Guess Again by Charlie Donlea Summary, Characters and Themes
Guess Again by Charlie Donlea is a chilling thriller that blends crime investigation with personal reckonings. The story follows Ethan Hall, a former investigator turned physician, who is reluctantly drawn back into the world of cold cases and serial killers when his dying partner pleads for his help.
The reappearance of unresolved crimes, a missing governor’s daughter, and the manipulative reach of Francis Bernard—a notorious killer with ties to Ethan’s past—pull him into a dangerous web. As Ethan balances his medical career, loyalty to his friend, and his traumatic history, the novel explores justice, secrets, and the haunting cost of unfinished truths.
Summary
Ethan Hall once worked for Wisconsin’s Division of Criminal Investigation, focusing on crimes against children. After years of emotional damage and tragedy, he abandoned law enforcement, choosing instead to heal the living as an emergency physician.
By 2025, he has built a respectable career in Madison, Wisconsin, but his past refuses to let him go. A chance meeting with Christian Malone, a wealthy entrepreneur, introduces him to a new friendship, yet soon after, Ethan’s former partner Pete Kramer reappears with a dying wish.
Stricken with ALS, Pete asks Ethan to reopen the cold case of Callie Jones, the governor’s missing daughter who vanished in 2015. Despite hesitation, Ethan takes the case file, pressed by Pete’s illness and the state’s political leaders who promise him official backing.
As Ethan examines the case, another storyline unfolds. Eugenia Morgan, a disturbed woman obsessed with convicted killer Francis Bernard, becomes his devoted accomplice.
Bernard, imprisoned for killing Ethan’s father and long suspected in a series of brutal murders, manipulates Eugenia into carrying out his plans outside prison. She collects hidden evidence, prepares storage facilities, and even terrorizes Ethan’s girlfriend through anonymous letters.
Meanwhile, an unknown woman remains imprisoned in a basement, kept alive by a masked female captor, further suggesting that Bernard’s influence stretches beyond the prison walls.
Bernard’s parole hearing becomes a central moment. Ethan testifies passionately against him, describing his father’s murder and pointing out how killings ceased after Bernard’s arrest.
The parole is denied, but Bernard reveals disturbing knowledge about Callie Jones, hinting at her fate. This pulls Ethan deeper into the cold case.
Callie’s friend, Dr. Lindsay Larkin, recalls the pressures Callie faced as a star athlete, daughter of a high-profile politician, and young woman with a controlling family.
She had withdrawn from friends, secretly dated her volleyball coach, Blake Cordis, and used a prepaid phone to conceal her activities. Ethan later finds this phone in an abandoned warehouse after Bernard cryptically points him there, raising the question of how Bernard knew details that were never public.
The phone leads Ethan to Chicago, where he learns Callie visited a clinic, distraught about an unplanned pregnancy. Staff recall that she chose to keep the baby and left appearing hopeful.
This revelation complicates the investigation, suggesting her disappearance may have been linked to secrets her family and community never suspected. Christian Malone assists Ethan with digital analysis, uncovering more clues about Callie’s final communications, which implicate Blake as the father of her child.
Blake, however, insists someone else set her up on the night she disappeared.
As the case unfolds, Bernard escalates his manipulation. He bargains with Ethan, offering Callie’s fate in exchange for transfer out of solitary confinement.
Governor Jones, desperate for answers about his daughter, agrees. Pete’s surveillance identifies Eugenia as Bernard’s outside accomplice, confirming how he has maintained influence.
Meanwhile, Lindsay’s therapy platform encounters an anonymous client who confesses to involvement in Callie’s disappearance, deepening suspicions but leaving Ethan racing against time to uncover the truth.
Eugenia becomes increasingly violent, breaking into homes, murdering innocents, and delivering Bernard’s messages. As Bernard’s transfer approaches, Ethan’s desperation grows.
Despite his attempts, Christian fails to break through encrypted files before the deadline, leaving Ethan to rely on Bernard’s terms. Bernard is moved, and soon afterward, he stages an escape with the help of his lover Harriett Alshon, who kills Eugenia to assume her role.
Ethan and Maddie Jacobson, his partner and the lone survivor of Bernard’s earlier killing spree, retreat to a remote cabin. Harriett follows them there, killing an elderly couple to use their home as cover.
She deceives Maddie into letting her inside, then attacks her brutally. Maddie barely survives, only for Bernard himself to arrive, resuming the ritual he began decades earlier by carving a black heart into her chest.
Ethan, warned by a dying friend, rushes back and confronts Bernard. A violent fight breaks out in the storm.
Harriett intervenes but is killed by Maddie. Ethan pursues Bernard into the raging river, where a lightning strike seemingly kills him, though his body is never found.
