Some Choose Darkness Summary: A Forensic Reconstructionist Uncovers the Darkest Secret—Her Own
Some Choose Darkness: A Gripping Thriller by Charlie Donlea
A woman who rebuilds shattered antique dolls.
A killer who hung his victims from pulleys in a Chicago warehouse.
A secret buried for forty years inside a dead lawyer’s files.
Some Choose Darkness by Charlie Donlea opens with forensic reconstructionist Rory Moore sorting through her late father’s law practice—and stumbling into a case that rewrites everything she knows about herself.
The novel shifts between the summer of 1979, when a predator known as “The Thief” terrorized Chicago, and 2019, when his secrets claw back to the surface.
It is the first book in the Rory Moore/Lane Phillips series.
For more book summaries of Charlie Donlea’s novels, visit his author page: Charlie Donlea Book Summaries on URSummary.
TL;DR: The Hidden Truth
Some Choose Darkness operates on two timelines. In 1979, Angela Mitchell—a woman with undiagnosed autism and OCD—discovers her husband Thomas is a serial killer.
She mails evidence to the police and vanishes. In 2019, forensic reconstructionist Rory Moore finds out her late father spent four decades representing Thomas Mitchell while secretly hunting for Angela.
The deeper Rory digs, the closer she gets to an unthinkable revelation:
Angela was her biological mother, and Thomas Mitchell is her father.
- A serial killer walks free on parole after forty years.
- A daughter uncovers the truth about her birth and her father’s secret investigation.
- The past and present collide at a cabin in Starved Rock, Illinois.
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Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
| Rory Moore | Forensic reconstructionist and doll restorer who discovers her hidden parentage. |
| Angela Mitchell | Rory’s biological mother whose obsessive research exposed “The Thief” in 1979. |
| Thomas Mitchell (The Thief) | Rory’s biological father; a serial killer paroled in 2019. |
| Frank Moore | Rory’s adoptive father and Thomas Mitchell’s lifelong defense attorney. |
| Marla Moore | Rory’s adoptive mother. |
| Greta Schreiber | Nurse-midwife who helped Angela hide and posed as Rory’s great-aunt. |
| Lane Phillips | Rory’s partner; a forensic psychologist and author. |
| Ron Davidson | Chicago homicide detective and Rory’s boss. |
| Catherine Blackwell | Angela’s only friend in 1979, later murdered by Thomas. |
| Camille Byrd | A 2018 murder victim whose reconstruction Rory works on. |
Some Choose Darkness Summary: The Full Story
SPOILER WARNING: This section recounts the complete narrative, including the ending.
The 1979 Timeline
Thomas Mitchell works as a concrete contractor in Chicago.
In secret, he abducts women and takes them to a warehouse in Kenosha. There, he uses a dual-pulley system to hang his victims while he experiences something he calls “The Rush”—a sensation of power and euphoria.
His wife, Angela Mitchell, lives with severe undiagnosed autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Her mind processes information in patterns.
She notices small anomalies in Thomas’s behavior and begins connecting them to news reports about missing women.
Angela finds a peridot necklace and a driver’s license belonging to a missing woman hidden in the garage. She starts compiling a detailed file of evidence.
After Thomas burns his warehouse to destroy forensic traces, she mails her file to the Chicago police and disappears.
She is never found.
Thomas is arrested, tried, and convicted—not for the murders of the missing women, but for Angela’s presumed death, despite no body being recovered.
The 2019 Timeline
Rory Moore restores antique china dolls for a living. She also works as a freelance forensic reconstructionist, examining cold cases with a meticulous eye.
Her father, Frank Moore, dies suddenly of a heart attack.
While managing his legal practice’s closure, Rory discovers he represented a client for forty years: Thomas Mitchell, now up for parole.
She soon learns her father was not simply defending a killer.
Frank Moore was privately investigating what happened to Angela Mitchell. He believed she survived.
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Rory meets Catherine Blackwell, Angela’s only friend from 1979.
Through this meeting and her father’s records, Rory pieces together a staggering truth.
The woman she knew as “Great-Aunt Greta”—Greta Schreiber—was the nurse-midwife who helped Angela vanish. Angela lived in hiding at Greta’s farmhouse.
Then Rory finds adoption papers and a birth certificate in her father’s safe-deposit box.
Angela Mitchell died in 1981 during childbirth at the farmhouse due to preeclampsia and hemorrhaging. Frank and Marla Moore adopted the baby. That baby was Rory. Thomas Mitchell is her biological father.
The Climax
Thomas Mitchell is released on parole in 2019. He immediately hunts for information about Angela. He tracks down and murders Greta Schreiber at the farmhouse.
