Becky's Great Book Reviews Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea

Charlie Donlea is shaping up to be this blogger's favorite writer of crime fiction. In Twenty years Later, Donlea keeps the plot skipping along much like an edge-of-your-seat movie, and similar to Donlea's Guess Again.

One of the most popular journalists on television, Avery Mason has a past life and a different name. Her father is Garth Montgomery, wanted for the biggest Ponzi scheme on record. Known as the Thief of Manhattan, he cheated many people out of their life savings and is still at large. When Avery receives a cryptic postcard from him, she finds herself sucked back into his world, putting her freedom and career at risk.

In an interconnected plot, Avery returns to her hometown of Manhattan to do a story on a woman named Victoria Ford, whose remains were just identified in the rubble of the twin towers. Victoria disappeared on September eleven and was presumed dead, one of the many killed while in the buildings hit by planes that day. The towers came down right after the murder of a popular novelist, of which Victoria was the prime suspect. While in New York, Avery plans to secretly find and help her father while simultaneously doing her work for the show.

Walt Jenkins, the detective who was in charge of the murder investigation of the novelist and is now retired in Jamaica, has been pulled back in. He has been enlisted by higher ups to try and get information out of Avery about her father's whereabouts, under the guise of assisting her in looking into the decades old murder now that Victoria Ford's remains have been identified.

While Donlea introduces more and more characters, he deftly keeps them straight for readers with his skillful, concise writing style. The main story arc in the novel leads to jaw-dropping reveals that keep this tale propulsively running. At one point Walt tells a friend, "Love or the law: they're man's only two problems in this world". This quote sums up the theme of Twenty Years Later which kept this reader hooked until the end. I give this exciting crime thriller five stars out of five.