Days later, Ethan receives a letter from Bernard postmarked from afar, containing a key and directions. Following them, Ethan and Maddie discover Callie’s remains, along with a storage locker filled with tapes and photos.
To Ethan’s horror, the evidence proves his father, Detective Henry Hall, was not only Bernard’s partner in crime but also complicit in the Black Heart murders of 1993. The revelation destroys Ethan, who realizes his family legacy is tainted by complicity in the very crimes that defined his life.
Bernard’s taunts, preserved in recordings, reveal that Henry tried to back out after Maddie’s survival but was killed by Bernard to protect their secrets.
A year later, Ethan isolates himself at Lake Morikawa, running a small clinic and drowning in alcohol. Maddie continues her work in law enforcement, while Ethan replays Bernard’s recordings, tormented by his father’s betrayal.
Just when he believes the nightmare is over, a new body washes up on Lake Michigan, marked with Bernard’s signature black heart. Alongside it lies a note addressed to Ethan, proving that Bernard survived and is still active.
The governor and Maddie plead with Ethan to rejoin the hunt, forcing him to confront the truth he can no longer ignore. The story closes with Ethan agreeing to face Bernard once more, setting the stage for an unfinished reckoning.
Characters
Ethan Hall
Ethan Hall is the central figure of Guess Again, and his character is shaped by both trauma and resilience. Once an agent in the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, Ethan specialized in cases involving children, which eventually left him emotionally scarred and weary.
His decision to leave law enforcement and pursue medicine reflects his desire to heal rather than dwell in violence and death. As an emergency physician, he builds a respected career, yet his past refuses to release him.
Ethan’s loyalty to Pete Kramer, his former partner, and his unresolved grief over his father’s murder by Francis Bernard pull him back into investigative work. His moral compass is tested constantly as he juggles his dedication to medicine, his devotion to Maddie, and the haunting revelations of his family’s hidden darkness.
Ethan embodies a man torn between the need to save lives and the compulsion to confront evil head-on, even at the risk of his sanity.
Maddie Jacobson
Maddie Jacobson, Ethan’s partner and survivor of the Lake Michigan Killer, is a portrait of endurance. Scarred physically and emotionally from her near-death encounter with Francis Bernard decades earlier, Maddie channels her trauma into her career as a detective.
She is strong-willed, intelligent, and fiercely protective of her relationship with Ethan, even as Francis continues to torment her with annual letters. Her history binds her to Ethan—both have been marked by Bernard—and this shared trauma forges a relationship steeped in both love and pain.
Maddie’s survival instinct is evident in her violent struggle against Harriett Alshon, showing that she is not merely a victim but a fighter determined to reclaim her agency. Through her, the novel explores the long shadows of survival, resilience, and how love can anchor even the most fractured souls.
Pete Kramer
Pete Kramer is Ethan’s former partner and a man defined by both strength and fragility. Once a formidable investigator, Pete is now diminished by ALS, yet his determination to solve the Callie Jones case remains unbroken.
His obsession with the case borders on spiritual, as he confesses to feeling haunted by Callie herself. Pete functions as both a mentor and a moral compass for Ethan, reminding him of the importance of justice even when the personal cost is immense.
His decline humanizes him, but his persistence ensures that his legacy endures beyond his illness. Pete’s request pulls Ethan into the narrative’s central mystery, marking him as the catalyst for the story’s unfolding events.
Francis Bernard
Francis Bernard is the chilling embodiment of evil in Guess Again. Imprisoned since 1993 for killing Ethan’s father, he is suspected of the Lake Michigan Massacres, though never convicted.
Bernard is manipulative, calculating, and disturbingly charismatic, exerting control even from behind bars. His ability to influence outsiders like Eugenia Morgan and Harriett Alshon underscores his skill as a psychological predator.
Bernard’s knowledge of Callie Jones’s disappearance, despite being confined, cements his role as the spider at the center of the web. His taunts toward Ethan and his manipulations of the parole system show his mastery of control and deception.
Even when presumed drowned, his posthumous letters and revelations about Ethan’s father ensure his presence lingers, proving him to be not just a man but a haunting force.
Eugenia Morgan
Eugenia Morgan is one of the most unsettling figures in the novel, driven by hybristophilia—an obsessive attraction to violent criminals. Her devotion to Francis Bernard transforms her into a dangerous accomplice, willing to dye her hair, alter her appearance, and commit heinous crimes to further his agenda.
Through Eugenia, the story highlights the disturbing phenomenon of individuals who become enthralled by killers. She is not merely a puppet but a true believer, convinced of her role in Francis’s resurgence.
