Guess Again by Charlie Donlea

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🔪 GUESS AGAIN: When a Thriller Actually Delivers (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Every once in a while, a book comes along that makes me sit back and think:

“Wow. I did not see that coming. At all. And I am thrilled to be wrong.”

GUESS AGAIN by Charlie Donlea is one of those rare, beautiful surprises. I went in with moderate expectations at best (thanks, Those Empty Eyes), and this book didn’t just clear the bar — it pole-vaulted over it and kept running.

This is what a psychological thriller is supposed to feel like.

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⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS (PLEASE READ)

This book contains depictions of:

• Child abuse & child sexual abuse

• Sexual violence & rape

• Child death

• Kidnapping

• Graphic violence

• Death by suicide

• Pregnancy termination

• Substance use

• Illness & death

• Strong language

🚨 Proceed carefully.

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🧠 Quick Setup (Minimal, I Promise)

At the center of GUESS AGAIN is Ethan Hall, a former investigator for crimes against children who has since retired and become an ER physician. He’s brilliant, haunted, and still deeply affected by the murder of his father decades earlier.

The man responsible for that murder — Francis — is a serial killer who has been in prison for over 30 years and is now up for parole.

And here’s the thing:
We cannot let that happen.

The ticking clock of the parole hearing creates tension from page one, and unlike some thrillers that fizzle halfway through, this one keeps tightening the screws.

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🚨 FULL SPOILER WARNING 🚨

This is a spoiler blog.
What follows is a complete, detailed plot summary including the ending.

You’ve been warned. 🔥

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🚨 FULL SPOILER PLOT SUMMARY (INCLUDING ENDING)

⚠️ Spoilers ahead. This is a spoiler blog.

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🕰️ Ethan Hall, Francis, and the Past

Ethan Hall is a former investigator for crimes against children who now works as an ER physician. Despite leaving law enforcement, he is still emotionally tethered to Francis, the serial killer who murdered his father, Henry Hall, decades earlier.

Francis killed multiple women along Lake Michigan, marking their bodies with a black heart tattoo. One victim, Maddie, survived. Ethan met her at one of Francis’s parole hearings, and the two eventually formed a relationship — united by trauma and a shared goal: Francis must never get out.

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👧 The Callie Jones Cold Case

Ethan is pulled back into investigative work when his former partner Pete Kramer asks him to help reopen the 10-year-old disappearance of Callie Jones, daughter of Governor Jones.

Callie vanished after leaving The Crest, a restaurant on Lake Okoboji. Phone records show repeated calls and texts to a number police could never trace — a disposable phone.

From the start, the case feels tangled, emotional, and politically charged.

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🧠 Something Is Happening Outside the Investigation

Interspersed throughout the book are unsettling chapters involving Eugenia, a woman known for obsessively visiting Francis in prison.

Then something deeply strange happens.

A woman who looks like Eugenia’s exact double shows up at her home. She tells Eugenia that Francis sent her.

Soon after:

• Eugenia is kidnapped

• Locked in a basement

• And disappears from the narrative

At this point, the reader does not know who this woman is — only that Francis somehow has someone on the outside who looks identical to one of his most devoted followers and is willing to do unspeakable things for him.

It’s eerie. And deliberately vague.

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📱 Unraveling Callie’s Final Days

Ethan traces Callie’s phone activity to a Planned Parenthood in Chicago, where he learns:

• Callie was pregnant

• She initially planned an abortion

• She later decided to keep the baby

Suspicion turns to Blake Cordis, Callie’s volleyball coach and the baby’s father. While deeply inappropriate, Blake insists he loved Callie and wanted her to keep the child. Ethan believes him — reluctantly, but sincerely.

Meanwhile, Francis continues taunting Ethan with clues, leading him to warehouses, disposable phones, and photographs suggesting that another woman, Portia, may still be alive after being kidnapped.

She isn’t.

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🧨 The Truth About Callie

The real murderer of Callie is revealed to be Lindsay, Callie’s childhood friend and now the founder of a mental health company.

Lindsay:

• Was obsessed with Blake

• Used Blake’s phone to lure Callie to the docks

• Murdered her in a jealous rage

• Fabricated evidence to frame Blake

• Kidnapped Portia

• Attempted to manipulate Francis to punish Blake

Francis, however, was never under her control.

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🔓 The Big Reveal: Who the “Other Eugenia” Really Is

Only late in the book do we finally learn the truth:

The woman impersonating Eugenia is Harriett Alshon.

Harriett and Eugenia were both obsessed fans of Francis, each independently devoted to him and willing to do anything he asked. Francis exploited this completely.

He arranged for:

• Harriett to impersonate Eugenia

• Kidnap and eventually kill the real Eugenia

• Assume her identity entirely

From that point on, every crime Harriett commits is designed to point back to Eugenia, who is already dead — the perfect scapegoat.

This includes:

• Renting storage units

• Planting evidence

• Killing Portia

• And later murdering the prison guards during Francis’s escape

All of it is orchestrated by Francis from prison, using blind loyalty as a weapon.

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🔫 The Escape and Final Confrontation

During a prison transfer, Harriett intercepts the transport van and frees Francis. Law enforcement unknowingly pins the murders on “Eugenia,” unaware she has been dead the entire time.

Francis later tracks Ethan and Maddie to Lake Morikawa:

• Ethan is shot

• Maddie kills Harriett

• Francis flees into the river and disappears

Despite extensive searching, his body is never recovered.

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📦 The Final, Devastating Twist

Ethan finally opens the storage unit tied to Francis’s clues.

Inside are photos and recordings proving that Ethan’s father was Francis’s accomplice.

Henry wanted to go to the police after Maddie escaped.
Francis killed him to keep him silent.

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📖 Ending

A year later:

• Ethan is broken

• He quits his job

• Drinks heavily

• Lives with the truth

Until Francis resurfaces, killing again and daring Ethan to come after him.

This time, Ethan agrees.

The nightmare continues.

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🧠 Why This Book WORKED So Well

✔️ Sustained tension
✔️ A twist that actually lands
✔️ Smart misdirection
✔️ Emotional stakes that feel earned
✔️ An ending that changes everything

This is how you do a psychological thriller.

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⭐ Final Thoughts

I did not expect to love this book.

But I did. Completely.

GUESS AGAIN didn’t just meet expectations — it obliterated them. This is Donlea at his best: confident, dark, and fully in control of the narrative.

Final Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5)

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📚 If You Loved GUESS AGAIN, Try These Next

• (For people who loved the gritty investigation, misdirection, and psychological twists)

  📚 The Wife Between Us – Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen

  If you loved the “I think I know what’s happening but I definitely don’t” vibe.

  📚 The Whisper Man – Alex North

  Creepy, layered, obsessively plotted — perfect for fans of twists that actually land.

  📚 The Kind Worth Killing – Peter Swanson

  Morally twisted, cleverly structured, and not above dragging you into weird alliances with criminals.

  📚 I Let You Go – Clare Mackintosh

  Emotionally rich with one hell of a pivot that reframes everything — a true “wait… what?” book.

  📚 The Girl from Widow Hills – Megan Miranda

  Miranda specializes in mystery + psychological tension with deep character work and a tense unravel.