Charlie Donlea

Charlie Donlea is a USA Today and #1 international bestselling author of suspense thrillers, born and raised in Chicago, where he still lives with his wife and two children. A self-described "late bloomer" who didn't read his first novel until age twenty (John Grisham's The Firm), he decided then that he would someday write thrillers himself, eventually debuting with Summit Lake (2016). He is best known for standalone thrillers including The Girl Who Was Taken, Twenty Years Later and Those Empty Eyes, which typically combine true-crime-style investigative structure — journalists, cold cases, forensic reconstruction, the machinery of tabloid and podcast fame — with tightly wound psychological suspense and late twists. Some Choose Darkness (2019) introduced his one recurring pair of investigators, forensic reconstructionist Rory Moore and psychologist Lane Phillips, who returned in The Suicide House (2020). New readers can pick up almost any of his novels as a self-contained entry point, since Donlea largely writes standalones rather than a single continuing series; The Girl Who Was Taken and Twenty Years Later are the most commonly recommended starting points. His books have been published in some 40 countries and sold nearly 4 million copies in the US alone. Two have been optioned for adaptation as of this writing, though neither has been released: The Girl Who Was Taken by Armory Films for a feature film, and Twenty Years Later as a television series from Impossible Dream Entertainment with Adam Arkin directing.