Her actions—murdering innocents, planting evidence, and constructing shrines—showcase the chilling extremes of obsession. Her eventual betrayal by Harriett Alshon demonstrates how easily devotion can be exploited in Bernard’s world.
Harriett Alshon
Harriett Alshon emerges as Francis’s final and most lethal accomplice, stepping in after Eugenia’s demise. Unlike Eugenia, Harriett is ruthless, efficient, and emotionally detached, killing without hesitation and assuming Eugenia’s identity with ease.
Her calculated violence at Lake Morikawa highlights her role as a predator equal to Bernard, making her a true threat to Ethan and Maddie. She embodies the idea that Bernard’s influence extends beyond himself, creating a cycle of violence perpetuated by those drawn into his orbit.
Her brutal death at Maddie’s hands signifies the strength of survivors who refuse to be consumed by the darkness she represents.
Christian Malone
Christian Malone is a fascinating foil to Ethan—wealthy, brilliant, and retired young after creating the file-sharing empire CramCase. His relocation to Wisconsin symbolizes his rejection of Silicon Valley’s relentless pace, yet his technical skills and resources become invaluable to Ethan’s investigation.
Christian represents what Ethan might have been if he had chosen a path free of trauma: successful, wealthy, and seemingly unburdened. Yet, Christian is not merely a helper; his willingness to dive into dangerous digital investigations reveals a loyalty and courage that make him a true ally.
His character adds depth to the narrative by blending modern technology with old-fashioned detective work.
Callie Jones
Callie Jones is the ghost at the heart of the story—present in memory, absence, and mystery. The governor’s daughter, star athlete, and prodigious student, she is depicted as a young woman under immense pressure.
Her relationship with Blake Cordis, her unwanted pregnancy, and her strained family life paint her as a tragic figure caught between expectation and desire. Callie’s choices—to love in secret, to consider abortion, and ultimately to face her circumstances alone—humanize her beyond the myth of the missing girl.
She symbolizes the silence of victims whose stories are buried beneath politics, family reputation, and societal pressure. Her eventual discovery brings closure but also unearths devastating truths that ripple through every character connected to her.
Lindsay Larkin
Lindsay Larkin, Callie’s best friend and later a successful entrepreneur, is a character shaped by survivor’s guilt. Her rise as the founder of an online therapy platform shows resilience, yet her success is tinged with regret for not recognizing Callie’s distress.
Lindsay is insightful, compassionate, and pragmatic, often serving as a bridge between Ethan’s investigation and Callie’s inner world. Her involvement in therapy sessions, particularly the chilling confession of an anonymous client, underscores her role as both a professional and a friend still grappling with unresolved grief.
Through Lindsay, the novel explores the intersection of memory, responsibility, and healing.
Governor Mark Jones
Governor Mark Jones, Callie’s father, is a man divided between his public image and private anguish. His political ambitions overshadowed his relationship with his daughter, creating distance that contributed to her secretive life.
As governor, he leverages his authority to aid Ethan, but his motivations are tangled in guilt and desperation. His struggle to reconcile his failure as a father with his role as a leader reflects the tension between personal and political responsibilities.
Mark Jones is a tragic figure—powerful in office yet powerless to save his child, forced to confront the cost of his ambition.
Blake Cordis
Blake Cordis, Callie’s volleyball coach, is both a suspect and a symbol of forbidden desire. His clandestine relationship with Callie reveals a man willing to cross moral and professional boundaries, yet his claims of innocence suggest he, too, may have been manipulated.
His connection to Callie’s pregnancy complicates his portrayal, making him both culpable and pitiable. Blake is evasive, fearful, and ultimately trapped by the consequences of his actions, embodying the dangers of exploitation masked as affection.
His character raises unsettling questions about responsibility, predation, and the blurred lines between care and control.
Themes
Trauma and Its Lasting Shadows
The narrative of Guess Again is steeped in the lingering weight of trauma, which shapes nearly every character’s choices and relationships. Ethan Hall carries the scars of his father’s murder and the psychological toll of years spent investigating crimes against children.
His transition from law enforcement to medicine is not simply a career change but a desperate act of survival—an attempt to redirect his life toward healing rather than reliving the horrors of death and cruelty. Maddie Jacobson embodies trauma even more viscerally; as the sole survivor of Francis Bernard’s killings, she has lived decades under the shadow of his violence.
Though she has built a life with Ethan, her physical scars and the annual arrival of Bernard’s letters never allow her to fully escape the specter of her past. The theme illustrates how trauma is not confined to a single moment of violence but reverberates endlessly, reshaping futures, careers, and identities.
