Best-selling thriller author Charlie Donlea has done it again with his latest novel, Long Time Gone.

His newest book follows Dr. Sloan Hastings, as she embarks on her forensic pathology fellowship and stumbles upon a long-buried mystery by accident. After submitting her DNA to a genetic site as part of her thesis project, she discovers she is actually Baby Charolette, an infant who's entire family went missing thirty years prior.

Sloan is then sent down a rabbit hole of secrets and corruption surrounding her parent's disappearance.

The storyline was both riveting and concise, with duel-timeline and plenty of mystery to uncover.

A huge thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for early access to the audiobook publication of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for a copy of the Audiobook of Long Time Gone!

Long Time Gone follows a forensic scientist who does a DNA test (similar to something like 23&me) to try and find her birth parents. When she gets her results back she finds out her and her birth parents went missing when she was a newborn and was presumed dead all these years.

Such an interesting premise and I believe it was done very well, you are intrigued the whole time and I love rich family that runs the town, but has a ton of dark secrets figures.

While it was very intriguing and I had an good time listening to this (the audio narrator did a fantastic job), it was a bit *slow* and def a more slow burn type of thriller with a lot of action towards the end!

highly recommend checking this one out when it comes out. I can’t wait to read the rest of Charlie Donlea’s backlist after this!

Long Time Gone was a great! I was gifted the audiobook by NetGalley and I thought Vivienne Leheny was fantastic. She did such a good job and I thought this was one of the best mystery crime novels I’ve read this year. I highly recommend it because it was well paced and every chapter just got better and better.
Thanks RB Media via NetGalley.

Thank you so much to Recorded Books for the advanced listening copy of LONG TIME GONE!

I really liked this one from beginning to end! Sometimes I struggle with 3rd person narration on audio, but not with this one at all! The narrator Vivienne Leheny did a great job on both the past and present chapters and held my attention the whole time!

This story was unique and thrilling! I went in totally blind and recommend you do the same as one of the biggest surprises for me in the book is given away in the synopsis! I feel like my pulse was legitimately quickening towards the end of the book as both timelines were building towards a CRAZY conclusion I didn't see coming!

I loved the main character Sloan and thought the author did a great job making me feel connected to her by the way the beginning of the book played out. I love when authors let us see characters first as just people before all the wildness of the plot unfolds in their lives.

Read this if you like

- Crime Fiction
- DNA Testing
- Unsolved Mysteries
- Dual Timelines
- Shocking Reveals

Definitely check this one out when it's published on May 21st!

Thank you NetGalley for this audio read. This is my honest review of the story told, I will first start off by saying that the narration of the book really kept me going and very intrigued. The narrator really did make it super easy and enjoyable to follow along with the read. This is my second story by this author, and I was instantly hooked from the very start, finished the book in 72 hours which was amazing for me being that this was my first audio narration.

The story begins with the past and then it jumps to present day time, Which was easy to follow along with. I thought I figured out who the person was that committed the crime, but I was surely mistaken, and it really had a great twist, however, towards the end, it did become a lot easier to figure out who committed the original crime but it keeps you on edge the whole time.

#LongTimeGone #NetGalley

Long Time Gone by Charlie Donlea
Narrated by Vivienne Leheny

Dr. Sloan Hastings, an in training forensic pathologist, has always known she was adopted and the little that her adopted parents could tell her about her birth mom was enough for her. She's had such a good home life, has a great relationship with her parents, and a career that she loves.

A research assignment has Sloan submitting her DNA to an online genealogy site and the results lead to some shocking truths. Sloan is "Baby Charlotte" a two month old baby who disappeared with her parents almost thirty years ago. At the urging of Sheriff Eric Stamos of Cedar Creek, NV, Sloan makes the trek to Cedar Creek to meet her wealthy, powerful, and possibly shady birth family, the Margolis clan. But she's also going in order to help Sheriff Stamos get to the bottom of her missing parents and how her adopted parents were able to adopt her when she was six months old. Plus Sheriff Stamos is sure his sheriff father was killed due to how much he knew about the Margolis's misdeeds.

Meeting the Margolis family is overwhelming, especially knowing the control they have over the entire area, placing people in almost all governing positions of Harrison County. As Sheriff Stamos investigates the past, Sloan has to tread carefully. Her new to her family seems to embrace her even if they might seem overbearing. What happened to her parents, how did she end up with someone else four months later, and did Sheriff Stamos's father die because someone had something to hide?

