of town...and if you’re headed to the beach, I hope it catches your eye and draws you in.

DON'T BELIEVE IT
Mass-Market Paperback
Coming March 26, 2019
Pre-Order Now

A tropical island. A grisly murder.

And a documentary filmmaker looking for answers…

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.

Some Briefs

My second thriller, The Girl Who Was Taken, will be included in the 9th Annual Irish Arts Center Book Day this St. Patrick's Day weekend. The event celebrates authors of Irish heritage, books that highlight Ireland and its history, and basically any author whose last name starts with an "O"— I'm honored to be included in a list of such talented authors. Free copies will be given away throughout all five boroughs of New York on March 15.

The New Year brought some exciting news—I was very excited to resign with my publisher for another four thrillers, one each year through 2023. My editor agreed to deal with my neurosis for another few books. I hope he makes it.

My fourth thriller, Some Choose Darkness(US) hits shelves May 28, 2019. More details to come.

I’m hard at work on Book #5 with a September 15, 2019 deadline, which is when the manuscript is due to my editor. As of this writing, I’m about one-third of the way there. Fingers crossed that I make it.​​​​​​​

Finally, I’m off to the Caribbean with my family for spring break and a little R&R. Although, I will be writing each morning and doing a little tropical recon for Book #6—which is nothing but a tiny seed planted in my mind about a husband and wife struggling through the ramifications of a plane crash in the South Pacific and the secrets that float to the surface of their lives in the aftermath, much like the debris field of the downed plane.

Whether you’re heading somewhere warm this spring, or simply enjoying the change of seasons at home, I hope you find a great book to pass the time. Pick up Don't Believe Itif you haven’t read it yet.


Happy Spring!

—Charlie Donlea

View the Inspiration Behind the Book and personal photos.

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The Woman in Darkness Coming to Australia

The Woman in Darkness Coming to Australia on April 9, 2019. Available for Pre-order Now.



From the author of The Girl Who Was Taken and Don't Believe It, a taut, gripping thriller about the deadly secrets that hide in plain sight . . .

Charlie Donlea's chilling new suspense thriller is the story of two women, separated by forty years, yet both inextricably linked by a series of horrific murders that took place in 1979.
Note to readers: This is the identical book as the (US Edition) Some Choose Darkness. (5/28/19) The different book title and the cover are for the Australian (AU Edition), only.

"She wondered if the mysterious woman had chosen darkness. Or if darkness had chosen her."

As a forensic reconstructionist, Rory Moore sheds light on cold-case homicides by piecing together details others fail to see. And while cleaning out her late father’s law office, she takes a call that plunges her into a forty-year-old mystery.

In the summer of 1979, five Chicago women went missing. The predator, nicknamed The Thief, left no bodies and no clues behind - until police received a package from a mysterious woman named Angela Mitchell, which uncovered his identity. But before police could question her, Angela disappeared.

Forty years later, The Thief is about to be paroled for Angela’s murder – the only killing the DA could pin on him. But a cryptic file found in her father’s office suggests to Rory there is more to the case than anyone knew.

Soon Rory is helplessly entangled in the enigma of Angela Mitchell and what happened to her. Drawing connections between the past and present, she uncovers dark truths about the reclusive woman, her own father, and the man called The Thief.

But not even Rory is prepared for the terrifying secrets about to emerge… Read More

Download Press Release

Pre-Order Now

You can view the US edition here:


—Charlie Donlea