Twenty Years Later

Genre: Mystery / Contemporary

Book Type: Physical

Author: Charlie Donlea

Narrator: Vivienne Leheny

Pages / Length: 432 pages / 11 hours and 58 minutes

Publisher: Kensington (December 27, 2022) / Recorded Books, Inc.

Book Description:

Fans of Verity by Colleen Hoover won’t want to miss this thrilling new suspense novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Girl Who Was Taken! Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the investigation was abandoned. But TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past…

Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience’s attention. Her latest story—a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal—is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner’s office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover. In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence.

Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won’t be complete until she can clear Victoria’s name. Alone she’s had no luck, but she’s convinced that Avery’s connections and fame will help. Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive. Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria’s DNA.

But the twisted puzzle of Victoria’s private life is just the beginning. And what Avery doesn't realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery’s own secret past—one she has kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried . . . 

Thoughts:

I love a book that has a good foundation, quick short chapters, suspense and mystery. While I found portions of this book predictable, I loved the way that it played out, and that it was full of some surprises in the end. I also enjoyed that it was broken into sections, as that was a nice element to the book that kept it moving.

While I greatly enjoyed this book, the ending felt rushed. There were a lot of issues that had been discussed early in the book that were merely glossed over in the end. I liked that everything was tied up and answered, but I wanted a bit more of it laid out as it was in the beginning.

Favorite Quotes:

🧬 Because how ever it came to be, what Avery knew for certain about fame was that it arrived like a colossal wave rolling toward shore. You either rode it, or let drown you. She chose to ride it, and in spectacular fashion. (page 17)

🧬 "What's the saying?" Victoria asked. "If a tree falls in the forest but no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? In publishing, if you write a book and no one reads it... are you really a writer?"

"Of course you are," Cameron said, with a soft encour agement to his voice. "A writer is someone who writes, not just someone who sells published books…” (page 107)

🧬 At some point she would have to either merge her two lives - the fraudulent with the honest - or decide to leave one of them behind. (page 252)

🧬 Where men may retreat in paranoia at the sight of a woman crying, women pounce on the opportunity to help. (page 338)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️