Vivienne Leheny does a great job of narrating the story and I listened to it in almost one day. With various media greats trying to get to Sloan for interviews on "being found", the threat of being followed while trying to uncover what really happened, and not knowing for sure who she can trust, Sloan stays busy and on the move in Cedar Creek. There are some situations that are so implausible that they are funny, things that shouldn't be able to happen but play a big part in the plot of the story. I just went with the events, rolled my eyes here and there, and had a great time with the audiobook. I bet we see some of the characters in future Donlea books and look forward to doing so.

Thank you to RB Media | Recorded Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

This audiobook is decent. I like the narrator, story was interesting. I wasn't able to figure out who dunnit, which I like. Seemed a little wordy, but not a bad story.

I'm a big fan of Charlie Donlea's writing and I was hooked the moment Dr. Sloan Hastings was introduced. Sloan is a fellow in forensic pathology. She is disciplined, intelligent and strong both mentally and physically. Even if the story would have stayed in North Carolina where Sloan is training I would have found the story to be fascinating, but in a huge plot twist she finds out that her DNA identifies her as missing Baby Charlotte, from Cedar Creek, Nevada. From here it is a whirlwind of non-stop investigating to solve the mystery of the disappearance of her parents, and just how she came to be adopted. The story is told in both the past and the present, and from multiple POVs. It was easy to follow and engaging. At times I felt rushes of adrenaline and fear, and I didn't want to stop listening! I liked all of the main characters and the setting, although Cedar Creek must actually be a river as I have never seen sailboats on any creek in Iowa. But I digress. I did figure out who did it, but there were still twists involved that I didn't see coming and had me gasping in shock. I was sad to see this book end and will consider it one of my top reads for 2024. I would love to see Sloan brought back as a character in a future book!

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for my copy of the audio book in exchange for my honest review. Vivienne Leheny did a fantastic job with the narration.

I love Charlie's books! Sloan Hastings submits her DNA to a database in order to complete her research. She discovers she is the missing Charlotte baby that dominated the news 30 years ago. Once that news breaks, people from her past are searching for her in order to get answers, the news scoop, etc. This book has amazing suspense and I could not listen to it fast enough. Love it! The ending was not what I expected but I really had no idea at all what to expect. Highly recommended!

Donlea always delivers a really great mystery providing all the elements that keep me invested from beginning to end. This one had a puzzling crime, atmospheric moments, good character development, and a surprising twist.

The only part that didn’t resonate with me were the breakdown of CrossFit workouts. I’ve never done it so that part of wasn’t necessary for my enjoyment of the story.

Overall this was another solid Donlea mystery that had me captivated and devouring it any chance I got. Coming May 21!

Thanks Recorded Books for the alc via Netgalley!

This story follows Dr. Sloan Hastings after her DNA test results reveal a connection to a decades old case involving the disappearance of a family and their baby. From the start I was hooked. I found the storyline about forensic genealogy fascinating, and loved how Sloan used her intelligence in this field to help solve the case. The short chapters alternated between past and present (1995 and 2024), which was great for building suspense and connecting some of the characters from the present to the past. The mystery itself was not super twisty (I didn’t guess the whodunit but I’m sure others will) but the story was so engrossing, I did not want to put it down!

If you are a fan of audiobooks, definitely listen to this one!

Read if you like:
-Forensics
-Solving cold cases
-True crime podcasts
-Intelligent FMCs
-Multiple POVs and timelines

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I absolutely loved this audiobook. Narration was great and the book itself was great. I was hooked right from the start and was anxious to find out what had really happened. I loved the variety of characters, but especially Sloan. Following her on her adventure to discover her history was fascinating. It was hard to put down this audiobook.
Great job by the author and the narrator.

Charlie Donlea's latest is a exciting thriller featuring the determined and ambitious Dr Sloan Hastings embarking on a 2 year medical examiner forensic pathology fellowship course under the well known Dr Livia Cutty. She is allocated the research topic of the latest developments in DNA and genetic genealogy, leading to a presentation at the end of the year. I listened to this on audio, approximately 9 hours and 20 minutes long, brilliantly narrated by Vivienne Leheny, who related the dual time line storytelling with aplomb, effectively capturing the suspense and tension, that had me gripped from the harrowing prologue, right through to the terrifying and tense conclusion.

Sloan was adopted by her dentist parents, having a wonderful loving childhood with little interest in looking into her actual parents. However, given her research area, she reluctantly submits her details of her DNA profile on a genealogy website, letting her parents know, that results in shocking results that turn her life upside down. It turns out Sloan is the famous 'Baby Charlotte'. Almost 3 decades ago baby Charlotte Margolis, a member of the powerful and wealthy Margolis family, along with her parents, went missing, resulting in a huge national media focus, with podcasts, and rampant speculation at the time.