What is particularly striking is how the past becomes a living presence in the characters’ lives: Pete Kramer haunted by his failure in the Callie Jones case, Lindsay Larkin burdened by guilt over her missing best friend, and Ethan himself unraveling when he discovers his father’s complicity in the very crimes that destroyed so many. Trauma here is not simply depicted as suffering but as a corrosive force that manipulates memory, erodes trust, and creates cycles of secrecy and obsession.
Yet the characters’ persistence to confront it also suggests that healing, however incomplete, requires looking into the darkest corners of one’s past.
Obsession and Corruption of Justice
The pursuit of justice in Guess Again is repeatedly shown to be tainted by obsession, manipulation, and corruption. Pete Kramer’s fixation on Callie Jones’s disappearance is framed less as pure dedication and more as a consuming burden that follows him even into terminal illness.
His obsession, while born from compassion, blinds him to his own life and well-being. Francis Bernard, on the other hand, embodies the corruption of justice through manipulation.
Even behind bars, he exerts influence, orchestrates murders, and exploits weaknesses in the prison system. His relationship with Eugenia Morgan and later Harriett Alshon demonstrates how obsession—hers with him, his with control—can distort morality and incite acts of brutality.
Even those positioned as protectors of justice, such as Governor Mark Jones and Ethan’s father Henry Hall, are implicated in compromises and betrayals. The governor’s willingness to risk transferring Bernard for the faint chance of saving Portia Vail illustrates how political ambition and personal desperation blur ethical lines.
Henry Hall’s shocking complicity in the murders devastates the idea of law enforcement as a force for justice, showing instead how obsession with control and partnership in darkness can corrode its foundation. The theme reveals a world where justice is precarious, constantly threatened by human weakness, and where obsession often leads to the opposite of truth and fairness.
Secrets, Lies, and the Burden of Truth
Throughout the novel, secrets form the bedrock of personal and political relationships, while the uncovering of those truths brings both devastation and clarity. Callie Jones’s disappearance is initially framed as a mystery clouded by family dysfunction and teenage rebellion, but as layers are stripped away, the weight of hidden truths becomes undeniable.
Her secret relationship with her coach Blake Cordis, the pregnancy she concealed from her powerful parents, and the private despair she carried all highlight how silence can be as destructive as violence. The Jones family itself thrives on appearances while concealing fractures—divorce, manipulation, and a daughter’s vulnerability swept under the rug in service of reputation.
Ethan’s discovery of his father’s role in the murders is perhaps the most shattering example of how buried truths poison lives; it redefines his identity, his childhood, and his sense of justice. Lies here are not minor evasions but life-shaping forces, destroying trust and rewriting history.
What the book emphasizes is that while secrets may offer temporary protection, their eventual exposure extracts a devastating cost, leaving characters to navigate whether truth is liberating or damning.
The Complexity of Survival and Resilience
Survival in Guess Again is not portrayed as a simple triumph of endurance but as a deeply complex negotiation between strength, vulnerability, and compromise. Maddie’s survival of the Lake Michigan killings sets her apart, yet her life afterward is scarred by physical pain and a perpetual fear that Bernard’s shadow will never release her.
Her confrontation with Harriett Alshon in the cabin years later highlights how survival is not static—it is constantly tested, renewed, and redefined. Ethan’s own survival is rooted less in physical endurance and more in psychological resilience, as he wrestles with the shattering revelations about his father and the collapse of his sense of identity.
Even characters like Lindsay, who did not endure direct physical violence, live with the survivor’s guilt of being left behind when Callie disappeared, their resilience measured not by scars but by emotional endurance. What emerges is an understanding that survival is messy, leaving characters caught between gratitude for life and the crushing burden of memory.
Resilience is presented not as a heroic triumph but as an imperfect process of carrying trauma forward while still finding the strength to continue.
Family, Legacy, and Betrayal
At its core, the novel interrogates the meaning of family and the legacy it leaves behind, both nurturing and destructive. Ethan’s life is defined by his father’s dual legacy—on the surface, that of a detective killed in the line of duty, and in truth, that of a murderer complicit in atrocities.
The revelation redefines family as a source not of security but of betrayal, forcing Ethan to reconcile with the bloodline he carries. The Jones family mirrors this tension; while publicly a symbol of political power and influence, privately it is fractured by divorce, parental neglect, and the suffocating expectations placed on Callie.
Her disappearance, fueled by secrecy and rebellion, is as much a story of family failure as it is of criminal conspiracy. Even Francis Bernard, in his own twisted way, constructs a “family” through his followers like Eugenia and Harriett, women who embody devotion to him in grotesque acts of loyalty.
The theme ultimately suggests that family is not a sanctuary but a contested space where loyalty, betrayal, love, and control collide, often with devastating consequences. Legacy is shown not only as inheritance but also as burden—the weight of crimes, failures, and secrets passed from one generation to the next.