Review: Those Empty Eyes - Charlie Donlea



Review: Those Empty Eyes - Charlie Donlea - March 2023
Sometimes you stumble across an author who just gets how to craft a proper thriller, and Charlie Donlea has definitely earned his spot on my auto-buy list. After being completely hooked by Twenty Years Later and its masterful twists, I found myself scrolling through my Kindle library like a kid in a candy store, looking for my next Charlie Donlea fix. That's when Those Empty Eyes practically jumped off my digital shelf.
The story kicks off with Alex Quinlan, a teenager whose life gets absolutely destroyed when she's branded as the monster who slaughtered her own family. The media circus around her case is brutal – they even give her the chilling nickname "Empty Eyes" because of her distinctive gaze. But here's the thing that immediately drew me in: Alex is innocent, and she knows it. What follows is a gripping journey as she spends years fighting to clear her name, eventually winning her freedom and a hefty defamation settlement against the justice system that failed her.
But vindication is just the beginning. Alex realizes that to truly move forward and find her family's real killer, she needs to disappear completely – new name, new face, the whole nine yards. Those haunting eyes that made her famous? They had to go too. As someone who's always been fascinated by how trauma shapes identity, I found this transformation both heartbreaking and empowering.
Charlie Donlea's pacing is absolutely spot-on here. He layers the mystery perfectly, letting us piece together clues alongside Alex as she digs deeper into her family's murder. The true crime element adds an extra layer of authenticity – there's something about that anniversary angle that always makes these stories feel more urgent and real.
And then comes that ending. Holy hell, that twist. I literally had to put my Kindle down and process what just happened. The revelation about who was with the killer the night her parents died completely blindsided me. I pride myself on usually seeing these things coming, but Charlie Donlea played this one close to the vest. It's the kind of twist that makes you want to immediately flip back through the pages to catch all the breadcrumbs you missed.
If you're into thrillers with that true crime flavor and don't mind having your assumptions completely shattered, Those Empty Eyes delivers in spades. Fair warning though – I immediately dove into the first few chapters of Long Time Gone right after finishing this one, and now I'm committed to working my way through Charlie Donlea's entire catalog. The man knows how to craft an addiction.
Amazon: https://amzn.to/44CqGhI
Comments
Post a Comment