In a narrative that goes back and forth in time, Sloan finds herself joining forces with Sheriff Eric Stamos, desperate to know the truth of what really happened to his father, unaware of just how much danger she will find herself in as she travels to Cedar Creek in Nevada. She is aided by her Aunt Nora, who married into the Margolis family, who provides her with information about her birth parents, fuelling her growing connection and curiosity about them. This is a dark and engaging thriller with twists and turns galore from Donlea, I have no hesitation in recommending this to crime and mystery fans, the audio is a terrific option. Many thanks to RB Media for an ALC.

Secrets, secrets, and more. I really enjoyed listening to the audio book "Long Time Gone", by Charlie Donlea. The narrator did a great job bringing all of the characters to life. I found the story to be an entertaining, interesting thriller.

A few years ago, you wouldn't catch me reading anything but thrillers. These days, I barely read them because they just never thrill me anymore and they're so predictable. I've joked that unless someone is getting murdered on the first page, then I'm probably not going to be interested.

Charlie Donlea has gotten me out of my thriller slump. There was a murder on the first page (yes!) and this was the most unputdownable book I've read in ages. I will occasionally audibly mutter out some type of reply while reading a thriller when something wild happens, but I did this numerous times during this book. This book was just so damn good. I don't know what else to say other than please read this one! Definitely my favorite thriller of the year so far.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Long Time Gone (audiobook), was an enjoyable listen from start to end. The story is about a medical examiner fellow (post-residency on-the-job training), in the same setting as previous Charlie Donlea books, and Dr. Cutter makes an appearance as well! This storyline focuses on Sloane, a strong female narrator that has a great relationship with her adoptive parents. Having known about her adoption from a young age, Sloan never felt the desire to look into her past and biological parents. In a twist of fate, she is almost forced into it as part of her research for her fellowship. By uploading her DNA into one of the well-known ancestry-type sites, her world is turned upside down. Is it possible she’s a missing child? Does her biological family have skeletons in their closet?

I truly enjoyed this audio book from the start. The presence of up-to-date science mixed in with fears and concerns anyone might have with looking into their family history is very real. The story kept me wanting “just one more chapter”, and the voice actor was easy to listen to. I gave this audiobook 4.5 stars. Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Publisher for this advanced listeners copy!

I fell in love with Charlie Donlea when I read Twenty Years Later. I saw the opportunity to read this book early and jumped on it. I was not disappointed.
Long time gone is told in two alternating time periods. Present day, and 30 years prior. Initially it was a little confusing with alternating time periods and all the characters. But quickly becomes very clear. You follow the story of Sloan, a 30 year old medical examiner student and a cold case disappearance in Cedar Creek, Nevada.
You become completely immersed in the story and once you start, you can not stop. Thank you Charlie Donlea and Netgalley for the opportunity to read the ARC of Long Time Gone!

A gripping thriller about a woman who uncovers a past she never expected. The narrator did an amazing job bringing this book to life. The novel was engaging and kept me guessing until the very end.

I actually enjoyed this book, but it also had me howling at how over the top some of the "Thriller" tropes were. The red hearings all over the place, the entire photography and developing film storyline was inevitably going to come up again. The ending revelations truly sent me over the edge! We know who the killer is because a crying baby kicked a camera and took pictures of the murder as it happened 😂 That was insane! I felt like that was a parody of a thriller book.

I genuinely did enjoy reading this book though! It just felt way over the top in places. It was still enjoyable and I would recommend it for fans of this genre.

A million thanks as always to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of the book to read and review!

Pathologist Dr Sloan Hastings is tasked with a DNA research assignment in order to complete her fellowship and to begin she reluctantly submits to one of those DNA spit tests. She’s a bit nervous about the results because she is adopted and has never really wanted to know who her biological parents are. The results however are shocking - it turns out she is a notoriously kidnapped baby of murdered parents. Sloan realizes that it is now up to her to solve the unsolved murder of her parents and help the new sheriff of the small town of her birth (and place of her disappearance), Eric, solve the murder of his own father (murdered while solving the case) at the same time.

I picked this one up because it was recommended to me and I love a good thriller! This story was engaging from the first chapter. I listened to the entire novel and there were times I had no good reason to be listening to an audiobook but I made any excuse I could because I just had to know what happened (extra snack breaks for work may have been taken). The narration was excellent and I honestly had no idea where the story was going to take me (which may have led to the extra snack breaks). I ingested this entire one in a day and no regrets for anyone I ignored (e.g. children, clients, husband and dog). I’ve had one of @charliedonlea’s other books on my kindle for at least a year and now I am absolutely putting it higher on my TBR!
4.25 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and RB Media for the ARC to review