"Those Empty Eyes" begins with a bang.

Seventeen-year-old Alexandra Quinlan's parents and young brother are brutally shot and killed inside their home.

Alexandra escapes death by hiding inside a grandfather clock.

Alexandra's shocked/vacant expression as she is led from her family's home in handcuffs causes her to be dubbed "Empty Eyes" by the media.

As the sole survivor, she quickly becomes the prime suspect and a media sensation.

After she is exonerated from the crime, she sues the police force for defamation and gets awarded settlement money.

She also becomes determined to find out who murdered her family and why.

Unfortunately, after an intriguing and compelling start, "Those Empty Eyes" started feeling very "empty" to me.

WHY? Repetitive text and waaay too many tangents.

As a result, the book's twisty ending was very underwhelming.

I listened to the audiobook read by Vivienne Leheny, who did an outstanding job with the narration.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ten years ago, teenage Alex Quinlan witnessed the murder of her parents and her younger brother while she hid behind a grandfather clock, terrified.

Alex survived but was then arrested and accused of the murders. She was found in her parents' room holding the gun used in the murders. She is later exonerated. But her life will never be the same. And she sues the State of Virginia for defamation and wins. Media still hounds her. They call her Empty Eyes and she can't get away from it.

She moves to the UK in hopes of a new life. But she can't let go of finding out who killed her family and why.

This book has several POVs. Layer by layer we learn more about the murders. There were several twists that I did not see coming.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Books and RB Media for an ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review.

A suspenseful read!! The ending there’s a twist I did not see coming. I listened to the audiobook and had to replay it twice as I thought I misunderstood. Crazy!! The audiobook is fantastic and narrated by Vivienne Leheney. I have listened to Charlie Donlea previous book Twenty Years Later narrated by Vivienne and loved it. For this novel she did a good job voicing the characters and the story. The beginning really pulled you in. There were a few diversions and subplots in the middle but everything all came together like a perfect package and then came the twist. A great suspenseful psychological thriller. Many thanks to RB Media and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you Netgalley & RB Media for an ALC of Those Empty Eyes by Charlie Donlea! Being my first read by this author, I wasn't sure what to expect.

What's it about?
10 years following the massacre of her family and being exonerated for the crime, Alex is known by true-crime enthusiasts as "empty eyes." Although her name and appearance have changed, people haven't forgotten about her. She hasn't forgotten, either, and is still searching for answers about who killed her family - and why,

Working as an investigator, Alex finds herself linked to another crime that brings her back to that fateful night ten years ago. I'm going to leave my synopsis here because the original one gives quite a bit away regarding the plot and this one is SO good that I highly recommend going into it blindly.

I was confused mid-way because I was wondering just how on earth all of these various stories and plot points were going to come together. I was convinced that they weren't, and that there would be lots of plot holes for me to make assumptions on. Everything was wrapped up nicely, and the final chapter certainly gave me goosebumps. I came to love a few of the characters in this one and would love to see another with them in it.

I alternated between an ecopy and the audio of this book, and couldn't stop listening and reading once I started, This one's got LOTS of TWs, but needless to say Donlea has wowed me!

2 stars

This is a book about how to say the say thing in over 400 words and then we move to a new chapter where we do the same.

The book could be summed up in 4 pages. Everything else are a million useless details, lots of characters that bring nothing to the story, they are there to fill the pages as there's no depth to their presence. They are so relevant that at the end an AI solves it all.

I didn't enjoy this one bit. The whole story is full of ridiculous holes and that starts in the first chapters.

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for allowing me to read this book!

The book started off very strong, I was immediately pulled into Alex's story and I was very invested in finding out the truth of her family's murders. The middle got a bit overwhelming and convoluted with a lot of side plots and characters, but Charlie Donlea was able to bring it back to a very satisfying and surprising ending.

Thank you NatGalley and Recorded Books for an advance copy.

Mark your calanders for March 28, 2023 when Those Empty Eyes by Charlie Donlea will be released. This is a thriller you don't want to miss! I had the privilege of listening to the audio adaption of Donlea's impeccable novel courtesy of RB Media and Netgalley.

Ten years after being exonerated for the murder of her parents and brother, the girl known to the world as “Empty Eyes” is the only one looking for the truth about what really happened to her family.

This is a must read for fans of psychological thrillers that keep you on your toes from the first sentence to the very last. Deception, drama, trauma, and more await the readers of Those Empty Eyes.

4.5/5 ☆

Thank you NetGalley, RB media, publisher and author for the #gifted ALC in exchange for my honest review. Its unfortunate that NG was having issues the last 3 days and wasnt able to enjoy thw audiobook as much. It feela like too many books are intertwining stories that need their own space. When thia is done it causes the reader to have to keep track of too many things and not enjoy the story. May be good to have catch up on parts throughout or just write 2 books instead of 1 combined...

2.5/5☆ rounded up.

