I’m still riding the high of finishing this novel tbh.

TW: mentions of the 9/11 attacks.

For those of you who definitely didn’t ask, I joined a book club a few months ago and am really enjoying it tbh. Between the four of us, one of us chooses a category or topic, and then we all suggest a book from that category and take a vote on which book to read next.

We’ve read a few books thus far, and the fourth book to be read amongst the club was chosen to be Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea. This book was my suggestion as the topic for this round was ‘Goodreads winners’, and this was voted as one of the top Goodreads thrillers which I guess was lowkey a subtle suggestion to read a genre that I love.

Twenty Years Later covers two different times: 2001 around the time of the 9/11 attacks in the US, and (shock!) twenty years later in 2021. Avery Mason, a TV show host and American celebrity in 2021, is thrown into the investigation of a 20-year-old murder mystery while trying to cover her own dark past. The accused, Victoria Ford, left a voicemail for her sister protesting her innocence in the crime, but the catch is Victoria Ford died as part of the 9/11 attacks.

First off, I just want to say one word: wow.

I love a standard murder mystery on a good day, but when an excellent murder mystery is interwoven with several other attention-grabbing plots going on, it makes for an outstanding novel. Once you thought you knew where the story was going, it would completely flip and go into a new direction with twists and turns a plenty that keeps you on your toes to the very end.

However, I will say to the contrary of what I just said, that sometimes there was a little too much going on at once to the point where it may have been overwhelming. But I rarely felt overwhelmed while reading this novel, so don’t let that scare you off.

Donlea writes the story in third-person and shifts between the point of views of the characters Avery Mason and Walt Jenkins predominantly, with a few surprises here and there that I will not spoil for you. Even though the perspective shifts between characters, Donlea takes the time to really flesh out his characters so you really understand Avery’s motive, Walt’s view on life, and you really get a good understanding of who they are as people.

Both Avery and Walt were both really likeable as characters, with admirable and endearing qualities but created with a sense of realism that they were human and they weren’t perfect angels. I can’t say much more on that without passing that line of spoiler territory, so I’ll just leave it at this ominously vague point.

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 9/10
Style of writing: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

I cannot recommend this story enough. It’s a great read if you are an established thriller/mystery reader, and it’s also a great read if you’ve never read a thriller/mystery before in your life.

I would just suggest setting time aside to read this book, because it truly is one of those novels that once you’ve really gotten into it, it’ll be hard to put it down to go to sleep, or eat, or use the bathroom. So be prepared.

– by The Black Widow