crafalsk264 's review for:

Guess Again by Charlie Donlea

3.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Ethan Hall is now an ER doctor and a former FBI agent working out of the “kid” division. There’s always one case a former law enforcement officer just can’t shake. In this case, Ethan’s former partner, Peter Kramer, is suffering from a terminal illness and begs Ethan to find out what happened to 17-year old, Callie Jones, a championship volleyball player, who vanished from her quiet Wisconsin lake community. With the 10th anniversary of her disappearance upcoming, and the case being as cold today as 10 years before, the community is on edge. Ethan has a different deadline. He has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and knows he will only be active for about another four months. Word quickly spreads that Ethan has reopened the case and everyone has an opinion about what happened to Callie. Ethan is receiving tips from everyone but the one that provides new information comes from an inmate in a maximum-security prison. Between dealing with a heatwave and new information, he races his own internal clock to find out what really happened.

The characters are interesting and the mystery well done. It is different to have a protagonist who is terminally ill. It added a level of urgency to the immediacy of the search. I fully enjoyed this one and recommend to readers of mystery-thriller, suspense, psychological thriller, and contemporary adult fiction.