Twenty Years Later

Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea 368 pages 

Welcome to another novel that was nothing like I expected…sort of. It was the cryptic postcard that serves as the book’s synopsis that made me want to read this one. Only one aspect, 9/11, was what I expected but not in the way I expected it.

A little over twenty years ago, 9/11 happened. Victoria Ford was visiting her lawyer, prepping for her murder trial when the Towers fell. Victoria, like so many others, was gone without a trace. But a trace did remain.

Fast forward to 2021. The New York Medical Examiner’s Office* has made a discovery. For the first time in many years, the OFFICE has made a successful identification. Using advanced DNA technology, a tooth recovered from the wreckage has led to the identity of one of the victims: Victoria Ford.

Avery Mason is a national television celebrity who hosts “American Events.” She flies to New York to learn more. With the 20^th anniversary looming, Avery knows looking into how Victoria was identified will be ratings gold.

But then Avery learns that Victoria was the primary suspect in a grisly, yet abandoned, murder investigation and heck, what kind of reporter would she be if ignored that? Victoria did leave one piece of information behind: In a last phone call to her sister, Emily Kind, she begs her to prove Victoria’s innocence. Emily has tried, but no one will take the case. It seems pretty cut and dry, but there wouldn’t be a thrilling novel if that was the case.

As Avery discovers, “Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria’s DNA.”  But as she pushes deeper into the past, Avery’s own past begins to surface; a past that the network and her fans would find very troubling.

This was quite the thriller until the climax. Events and people appear without any foreshadowing that makes the final fourth of the book implausible.

 Still, up to that point it was a great read, but “Twenty Years Later” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

*To date, The New York Medical Examiner’s Office has successfully identified 1,646 9/11 victims. There are still 1,106 remains that have not yet been identified.