Charlie Donlea's Blog - Posts Tagged "chicago"

Dear Readers,

As 2018 comes to a close, I wanted to say Thank You for making it such an exciting twelve months. Your dedication to my novels not only sent me on an international book tour but gave me the thrill of seeing my books on many bestsellers lists—including the surreal week when my audiobook elbowed past my writing idol, John Grisham, to take the #1 spot. Much, much appreciated!



Looking to 2019, the paperback of Don't Believe It with its new cover.

It will hit shelves on March 26th —just in time for Spring Break. Available for Pre-Order Now.


And my new novel, Some Choose Darkness, (US) edition

Available on May 28th. It’s dark and moody, and I hope you love it! Available for Pre-Order Now.


(AU) Edition: The Woman in Darkness coming April 2nd.

For those readers in AU (same book as Some Choose Darkness).
Available for Pre-Order Now.


Links above. Read more details here: Dec. Blog Post That's A Wrap

Or if you missed my Dec Newsletter— Sign up to receive the latest News and Inspiration behind Some Choose Darkness. Many more details and events to come in the new year.

Happy 2019 New Year!


—Charlie Donlea



Some Choose Darkness

Book Summary:

A modern master of suspense, critically acclaimed author Charlie Donlea returns with a taut, gripping novel about the deadly secrets hiding in plain sight . . .

The truth is easy to miss, even when it’s right in front of us. As a forensic reconstructionist, Rory Moore sheds light on cold-case homicides by piecing together crime scene details others fail to see. Cleaning out her late father’s law office a week after his burial, she receives a call that plunges her into a decades-old case come to life once more.

In the summer of 1979, five Chicago women went missing. The predator, nicknamed The Thief, left no bodies and no clues behind—until police received a package from a mysterious woman named Angela Mitchell, whose unorthodox investigation skills appear to have led to his identity. But before they could question her, Angela disappeared. Forty years later, The Thief is about to be paroled for Angela’s murder—the only crime the DA could pin on him. But the cryptic file Rory finds in her father’s law office suggests there is more to the case, and Angela Mitchell, than what was fed to the public, the details of which have been buried for four decades.

Rory’s talents are tested as she begins reconstructing Angela’s last days. Making one startling discovery after another, Rory becomes helplessly entangled in the enigma of Angela Mitchell and what happened to her. Drawing connections between the past and present, Rory uncovers dark truths about the reclusive victim, her father, and the man called The Thief that sends her down a twisting trail where things may not be as they appear. As she continues to dig, even Rory can’t be prepared for the full, terrifying truth that is emerging . . .

"Inspiration Behind Some Choose Darkness"



I grew up in Chicago, and like many in my generation, I did things as a kid that are unfathomable today.

My friends and I walked everywhere. And if we didn’t walk, we rode our bikes for miles to reach our destination. In the city, these miles took us across busy streets, over dangerous bridges, and through questionable underpasses. We did all of this unsupervised and without cell phones.

Our mothers simply assumed we made it to our intended endpoint; there was no checking in once we arrived. The greatest tab my mother kept on me was expecting me home “when the street lights came on.” It was part of growing up in the city. I knew no other way of life.

I played baseball in the street. Our main intersection offered a perfect combination of four sewers as bases, and a fifth manhole coved in the middle of the street as a pitcher’s mound. Playing in the street kept us off lawns and was welcomed by the neighbors who lived next door.

We put a Slip n’ Slide on the sidewalk, and used a swimming pool cover for padding. Why? Because there was not a strip of grass large enough to handle the twenty feet of slippery plastic.

The above ground pool in my postage stamp backyard was filled each year by fire hoses borrowed from the local firehouse and attached to the corner hydrant. The hydrant was opened with a huge monkey wrench the firemen gave us when they handed over the hoses. Since the power of the water was tremendous, the stream would topple the side of the pool if sprayed directly at it.

To avoid this catastrophe, three volunteers would climb into the empty pool with a card table that they’d use as a shield and break the force of water shot from the fire hose, which rested across the shoulders of three other volunteers as they aimed the rush of water into the pool and held on for dear life. This routine worked every year, and if any adults supervised the process, I don’t remember them. Alas, I survived the miles of bike travel, the street ball, and my swimming pool.

Things are much different today. Technology and hyper-parenting (of which I’m guilty beyond a reasonable doubt) have allowed us all to keep much greater tabs on our own kids. Is this good?

I’m not so sure. But one thing is for certain: my kids are living a different existence in the suburbs today than I led at their age.

This became startlingly obvious to me when I took my kids on a tour of my Chicago neighborhood—something my friends and I call the “old neighborhood.”

Everyone who grew up in the city has an “old neighborhood.”

Many of my childhood friends still live there. As we drove through the neighborhood, my kids asked some interesting questions:

“Why are the houses so close together?”

“Because they’re bungalows. Long, narrow homes with barely enough room to ride your bike between them. They make up many Chicago neighborhoods. And if you’re lucky enough to live next door to your best friend, simply opening the window at midnight gave you instant access to each other.”

“Why are the front yards so small?”

“Because they’re in front of bungalows, I just explained this. And you don’t need a big yard when you have a perfectly good street to play ball in.”

“What happened when a car drove down the street while you were playing baseball?”

“You played around it, and sometimes caught the Wiffle Ball when it ricocheted off a windshield. It still counted as an out as long as it never hit the ground.”

“Did the drivers get mad?”

