Published: 2025
Author: Charlie Donlea
Genres: Crime Thriller, Mystery, Suspense
Audience: Grades 9–12, Adult
Number of Stars: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Goodreads Link: Guess Again
Content Warnings: Murder, death, lying/deceit, sexual content, abortion, physical violence.
Publisher’s Summary
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. 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.
Review
I was quite excited to read this book given the hype around it. It was a good read but not an exceptional read. I was disappointed in this. Not sure if the writing was subpar or if there were too many hints given, but I figured out the killer very early on in the story—not what I wanted.
I do think that having multiple main characters who are teens and the story revolving around teen activities and drama lends the book to a teen audience for sure. While I don’t advise many of the choices made in the story by these teenagers, I do see these choices and actions played out in the real world. For example, crushing on a coach, having illegal (by age) relationships, getting pregnant and not knowing whether to keep the baby or not, staying in or quitting a sport, and pressures to go to college and be the best at everything. This book highlights all of these issues and more.
Thankfully, there was another plot twisting in and out of the teen drama. The main character Ethan is drawn into the missing person case to help solve the disappearance of the teen girl. However, some of the information needed for the case is coming from the man who was convicted of killing Ethan’s father. I enjoyed the sparring of these two characters and the emotional tension that surrounded it. I can’t imagine having to face your loved one’s killer, needing their help to solve a case. Overall, a good read.
🎒 Classroom & Curricular Connections
- ELA (Mystery Tropes & Plot Analysis): Discuss the “predictability” of a mystery.
- Activity Idea: If a reader figures out the killer early, what makes the book worth finishing? Discuss “narrative tension”—is it who did it, or how they are caught that matters most?
- Health/Sociology (Teen Pressures): The book touches on high-stakes teen issues like pregnancy, toxic relationships, and academic/athletic pressure.
- Activity Idea: Create a “Pressure Map” for the characters in the book. List the external pressures (college applications, sports) versus internal pressures (relationships, secrets).
- Law & Criminal Justice (The Ethics of Information): Ethan faces an ethical dilemma by working with his father’s killer.
- Activity Idea: Debate the ethics of “trading information” in the justice system. Should a detective ever trust a convicted murderer? Where is the line between justice and vengeance?
- Creative Writing (The Role of Subplots): The reviewer appreciated the “plot twisting in and out” of the teen drama.
- Activity Idea: Map the subplots. How does the “Cold Case/Prison” plot support or detract from the “Teen Drama” plot? Could one exist without the other?
