★ 11/14/2016
In Dugoni’s outstanding fourth Tracy Crosswhite mystery (after 2016’s In the Clearing), the Seattle homicide detective investigates the death of Andrea Strickland, a young woman whose body a fisherman finds in a crab pot raised from the sea. Andrea, who was reported missing after a treacherous mountain hike, was already presumed to be dead. The victim’s husband is the prime suspect and the beneficiary of a sizable life insurance policy. As the plot twists and turns, Tracy is struck by the similarities between her own life and Andrea’s: both suffered family tragedies and rigidly structured their lives to compensate for the loss. For Tracy, solving the case is personal—but on a different level than the murder of her sister years before. In less deft hands this tale wouldn’t hold water, but Dugoni presents his victim’s life in discrete pieces, each revealing a bit more about Andrea and her struggle to find happiness. Tracy’s quest to uncover the truth leads her into life-altering peril in this exceptional installment. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Jan.)
"In Dugoni’s outstanding fourth Tracy Crosswhite mystery, the Seattle homicide detective investigates the death of Andrea Strickland, a young woman whose body a fisherman finds in a crab pot raised from the sea...In less deft hands this tale wouldn’t hold water, but Dugoni presents his victim’s life in discrete pieces, each revealing a bit more about Andrea and her struggle to find happiness. Tracy’s quest to uncover the truth leads her into life-altering peril in this exceptional installment." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Dugoni drills so deep into the troubled relationships among his characters that each new revelation shows them in a disturbing new light…an unholy tangle of crimes makes this his best book to date.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Dugoni has a gift for creating compelling characters and mysteries that seem straightforward, but his stories, like an onion, have many hidden layers. He also is able to capture the spirit and atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest, making the environment come alive.…another winner from Dugoni.” —Associated Press
“All of Robert Dugoni's talents are once again firmly on display in The Trapped Girl, a blisteringly effective crime thriller…structured along classical lines drawn years ago by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. A fiendishly clever tale that colors its pages with crisp shades of postmodern noir.” —Providence Journal
“Robert Dugoni, yet again, delivers an excellent read.…With many twists, turns, and jumps in the road traveled by the detective and her cohorts, this absolutely superb plot becomes more than just a little entertaining. The problem remains the same: Readers must now once again wait impatiently for the next book by Robert Dugoni to arrive.” —Suspense Magazine
“The Trapped Girl is a blistering mystery, and some of Robert Dugoni’s best work to date.” —The Real Book Spy
“Dugoni weaves an intricate and absorbing story that’s as hot as the unseasonable Seattle weather his detective battles through.” —Authorlink
Praise for The Tracy Crosswhite Series:
“Combines the best of a police procedural with a legal thriller, and the end result is outstanding…Dugoni continues to deliver emotional and gut-wrenching, character-driven suspense stories that will resonate with any fan of the thriller genre.” —Library Journal, Starred Review
“Dugoni does a masterful job... If you are not already reading his books, you should be!” —BookReporter
“Dugoni does a superior job of positioning [the plot elements] for maximum impact...” —Publishers Weekly
“Well written, and its classic premise is sure to absorb legal-thriller fans…The characters are richly detailed and true to life, and the ending is sure to please fans.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A stunningly suspenseful exercise in terror that hits every note at the perfect pitch.” —Providence Journal
“Dugoni has become one of the best crime novelists in the business, and his latest featuring Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite will only draw more accolades.” —Romantic Times, Top Pick
2016-11-07
Seattle Police Detective Tracy Crosswhite's fourth case takes her out of her hometown, out of her jurisdiction, and out of her comfort zone.Kurt Schill is nothing but a high school student who does a little illegal crabbing. Imagine his shock when he pulls a crab pot from Puget Sound with a dead woman stuffed inside. The corpse, identified as Lynn Cora Hoff, seems to have no history and no back story; she'd even retrieved the obligatory before-and-after photographs Dr. Yee Wu took at the time of her recent extensive plastic surgery. A series of flashbacks from a spectrally ambiguous point of view opens a window onto a darker side of the story, suggesting that the victim was actually the wife of Portland attorney Graham Strickland. And soon enough, Tracy's investigation comes to focus on Strickland, whose bride, Andrea, mysteriously vanished during the couple's climb of Mount Rainier six weeks ago. Lynn's one close friend, Devin Chambers, is unavailable to shed any light on Lynn's death, and Andrea's aunt, Patricia Orr, though she's available, is no more helpful. Even worse, Tracy faces stiff competition from Detective Stan Fields, of the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, over control of the case since Andrea Strickland went missing from his jurisdiction, and Lynn Hoff might have been killed anywhere before being stuffed into that crab pot. Tracy's vexed relationship with her boss, Capt. Johnny Nolasco, guarantees that this struggle will continue until the case is finally laid to rest. Dugoni (In the Clearing, 2016, etc.) drills so deep into the troubled relationships among his characters that each new revelation shows them in a disturbing new light. The dizzying descent from a solid, unspectacular procedural to an unholy tangle of crimes makes this his best book to date.