“You know her name. You know her face. You know those eyes…”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5/5) (rounded down for Goodreads)

This was my second book by @charliedonlea and it did not disappoint. Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC of this book!

Pub date: 3/28/2023

Alexandra Quinlan’s family was murdered and she was the sole survivor. When the police found her, she was sitting in her parents room holding a shotgun and became prime suspect number one. The reporter at the seen saw the police walking Alexandra being escorted out of her house and her face was emotionless, her eyes were empty, which gave her the nickname “Empty Eyes.”

Fast forward ten years later, Alex is working a case that may be related to her parent’s case. She will stop at nothing to figure out what happened to her family that night.

This book spans multiple time frames, multiple locations, and multiple POVs, my favorite! It shows how the media can influence the court of public opinion and how shock and trauma impact the response of victims, or suspects, in a criminal case.

Donlea knows how to throw a twist into a book, or multiple when you least expect it. I was about to give this book 4⭐️ however the last few chapters ended up changing that!

Every time I thought I had figured this one out, a new twist was thrown at me. There were so many separate mysteries happening in the book and you never know how they are all going to connect. The politics to the police work were fascinating, while still being a lot of fun. I really enjoyed Alex.

It’s been ten years since her family was murdered, ten years since Alex Armstrong was charged, tried and found innocent of the brutal murders. Only thirteen years old at the time of her arrest, Alex was dubbed “Empty eyes” by the press because of the shock on her face when the police arrived on scene to find the murder weapon in her lap. Now, Alex works as an investigator for the law firm that helped exonerate her; she can find almost anything, except the person responsible for the deaths of her family. From here, Donlea begins to weave in other characters and plot lines; they seem to be unrelated, but actually are connected to Alex’s case. There’s a lot going on in this book, the multiple plots/mysteries were a bit of a distraction from Alex’s case and the did she or didn’t she question, but overall, I enjoyed the book

Thank you RB Media and Netgalley for my ARC of Those Empty Eyes!
So far I have loved every book I've read from Charlie Donlea, and this one was no different!
I feel like others who rated this book with less stars may not have read or enjoyed his previous books.
Loved the writing and the narration!

I've been reading Charlie Donlea's books since 2017. I can tell you that his stories never disappoint me. THOSE EMPTY EYES will take you on a wild ride from start to finish as Alex tries to uncover who really killed her family. Yes, I was shocked by the discovery, I did not guess it correctly. Told in different timelines, this story weaves together nicely to a perfect conclusion. I highly recommend listening to this one if you enjoy audiobooks. It's addictive and I couldn't stop listening!

Many thanks to NetGalley and RB media for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This review will be shared to my Instagram (@coffee.break.book.reviews) on pub date.

OKAY YALL, do not sleep on Charlie Donlea, holy shit! I loved this whodunnit, cold-case reopened thriller of a book. Those Empty Eyes is set to hit shelves on March 28, 2023. I am so thankful to our lovely author, NetGalley, RB Media, and Kensington Books, for sending me a physical copy and audiobook access! This one didn't disappoint!

In 2013, Alexandra Quinlan woke up to the brutal killing of her entire family, then found herself to be the target of a ruthless assassin, working to leave no trace of a witness. As she successfully hid and escaped the killer's rampage path, she was unfortunately suspected as the murderer when the police department arrived at the scene. What an introduction.

Months later, her convictions are dropped, but not after her privacy and life have been ruined and tarnished. What's next for Alex Quinlan??? Years later, her next steps include changing her last name and doing everything possible to find her family's murderer!

In 2023, she finds herself working at a Law Firm, handling violent and sexual crimes against women and children, but after much research, she finds several damning bits of evidence that put her parents in the limelight. Did she know who her parents were communing with? As a missing person's case coincides with a sexual assault on a college campus, she learns that the northeast region where she is working is small enough of an area to connect events of the past to current proceedings and can even knock out two birds with one stone's throw.

Written through timeline entries and audio recordings, Those Empty Eyes is sure to keep you hooked from start to finish!

If you are EVER looking for multi faceted and incredibly layered stories, Charlie Donlea is where to look and in Those Empty Eyes, he has crafted it beautifully.

When a brutal murder rocks a quiet town, the teenage daughter of slain parents is splashed across the news as the dead eyed killer, but Alex was publicly acquitted of the murders of her parents and brother. It doesn’t stop the “true believers” from trying to prove her guilt.

Now it’s years later and she has hidden her identity and started over… sort of… She has never stopped searching for her family’s killer. And who would have known that a case she is working on now as a legal investigator, would have such a strange connection to her past.

This book was INCREDIBLE! From beginning to end, this book sinks into you and doesn’t let up. The way it all plays out is masterful and so well written. Pulled from headlines, this book dives into many social issues, abuse and corruption. I highly recommend the audiobook as the narrator tells the story singularly, while doing a great job of capturing many characters.