Book review: Guess Again by Charlie Donlea

Guess Again by Charlie Donlea is the eighth book I’ve read by the American author. I’m conscious that Donlea’s not a household name but certainly a go-to author for me – offering up consistently good thrillers. Here we’ve got a likeable lead in Ethan Hall – a cop-turned emergency room doctor convinced to return to try to solve one last case and maintain his (former) 100% solve-rate. It helps however that he’s being given clues by a prisoner – who killed Ethan’s police officer father 32 years earlier.

Ten years ago, 17-year-old high school volleyball star Callie Jones vanished from her quiet Wisconsin lake community. A highly publicized search followed but her body was never found. The case went cold, but the echoes still linger.

Ethan Hall, a former renegade detective turned ER doctor, left law enforcement to escape the horrors of the kid crime division. But on the tenth anniversary of Callie’s disappearance, his former partner, Pete Kramer, makes a desperate request. Pete is the veteran detective who originally investigated the case. Now he’s dying, and to ease his conscience and get closure for the Jones family, he needs Ethan to return to the haunting work he left behind—and solve what happened to Callie, once and for all.

Word soon spreads and everyone in the small town of Cherryview feels a rush of hope that answers will finally be found. Amid a sweltering heatwave, Ethan’s investigation gains momentum, but reexamining old evidence won’t be enough. He needs a new way into the case, no matter how dangerous or unconventional. And it comes from the least likely of sources—an inmate in a maximum-security prison.

Soon Ethan’s methods draw him deeper into a twisted psychological game. Because there is much more to the nightmare of Callie’s disappearance than he imagined, including a connection with his own dark past . . . and secrets that are still worth killing for.

Ethan left the police before he burned out. But he agrees to take a look at the 10-year old case involving a missing school girl at the request of his former partner and the girl’s father (an American politician Governor… as opposed to English boss-like Guv’nor!) who offers to wipe his student debt. He’s also motivated by the fact that Francis Bernard, imprisoned for the murder of Ethan’s father but a suspect in multiple rapes and murders, seems to have information – including access to the missing girl’s phone and knowledge of her movements before disappearing.

Ethan’s great lead with a strong backstory, partnering up on the case with Maddie (a cop and his lover) who escaped Francis years before. It’s glaringly obvious Francis has a nefarious agenda that we’re forced to wait and discover, also learning Maddie receives regular letters taunting her as the one who got away but still has not been forgotten.

We go back and forward in time through old evidence and those who knew the high-achieving student at the time of her disappearance. As is often the case with Donlea’s novels, this is character-driven (and I note he writes about his characters on his website), but it’s the pacing that’s the star here, and the fact that Donlea is able to misdirect us a number of times (almost bumping this to a rare 4.5 star read). Something seems obvious until it no longer is. This is a great read with some huge twists… and interestingly it seems Donlea may be kicking off a series here as it finishes in a way that suggests there’s more to come.

Guess Again by Charlie Donlea will be published by Kensington Publishing in late July 2025.

I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.