Charlie Donlea

Don't Belive It by Charlie Donlea

While on spring break with friends and family Grace Sebold's boyfriend (Julian) is found dead. Grace is charged and imprisoned for his murder. Ten years later Sidney Ryan is making a live weekly documentary on her case, trying to prove Grace's innocence.

The story moves at a fast pace with intersting characters. Told from multiple views; one being the live true crime documentary that Sidney is making. One from the past when Grace was on the Island leading to the death/murder of her boyfriend Julian.

With different timelines I got the feel of what was happening then and now. Slowly secrets beging to surface leading to a slow burn. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, "I-din't-see-that-coming moments" occured. I was hooked from the first page until the end.

Don't Belive It was my first Charlie Donlea book, but it won't be my last. I Highly recommed this fantastic thrilling suspense to all.… (altro)

The Suicide House is a novel that combines diverse elements (podcasting and YouTube , true crime, secret society, deviant psychology) seamlessly into a narrative that consists of several threads set apart by time and viewpoint- a juggling act well done.
The plot revolves around two gruesome deaths in the vicinity of a boarding school and several consecutive follow-up suicides for which there are no sensible explanations.
As the case is starting to grow cold, Lane Phillips, a psychologist and Rory Moore, a forensic reconstructionist who suffers herself from various forms of psychological issues are asked for assistance. As far as main character go, the idiosyncrasies of Rory are sufficiently weird to garner my interest but at no time alienate through her actions or a particular set of behavior(s). Another balancing act well executed.
The gravity of the mystery of an abandoned boarding house, which is - you guessed it- the eponymous suicide house is distributed across many events and viewpoints each contributing a piece of the puzzle to solving the great secret. This enables the final revelation to remain elusive until close to the end and only the patient reader - it is a long story - gets rewarded when the final bits of information disentangle the “Who has done it” conundrum.… (altro)

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

This starts when Sloan, a doctor training to become a medical examiner, takes a genealogy website DNA test as part of a research project and discovers she is Baby Charlotte, who went missing together with her parents decades ago. Sloan is approached by the sheriff whose father (also a sheriff) was the one who initially investigated the circumstances of the disappearances, but died himself in arguably mysterious circumstances.

This is told in differing timelines and from different perspectives, which results in a fair amount of repetition. Characters also explain things to one another a lot (e.g. how to develop film), and I hope the author got a kick back from Cross Fit, because there was a big focus on that too. The ending was fairly over the top in comparison with what had gone before. This book does not make the US justice system look particularly robust...… (altro)