“Sometimes, but not usually. They’d blow their horn a lot, but were usually gone before the next pitch was thrown.”

I fielded these questions with great delight as I showed my kids where I grew up. But when I drove up to my childhood house, my kids asked a bizarre question that caught me off guard. They pointed to the alley behind the house.

“Why is there a little road behind the house?”

Dear God, I thought. My children don’t know what an alley is.

“It’s an alley,” I answered in a dejected voice.

I didn't know how to explain that it was a little road, but it was so much more, too.

Alleys were the quintessential part of my upbringing.

They were where my friends and I hung out. They were where we hid during games of tag (chase, as it was called in the old neighborhood). Alleys were shortcuts and hiding spots and escape routes. Alleys were where our garage doors opened to, and where our father’s hung out on Saturday mornings completing projects that were perpetually unfinished and occupying the garage. And alleys were where we kept our garbage cans, and where kids had to venture at night (always at night!) to deposit black plastic bags filled with trash.

I suddenly realized my kids had a lot to learn about the place where I grew up. It occurred to me then that I needed to set a novel in Chicago.

Rory Moore
So, to kick off the launch of Some Choose Darkness, and a new character named Rory Moore—a forensic reconstructionist who specializes in cold cases—I thought I’d describe a few of the landmarks that made it into the book.

Maybe my kids will read it when they’re old enough and decide that the dark, dangerous city isn’t so bad after all. Actually, this is a thriller and parts of it are creepy as hell, so my idea of this book turning my kids on to the city will likely backfire.

Alley
As opposed to eastern cities, Chicago is organized in a grid pattern of city blocks. These blocks are divided by narrow lanes called alleys. In New York, garbage is piled on street corners, in Chicago, it is placed in the alley. In Some Choose Darkness, Rory Moore looks for clues in the alley where a character disappeared forty years earlier and starts down a road of no return.

Bungalow
A common architectural design of many Chicago homes in the Bungalow Belt neighborhoods. These homes are long, narrow, and spaced close together. They were constructed this way to house the ballooning middle class that was expanding the Chicago population.

Rory Moore lives in one of these Chicago bungalows, and it is in her home office where she pins photos of victims of the cold cases she investigates. It’s also where she keeps her antique china doll collection—broken dolls that she restores to perfection and keeps flawlessly lined on shelves. It’s a creepy hobby, but keeps Rory balanced and suits her perfectly.

Grant Park
Grant Park encompasses more than 300 acres and is located in the Loop. The park's centerpiece is Buckingham Fountain, where park-goers can sit and enjoy breathtaking lakefront views. The Park is also home to baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and acres of gardens. It is in one of these gardens, hidden in a shadowed corner of Grant Park, where a body is found. The mystery surrounding the death sends Rory Moore on the hardest case of her career.

Starved Rock
Starved Rock State Park is a wilderness area on the Illinois River about an hour or so outside of Chicago. Sandstone canyons provide the backdrop for beautiful waterfalls and hiking trails. One of these trails leads to Lover’s Leap Overlook, with views of the river and Starved Rock Dam. In Some Choose Darkness, another one of these trails leads to a creepy cabin isolated in the woods. I mean, come on, what would one of my thrillers be without a creepy cabin in the woods?

3 Floyds Brewing Co.
3 Floyds Brewery is actually located in Munster, Indiana, but their beer is a popular adult beverage for many Chicagoans.
Some of their lagers and ales have produced a cultish following. Rory Moore’s favorite is Dark Lord, an imperial stout that weighs in at 15% alcohol and can knock even a seasoned beer drinker on their butts.

Rory drinks it often. It helps her think, especially when she’s staring at the face of a victim whose case is as cold as a Chicago winter night.

I hope you love Some Choose Darkness, and the city in which it is set. It’s a thriller that’s dark and moody, like the beer Rory drinks, the hobby that balances her life, and the haunting cold cases she takes on.

—Charlie Donlea



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REVIEW:

"A full-throttle thriller, “Some Choose Darkness” is unapologetic and relentless, a harrowing ride full of twists and turns, a real joy between the pages of a book."—Press-Republican




“Some Choose Darkness”
By Charlie Donlea


In the summer of 1979, five women went missing in Charlie Donlea’s absorbing new suspense novel, “Some Choose Darkness.”

Rory Moore, a forensic reconstructionist, sheds light on a cold case involving the last days of one of the victim. Donlea creates Rory’s charming personality and backstory wonderfully, and the character’s profession in reconstruction generates enough interest for the reader that it is not only entertaining but also educational and enlightening.

After thorough research on the notorious 1979 serial killer nicknamed The Thief, Angela Mitchell has identified the man who she thinks is responsible for the abduction and murder of five other women.

She confides in her close friend Catherine about what she has discovered about the missing women in local newspaper clippings and newscast reports. But the alarming information she provides to her friend is met with confusion and shock.

Catherine is stunned to read the startling homicide statistics of the missing women. Concerned for Angela’s safety, Catherine urges her friend to be careful in her investigation.

A full-throttle thriller, “Some Choose Darkness” is unapologetic and relentless, a harrowing ride full of twists and turns, a real joy between the pages of a book.
The novel’s time frame is told in different periods and points of view, which add depth and tension to the already wicked good read. Donlea is an expert at building doubt in the reader’s mind, and the rising tension on every page reaches a taut conclusion, which leaves the reader anticipating his next novel.

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