What. The…..

Wow. This book is gripping from the start. I was thrust into the life of Alex and her story with a slew of surrounding characters. Then another storyline going on at the same time, equally intriguing. Charles Donlea wraps this story up, with all its loose ends and twists. Only to get you at the last minute with the ending wickedly twisted turn. Well done.

This audiobook is narrated wonderfully by Vivienne Leheny, spellbinding in her words.

Thank you, Charles Donlea, RB Mefia & Netgally for my audiobook to give my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I listened to the audiobook and loved every single minute of it! Vivienne Leheny is a master and had me on the edge of my seat with every word. From the very first chapter to the very last, I was kept in suspense, wondering where each thread was going to lead until the full picture was brought sharply into focus with the last few reveals. This is not the first book - and it definitely won't be my last - by this author and narrator!!

3.5 stars. I really like this author and the way the stories are written. As a reader, I am engaged right away and fully engrossed in the story and outcome. My problem with this one is that it was a little messy. Kind of felt all over the place with too many side stories that muddled the read. I enjoyed the narrator for this story.

My first by this author and was a little bit confusing on audio on some parts BUT it all made sense in the end and yes it does have some side stories that you really don’t understand until the end BUT they all wrap into the story to make a fantastic ending!!! Glad I stuck with it!! Narrator wasn’t my favorite but again definitely tolerable. OVERALL I would recommend this book!!

Thanks to netgalley and RB media for my advanced audio copy in exchange for my honest review!!

While it was a decent story it dragged on for far too long. I feel like we could have gotten to the same place without all the extra useless information.

This is an average thriller and definitely not the best I have read in the genre. Because of the many sub plots, the pace dragged and it became quite frustrating. I thought the narrator was great and I appreciated the different accents of she used, which made me feel more immersed in the story. A great twist at the end, but a bit of a slog to get there.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

After reading 20 years later, i knew i loved Charlie Donlea’s writing. i read Don’t Believe It and loved it as well and have two others of his yet to read! Those Empty Eyes though seemed a little more predictable than the other two i’ve read though. Of course i still thought the writing was amazing but i wasn’t zipping through pages to find out what happened next. i will absolutely continue to read Donlea’s future novels but yeah i just felt that this one didn’t impress me quite as much as some of his others.

Alex’s mother, father and brother are all killed by an unknown shooter in the middle of the night. At first the cops suspect Alex, she’s even taken to a juvenile detention center for a couple of months. Once her lawyer was able to prove that it couldn’t have been Alex that had murdered her family, the media was already having a hay day with the story and even after wining her defamation case, there are plenty of people that still think she’s the shooter. After a rough encounter studying abroad she moves back to the states and dramatically changes her looks so that she’s essentially unrecognizable. She makes a life for herself doing a job that she loves but the murder of her family is still unsolved 10 years later and even though Alex can’t bring herself to give up on it completely, all she’s come across are dead ends. When a case she’s working brings her to cross paths with someone who can help her find the answers she’s looking for, she’s shocked to learn the truth about what happened that night.

Those Empty Eyes is my first Charlie Donlea book, and it won't be my last! It tells the story of Alexandra Quinlan, the only survivor of a brutal killer who murdered her whole family when she was seventeen years old.   Alex is arrested but acquitted of the murders and spends the next 10 years haunted by the events of that night.

This was a great edge-of-your-seat thriller. I really enjoyed it and was constantly changing my theory about who the killer was.  We had some really great, strong female characters--which I love to read, lots of twists, and the narrator did a great job. 

There were a lot of different perspectives going on, and I was confused about how these stories were all connected, but they all came together in the end. Overall, I really liked this one!

Narrated by Vivienne Leheny ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Story by Charlie Donlea ⭐⭐⭐

This is a hard book to review because it felt like it had so many different parts and took so many different directions.

The opening was five stars. It was absolutely fantastic and I was so absorbed.

Then we fast forward to Alex at 21 and I don't really know what the point of that section was in regards to the story line.

Fast forward again to Alex at 30 and working as a legal investigator. We get to this point about the 50% mark and personally I feel that this really dragged on and by the time it all came together I was a bit checked out.

I would definitely recommend this author and book though.

