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Summary
Summary
Tracy Crosswhite returns in the second book in the page-turning series by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.
Homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite has returned to the police force after the sensational retrial of her sister's killer. Still scarred from that ordeal, Tracy is pulled into an investigation that threatens to end her career, if not her life.
A serial killer known as the Cowboy is killing young women in cheap motels in North Seattle. Even after a stalker leaves a menacing message for Crosswhite, suggesting the killer or a copycat could be targeting her personally, she is charged with bringing the murderer to justice. With clues scarce and more victims dying, Tracy realizes the key to solving the murders may lie in a decade-old homicide investigation that others, including her captain, Johnny Nolasco, would prefer to keep buried. With the Cowboy on the hunt, can Tracy find the evidence to stop him, or will she become his next victim?
Author Notes
Robert Dugoni graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a degree in journalism and clerked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times before obtaining his doctorate of jurisprudence from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law.
He practiced as a civil litigator in San Francisco and Seattle for 17 years. In 1999 he left the full-time practice of law to return to writing.
He is the author of the popular David Sloane series of books and the Tracy Crosswhite series.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Thriller Award-finalist Dugoni's fast-paced sequel to 2014's My Sister's Grave finds Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite still struggling to come to grips with the murder of her sister and the retrial of her killer. In addition, a serial killer with a penchant for sadistic bondage is killing area strippers at an alarming rate, and a besotted stalker who believes the detective is his soul mate is getting dangerously close. With a boss who's bent on seeing her fail as the head of the task force assigned to find the killer, Crosswhite believes the killings may be connected to a murder almost a decade earlier-except that the man convicted of that killing is still incarcerated. With the help of boyfriend attorney Dan O'Leary, she begins investigating the old case, but people in high places will do anything to stop her. Despite the somewhat predictable ending, the well-developed characters make this an entertaining albeit not exactly memorable read. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
At first blush, this reads like more of the same. A serial killer. A cop with personal problems. Her jerk boss. Plus lizardly lawyers and a troublemaking TV reporter. Hold on: this one takes the stock items and reinvents them with crafty plotting and high energy. Someone is murdering young women after luring them to seedy motels ringing Seattle, and for the first third of the book, we watch detective Tracy Crosswhite patiently doing her job, interviewing witnesses and reading files. She notes something odd: the crime-scene details echo those of a 10-year-old murder. That case was solved, and the killer put away by Tracy's jerk boss, who got a promotion out of it. Did he twist evidence to jail an innocent man? Now the boss is undermining her current investigation. Is there a connection? Is the real killer back in business? The revelations come in a wild finale. Dugoni is not afraid of coincidences, which happen all the time in real life, though genre authors fear them. It's that busted taillight.--Crinklaw, Don Copyright 2015 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Detective Tracy Crosswhite goes after the killer who's hogtying Seattle's exotic dancers and watching them strangle themselves to death. Still raw from the retrial of the leading suspect in her long-dead sister Sarah's murder back in Cedar Grove (My Sister's Grave, 2014), Tracy has rejoined the Violent Crime Squad just in time to catch the case of Angela Schreiber, a dancer at the Pink Palace who was strangled in a hotel room she'd rented by the hour. The scene bears an uncomfortable similarity to the death scene of Nicole Hansen, a performer at Dancing Bare, whose case Tracy's boss, Capt. Johnny Nolasco, had taken from her and palmed off on Cold Cases after only a month. Tracy, who's just received a noose from an anonymous donor, soon realizes that both cases also recall the murder of Beth Stinson, a bookkeeper who was strangled with a noose nine years ago in her North Seattle home. Clearly the Violent Crime Squad is up against a serial killer. None of them wants to use that phrase to the press because of the hysteria it would inciteexcept for Nolasco, who repeatedly leaks inside information to TV reporter Maria Vanpelt, dubs the perp the Cowboy Killer, and does everything he can to whip up public frenzy and undermine Tracy. Dugoni pulls out all the stops. He parades a lineup of suspects that includes a rancher's son, a fly-tying expert, and a man who likes to wear cowboy boots. He has Tracy go off on an unauthorized investigation with her lover, lawyer Dan O'Leary. He shows the Cowboy Killer striking again and again. He puts Tracy squarely in the danger zone so that the only question is whether she'll be drummed off the force before she's strangled herself. The results are professional, even exhaustive, but uninspired, with the unmasking of the nondescript culprit a particular letdown. It all reads like an expansive anthology of genre scenes you've encountered a hundred times before. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Dugoni follows up the 2015 ITW Thriller Award-nominated and Nancy Pearl Award-winning My Sister's Grave with another stellar story featuring homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite. A serial killer dubbed the Cowboy is killing exotic dancers in cheap motels, and Crosswhite's investigation leads her to a possible connection with a closed case from a decade ago. The culprit was caught and imprisoned, but Crosswhite begins to have doubts about the conviction owing to the similarities with the current murders. Her captain, who had solved the earlier case, is looking for any excuse to have her fail. Then she receives a message from the Cowboy, which means that the killer has access to her private life. Can she overcome her personal doubts before another woman ends up a victim? Verdict Dugoni avoids all of the usual serial killer clichés with this compelling thriller that reads like the best of Michael Connelly. The engrossing and authentic details of Crosswhite's probe will make readers feel as if they are involved in every step of the case. Crosswhite is a sympathetic, well-drawn protagonist, and her next adventure can't come fast enough.-Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L. © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