Then he abducts Catherine Blackwell and takes her to his cabin at Starved Rock, intent on recreating “The Rush” one final time.
Rory traces him there. She arrives too late—Catherine is already dead, hanging from the pulley system.
Rory watches from hiding as Thomas places a noose around his own neck, preparing to experience euphoria while hoisting Catherine’s body.
She steps forward and kicks the stool from beneath him. He hangs.
Rory burns her blood-stained clothing and all evidence placing her at the cabin.
She returns home and visits the spot behind Greta’s farmhouse where Angela Mitchell is buried. For the first time, standing at her mother’s grave, the forensic reconstructionist finds a measure of peace in the truth of her own origin.
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Layers Beneath the Surface
| Theme | How the Book Presents It |
| Neurodivergence as Perception | Both Angela and Rory process the world through patterns, routines, and obsessive focus, which allows them to see details others miss. |
| The Weight of Bloodlines | Rory inherits both her father’s violence in her DNA and her mother’s cognitive wiring; the story examines what gets passed down. |
| Secrecy as Protection | Frank, Marla, and Greta construct an elaborate false history for Rory to shield her from the truth of her birth. |
| Vigilante Justice | The legal system releases Thomas Mitchell; Rory’s actions at the cabin operate entirely outside the law. |
| Reconstruction of the Self | Rory’s professional skill—rebuilding shattered objects and timelines—mirrors her personal need to piece together her own origin. |
Summary by Chapter
SPOILERS BELOW. The novel contains 47 chapters organized into four narrative parts.
The Thief Emerges (Chapters 1–20)
The book introduces Rory Moore in 2019 as she processes her father Frank’s sudden death while taking on a cold case—the murder of Camille Byrd.
In alternating chapters, the 1979 timeline follows Angela Mitchell as she detects disturbing patterns in her husband’s behavior and the disappearances of young women across Chicago. Angela discovers physical evidence linking Thomas to the crimes and makes the choice to act.
The section closes with Thomas’s arrest and the revelation that Frank Moore was his attorney.
The Hidden Investigation (Chapters 21–25)
These chapters focus on the immediate aftermath of the 1979 trial. Frank Moore, then a young attorney at a prestigious firm, begins a private search for Angela Mitchell that lasts decades.
In 2019, Rory sifts through her father’s records and recognizes that his legal representation of Thomas was a cover for a deeper personal mission. The line between Rory’s professional reconstruction skills and her buried family history starts to dissolve.
The Farmhouse Secret (Chapters 26–29)
The narrative moves to Greta Schreiber’s farmhouse and her role in hiding Angela. Rory experiences a psychological crisis as documents surface that contradict everything she believed about her identity.
Greta’s true connection to the Moore family becomes clear.
Thomas Mitchell’s parole grows imminent, and the remaining people connected to 1979 realize the danger has not passed.
The Final Choice (Chapters 30–47)
Thomas is released and begins a violent search for answers about his wife. He kills Greta, then takes Catherine to Starved Rock. Rory reconstructs his movements and follows.
She witnesses the aftermath of his final crime and makes the decision that ends his life. The book concludes with Rory choosing to bury the evidence of her involvement and visiting her mother’s grave.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How does Some Choose Darkness end?
Rory Moore tracks her biological father, Thomas Mitchell, to his cabin at Starved Rock, where she finds he has murdered Catherine Blackwell. While Thomas hangs himself using his pulley system to experience “The Rush,” Rory kicks the stool from beneath him, ensuring his death. She then destroys all evidence of her presence and visits her mother Angela’s grave.
Who is the killer in Some Choose Darkness?
Thomas Mitchell, known as “The Thief,” is the serial killer who abducted and murdered multiple women in Chicago in 1979. He is also revealed to be Rory Moore’s biological father.
Is Rory Moore the daughter of the killer?
Yes. Rory discovers through adoption papers and a birth certificate that she is the biological daughter of Thomas Mitchell and Angela Mitchell. Angela died giving birth to Rory in 1981 at Greta Schreiber’s farmhouse.
What happened to Angela Mitchell?
Angela Mitchell disappeared in 1979 after mailing evidence of her husband’s crimes to the police. She lived in hiding at nurse-midwife Greta Schreiber’s farmhouse and died during childbirth in 1981 due to preeclampsia and hemorrhaging.
Why did Frank Moore defend Thomas Mitchell?
Frank Moore served as Thomas Mitchell’s defense attorney for forty years not out of loyalty to Mitchell, but as a cover to secretly investigate what happened to Angela Mitchell and to protect Rory’s true identity.
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