As you may know by now, I'm still easing into the world of crime fiction and mystery. I'll blame my love of the Morbid Podcast, which is the only Podcast I listen to for some reason. I should find more, maybe I will when I finish all the books!

Anyway, I have never read anything by the author of this book, though I do have several of his books in my TBR. I didn't know what I would think of this story since it opened up with the murder of a child. Luckily that was the only murder of a kid in the story. Though there were many instances mentioned of child abuse of some form, they are mentioned but not graphicly. Kids being harmed is too much for me, but this didn't glorify in anyway and wasn't off putting.

How the plot was put together was pretty interesting, we do have multiple POVs, though the primary POV is Alex, the survivor of a brutal murder that killed everyone else in her house. Alex goes through life trying to solve the murder of her parents and unravels so much in the process.

At first the jumping around in time and POVs was confusing, my brain is always trying to tie things together. There was a mention of something at the beginning of the book that gets mentioned later in the book and though it seemed insignificant, it wasn't, but it took a few chapters to tie things together and bring back that tidbit to the attention of our MC.

I really enjoyed learning about Alex and how she dealt with the trauma of her life, the different paths she took and some that she wasn't given much choice of. There are plenty of twists and turns in the story. I will say I did see the twist coming, I thought I might have been wrong for a second, but nope there it was. It leads into more questions for me. A lot of How and Whys.

Overall, I loved the mystery and suspense of everything. I like how smart Alex was and how she used all of her resources to figure out her past. I loved the twists and all the roads that it took to get there. This was really well written, IMO, and I'll have to pick up more books from this author.

Fast-paced, entertaining, and well-narrated. A recommended purchase for collections where crime and thrillers are popular.

Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Vivienne Leheny
Content: 3 stars ~ Narration: 4 stars

This is my second Charlie Donlea novel. The first was Twenty Years Later, and I liked it.

In her teenage years, Alexandra’s whole family was murdered, and she later became a prime suspect. Her photo from that night was all over the news, and that’s how she became known as Empty Eyes. Later she proved, in court, she was innocent, and the police didn’t have any other suspect. This story takes us years forward when Alex leaves the country and later returns with a changed look and name. After many years, she still wants to find the actual killer of her family.

Those Empty Eyes includes too many subplots, and those overshadow the main story of Alex. The novel is ok, but nothing special, in my opinion. There was especially one event close to the end (I won’t go into detail because of the spoilers) that was not believable.

Thanks to Recorded Books for the ALC and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.

A big thanks to both NetGalley and RB Media for the opportunity to listen to the audiobook Those Empty Eyes. I really enjoyed this audiobook. The narrator was good and so was her pace, tone etc. The story itself was an interesting one. There is a bit of back and forth in terms of timeline, which was necessary to tell the whole story. I didn't find it confusing at all since each section had a specific date, time and place clearly indicated. The story is about Alex, a girl who was a victim of what appeared to be a home invasion when she was just about to be 18 years old. Her entire family was gunned down (her two parents were shot in their bed, and her 13 year old brother was shot when he came to their bedroom after hearing the first shots). Alex got away. She was arrested for the murders and was coined as "Empty Eyes" by a reporter....a nickname that would follow her throughout her life. The story jumps back to that night when necessary, to reveal more details and slowly allow the truth behind the event to unfold for the listener/reader. The rest of the book takes on what feels like a completely different turn. This part of the book is Alex, all grown up and working for a law firm called Lancaster and Jordan. She is helping investigate several cases, which all seem to suddenly appear to have a link to her parents' murder. It feels like I was listening to an entirely new book when it was going over the present day cases (from a child-porn collecting man to a podcaster who was investigating alleged date-rapes at a college fraternity). The author was good at not showing the links too quickly, but letting things slowly unfold as we delved deeper into these cases. It was really interesting to hear how things unfolded and where the events could all be linked together. We also got to see where all of this story began. I enjoyed listening to this audiobook and found it hard to turn it off.

This was such a wild ride! I was drawn in immediately in the beginning by Alexandra’s story but once they started to introduce multiple storylines, it started to get confusing. I almost gave up on it; there were so many moving parts! But I decided to push through and OMG did that ending leave me breathless.

This was a solid crime read for me. I listened to the audio book at 2x speed, so the pace was good. The plot had some unrealistic points, and the multiple perspectives seemed redundant. Overall, I felt it was an easy listen and easy to follow, it's not something I will be thinking about for days or weeks to come though.

