Book Series Guide

Author guide

Charlie Donlea Books in Order

Charlie Donlea is a Chicago-born and Chicago-based author of propulsive suspense and psychological thriller novels. His books have been published internationally and translated into numerous languages. He also wrote the standalone love story Before I Go under the pen name Brian Charles.

psychological thrillersuspensecrime fictionmystery

Catalog record updated .

Charlie Donlea's Newest Book

Cover of Guess Again

Guess Again

novel · First published 2025

On the 10th anniversary of a teenage girl’s disappearance, her cold case breaks open in dangerous ways…and threatens to tear apart her small Wisconsin town all over again in the masterfully twisty new psychological suspense novel from the internationally bestselling author of Twenty Years Later. For fans of Riley Sager, Anna Downes, Alex Finlay, Stacy Willingham, and Karin Slaughter. 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. 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.

Not sure where to begin?

Start with one of these

Cover of Summit Lake

Summit Lake

Donlea's debut novel and a standalone entry point.

Cover of Some Choose Darkness

Some Choose Darkness

The first book in the Rory Moore/Lane Phillips series.

Read in order

Books by series

novel series · ongoing

A Rory Moore/Lane Phillips Novel

A psychological suspense series featuring forensic reconstructionist Rory Moore and psychologist Lane Phillips.

Series guide →
  1. 1
    Some Choose Darkness

    Book 1 · novel · 2019

    From the #1 internationally bestselling author of Twenty Years Later, a twisting, impossible-to-put-down novel about the deadly secrets hiding in plain sight . . . Some choose darkness. Others are chosen by it. Forensic reconstructionist…

  2. 2
    The Suicide House

    Book 2 · novel · 2020

    At an elite prep school haunted by mysterious deaths, someone is playing a dangerous game… Inside the walls of Indiana’s elite Westmont Preparatory High School, expectations run high and rules are strictly enforced. But in the woods…

Outside the series

Bibliography by category

Novels (8)
  1. Summit Lake

    novel · 2016

    “A gem of a mystery, fast-paced and suspenseful.”--Catherine Coulter, # 1 New York Times bestselling author Set in a small, picturesque North Carolina town, Charlie Donlea’s suspenseful debut novel tells the haunting story of a murdered…

  2. The Girl Who Was Taken

    novel · 2017

    The bestselling author of Twenty Years Later delivers a chilling thriller where nothing is at it seems and each reveal is more shocking than the last…right up to the jaw-dropping final twist. “A gripping thriller that will blow readers…

  3. Don't Believe It

    novel · 2018

    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…

  4. Twenty Years Later

    novel · 2022

    In this gripping new thriller from #1 international bestselling author Charlie Donlea, a TV news host sets out to uncover the truth behind a brutal, decades-old murder . . . Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that…

  5. Before I Go

    novel · 2022

  6. Those Empty Eyes

    novel · 2023

    You know her name. You know her face. You know THOSE EYES… Ten years after she was exonerated for murdering her entire family, the girl the tabloids called “Empty Eyes” is the only one looking for the truth in this propulsive thriller…

  7. Long Time Gone

    novel · 2024

    When DNA results reveal a disturbing connection to the mysterious disappearance of a famous baby nearly three decades ago, a woman’s search for answers draws her to an ominous small town in Nevada and a dangerous web of corruption, power,…

  8. Guess Again

    novel · 2025

    On the 10th anniversary of a teenage girl’s disappearance, her cold case breaks open in dangerous ways…and threatens to tear apart her small Wisconsin town all over again in the masterfully twisty new psychological suspense novel from the…