Those Empty Eyes

Alex Armstrong has changed everything about herself—her name, her appearance, her backstory. She’s no longer the terrified teenager a rapt audience saw on television, emerging in handcuffs from the quiet suburban home the night her family was massacred. That girl, Alexandra Quinlan, nicknamed Empty Eyes by the media, was accused of the killings, fought to clear her name, and later took the stand during her highly publicized defamation lawsuit that captured the attention of the nation.

It’s been ten years since, and Alex hasn’t stopped searching for answers about the night her family was killed, even as she continues to hide her real identity from true crime fanatics and grasping reporters still desperate to locate her. As a legal investigator, she works tirelessly to secure justice for others, too. People like Matthew Claymore, who’s under suspicion in the disappearance of his girlfriend, a student journalist named Laura McAllister.

Laura was about to break a major story about rape and cover-ups on her college campus. Alex believes Matthew is innocent, and unearths stunning revelations about the university’s faculty, fraternity members, and powerful parents willing to do anything to protect their children.

Most shocking of all—as Alex digs into Laura’s disappearance, she realizes there are unexpected connections to the murder of her own family. For as different as the crimes may seem, they each hinge on one sinister truth: no one is quite who they seem to be . . .

Genre

Psychological Thriller

Legal Thriller

Crime Fiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 2023

My Thoughts

The first chapter told from the murderer’s POV and that was followed up by a constantly morphing storyline that wove together a plot that was masterful. The meandering storyline took me across ten years and two continents following fantastic protagonist. Alex, the main character transformed from an innocent young child clearly in shock into a strong, adult character that I wholeheartedly fell in love with.

If there is one flaw, though, it would be the long character list. Given the long timeline, it wasn’t surprising, but because the plot meanders before everything comes together at the end, this could be challenging for some readers. . Despite this, however, I honestly wouldn’t change a thing as it gave me the ultimate rollercoaster ride from the first page until the very last.

I had a hard time putting this one down. It was filled with twists sure to keep you guessing until the very last page. This is the first I’ve read by Donlea, but I may have to check out another. I give this one a rating of 5 stars.

Trigger warning: shooting deaths, blackmail, sexual assault, being roofied, child pornography, strangulation, carbon monoxide poisoning, pedophilia, mention of: suicide