Breakaway Books

Authored by Charlie Donlea; Published 2023; Thriller

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

The first book I read by Charlie Donlea did not blow me away—but Those Empty Eyes more than made up for it. Just enough disparate threads, brought together in a stunning conclusion. The tension thrummed throughout the novel.

Those Empty Eyes follows the story of Alexandra whose family was murdered when she was a teenager. Falsely accused of the murder and accosted by the media, she escapes and changes her name, but continues to hunt the people who killed her family. Donlea spends a lot of time jumping between time periods in this novel to track how Alexandra develops over time, and it pays off—I felt like it gave me a good sense of what made Alexandra into the person she is.

While the initial setup, in which a teenage girl is immediately accused of murdering her family merely because of her personality on camera, seemed a little far fetched to me, I went with it, and it was worth the ride. The amount of subsequent media attention came off as extremely realistic in the era of 24-hour news cycles and a certain type of obsession with violent crime. I appreciated the look at the consequences of irresponsible media coverage. (Granted, it may be a little *too* harsh on the media. The phrase “true crime fanatic” was thrown around a lot with respect to the online media, and not in a positive way.)

The progression of the mystery was stellar: believable steps forward that highlighted just how complicated the web of different players involved was. I was impressed by Donlea’s ability to bring together a Supreme Court nominee, a youth camp scandal, and the murder of a family in Virginia into a comprehensible plot without it feeling like too much. All too often, when authors are ambitious enough to try to make a murder have a larger relevance, it falls flat, but Donlea was just ambitious enough. And WHEW what a twist at the end (which I of course will not spoil).

Those Empty Eyes will keep you guessing until the very last page. Highly recommend this thriller!