When Alex was a teen, she survived a home invasion that resulted in the rest of her family being murdered. She also had to survive being accused of those murders by the over-zealous police and media. Exonerated, she fled the States to avoid any more recognition and harassment. She’s become a Private Investigator, inspired to solve cases by the ever-present need to find out what happened to her family. As she becomes involved in a case surrounding the disappearance of a college student, she uncovers similarities and secrets that seem to be related to her own tragic past, reopening years of pain and danger.

This work had potential, but it wasn’t executed well. Each subplot could have been interesting on its own, but it took much too long for them to come together for it to be enjoyable. It felt like the author wanted to include everyone’s backstory in a detailed fashion, but it drastically slowed down the primary plot. It’s unfortunate that so many irrelevant details were included as there were some intriguing things going on in this book but ended up just feeling disjointed and slow.

The writing style was also frustrating. There was so much repetition and over explanation of unnecessary things. For example, there were several instances where the author said the same thing two different ways in sentences right next to each other. There were many other instances where the author referenced the same event but included the entire explanation every time, which was pedantic. Most sections also started with the date and time, which added a whole different level of frustration. Often a new section would start with the date and time, but it would literally be two minutes after the previous section and a perfect continuation of the preceding section, so the date/time was redundant and broke the story up unnecessarily. Just one example was when a section ended with two characters talking about going somewhere, then the new date and time was stated, and that section began with the characters walking to where they had just discussed going to. I think the author did this to demarcate a switch in POVs, but it was much more frustrating than helpful.

This book was too much of a chore to be entertaining, though I did like how it ended. My thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This was such an absorbing and suspenseful read! It hooks you immediately and I intrigued from start to finish!

There are an abundance of characters and multiple stories happening which could take a minute to properly grasp, but Donlea did just a great job by perfectly weaving everything together!

I’ve learned that I’m a big fan of Donlea now and I can’t wait to see what he does next!

The storyline is incredibly clever and so meticulously plotted! The ending is shocking and everything I look for in my thrillers! *chefs kiss*

Buckle up, you’re in for a wild ride!

4.5 rounded to 5 for goodreads

As a childhood abuse survivor, this story hit very close to home. The ending was a surprise, and it kept me glued to my headphones the whole way through. Highly recommend.

While initially confusing with the time shifts, I enjoyed this listen. The narration was smooth, almost too smooth in a hypnotic way, but the narrators voice was pleasant and did not detract from the story. The twist was a bit of a surprise, and the story was enjoyable.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

4.5 hearts

I continue to be a big fan of Charlie Donlea. Those Empty Eyes tackles the issues of child pornography, sexual abuse and trafficking but also incompetent law enforcement. So there are some triggers if that is a problem for you. There are minor mentions of characters from two other books by the author which was fun for me.

Alex, as a minor, escapes from the slaughter of her family then has to deal with law enforcement and media ghouls who harass her continually in many ways. She isn't able to attend high school or college in the normal ways. The press is everywhere. Alex just wants to know who killed her family.

Alex, over the years, searches for clues as to why her family died. She finds bits and pieces but can't put it together. It gets her in trouble and her attorney / father figure helps her into a job. She becomes an investigator for his law firm. It's a good fit for her interest and skills.

A college senior doing true crime type podcasts goes missing and her boyfriend becomes a suspect. He becomes a client of the law firm. In researching the missing girl's last story, she finds a scandal of rapes at the University with frat boys drugging women. One of the members of the frat is the son of a potential Supreme Court nominee. Alex ends up with an FBI agent, Annette, asking her to share what she has learned which is a lot. Annette's job is to vet the judge as a possible Justice. Annette offers info in return. Alex agrees if she will help find who murdered her family. Everything races from there as Annette puts her in touch with Lane Phillips who studies serial killers

There is a lot of exciting action at various points throughout the story. I was with Alex all the way. She was hurt badly by a variety of events out of her control. Thankfully, the lawyer and his wife helped her, so she got therapy and a career. The ending is excellent as we learn who killed her family and why.

Narration:
This narrator is familiar as she has narrated several of the author's books. I was comfortable with her voices and accents. Her performance with the emotional tone added to my enjoyment. I listened at my normal 1.5x speed.