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Robert Dugoni

Biography

Robert Dugoni

Robert Dugoni is a critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author, reaching over nine million readers worldwide. He is best known for his Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle. He is also the author of the Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels, including THE 7th CANON, DAMAGE CONTROL, THE WORLD PLAYED CHESS, HER DEADLY GAME and A KILLING ON THE HILL. His novel THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF SAM HELL received Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. Washington Post named his nonfiction exposé THE CYANIDE CANARY a Best Book of the Year.

Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and a three-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He has also been a finalist for many other awards, including the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.

Dugoni’s books are sold in more than 25 countries and have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Books by Robert Dugoni

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Seattle, 1933. The city is in the grips of the Great Depression, Prohibition and vice. Cutting his teeth on a small-time beat, hungry and ambitious young reporter William “Shoe” Shumacher gets a tip that could change his career. There’s been a murder at a social club on Profanity Hill --- an underworld magnet for vice crimes only a privileged few can afford. The story is going to be front-page news, and Shoe is the first reporter on the scene. The victim, Frankie Ray, is a former prizefighter. His accused killer? Club owner and mobster George Miller, who claims he pulled the trigger in self-defense. Soon the whole town is talking, and Shoe’s first homicide is fast becoming the Trial of the Century. The more Shoe digs, the more he’s convinced that nothing is as it seems.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Tracy Crosswhite is reopening the investigation into Seattle’s Route 99 serial killer. After 13 victims, he stopped hunting and the trail went cold, stirring public outrage. Now, nearly three decades after his first kill, Tracy is expected to finally bring closure to the victims’ families and redeem the Seattle PD’s reputation. Even if it means working with her nemesis, Captain Johnny Nolasco. Lead detective of the original task force, Nolasco dares Tracy to do what he failed to: close the case. Forming an uneasy alliance, Tracy and Nolasco revisit old leads and pursue new evidence only to unearth high-level corruption and cover-ups as dangerous as the elusive killer himself. At the risk of being exposed, such deadly and powerful forces will go to extremes to stay in the shadows.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career. Keera’s chance to play in the big leagues comes when she’s retained by Vince LaRussa, an investment adviser accused of murdering his wealthy wife. The prosecutor happens to be Miller Ambrose, Keera’s former lover, who’s eager to destroy her in court on her first homicide defense. As Keera and her team follow the evidence, they uncover a complicated and deadly game that’s more than Keera bargained for.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Detective Tracy Crosswhite has agreed to look into the disappearance of investigative reporter Lisa Childress. Solving the cold case is an obsession for Lisa’s daughter, Anita. So is clearing the name of her father, a prime suspect who became a pariah. After 25 years, all Anita wants is the truth --- no matter where it leads. For Tracy, that means reopening the potentially explosive investigations Lisa was following on the dark night she vanished. As all the pieces come together, it becomes clear that Tracy is in the midst of a case that will push her loyalties and her resilience to the limit. What she uncovers will come with a greater price than anyone feared.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

After a harrowing escape from Russian agents on his last mission, Charles Jenkins thinks he’s finally done with the spy game. But then the final two of the seven sisters --- American assets who have been deep undercover in Russia for decades --- cut off all communication with their handlers. Are they in hiding after detecting surveillance? Or have they turned and become double agents? It’s Jenkins’ duty to find out, but he’s been added to a Russian kill list. It will require all of Jenkins’ knowledge of spycraft --- and an array of disguises --- to return to the country undetected. But when plans go awry his first night in Moscow, mafia henchmen, Russian agents and a particularly dogged Moscow police detective pursue him.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction

In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now 40 years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer --- Vincent’s last taste of innocence and first taste of real life --- dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life and seeking one’s own destiny.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Detective Tracy Crosswhite has been reassigned to the Seattle PD’s cold case unit and is immediately drawn to her first file: the abduction of a five-year-old girl whose parents, embattled in a poisonous divorce, were once prime suspects. While reconstructing the days leading up to the girl’s disappearance, Tracy is brought into an active investigation with former partner Kinsington Rowe. A young woman has vanished on an isolated jogging trail in North Seattle. To find two missing persons, Tracy will have to follow more than clues, which are both long cold and unsettlingly fresh. Given her own traumatic past, Tracy also must follow her instincts --- to whatever dark and dangerous places they may lead.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Former spy Charles Jenkins, who survived an undercover Russian operation gone wrong, learns of a woman isolated in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison. If it’s Paulina Ponomayova, the agent who sacrificed her life to save his, Jenkins can’t leave her behind. But there’s no guarantee it’s her. Or proof Paulina is still alive. To find out, Jenkins must return to Russia. Next move: blackmail Viktor Federov, a former Russian officer with his own ax to grind, into helping him infiltrate Lefortovo. The enemy who once pursued Jenkins across three continents is now the only man Jenkins can trust. Every step of the way, they’re hunted by a brutal Russian agent on a killer quest of his own.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

The last time homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite was in Cedar Grove, it was to see her sister’s killer put behind bars. Now she’s returned for a respite and the chance to put her life back in order for herself, her attorney husband, Dan, and their new daughter. But tragic memories soon prove impossible to escape. Dan is drawn into representing a local merchant whose business is jeopardized by the town’s revitalization. And Tracy is urged by the local PD to put her own skills to work on a new case: the brutal murder of a police officer’s wife and local reporter who was investigating a cold-case slaying of a young woman. As Tracy’s and Dan’s cases crisscross, Tracy’s trail becomes dangerous.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Former CIA case officer Charles Jenkins is a man at a crossroads: in his early 60s, he has a family, a new baby on the way, and a security consulting business on the brink of bankruptcy. Then his former bureau chief shows up at his house with a risky new assignment: travel undercover to Moscow and locate a Russian agent believed to be killing members of a clandestine US spy cell known as the seven sisters. Desperate for money, Jenkins agrees to the mission and heads to the Russian capital. But when he finds the mastermind agent behind the assassinations --- the so-called eighth sister --- she is not who or what he was led to believe. Then again, neither is anyone else in this deadly game of cat and mouse.

written by Robert Dugoni, read by Emily Sutton-Smith - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

The body of a young woman turns up in an abandoned well. Estranged from her family, the victim had balked at an arranged marriage and had planned to attend graduate school. But someone cut her dreams short. Solving the mystery behind the murder isn’t Tracy Crosswhite’s only challenge. The detective is keeping a secret of her own: she’s pregnant. And now her biggest fear seems to be coming true when a new detective arrives to replace her. Meanwhile, Tracy’s colleague, Vic Fazzio, is about to take a fall after his investigation into the murder of a local community activist turns violent and leaves an invaluable witness dead. Two careers are on the line. And when more deadly secrets emerge, jobs might not be the only things at risk.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

The body of a young woman turns up in an abandoned well. Estranged from her family, the victim had balked at an arranged marriage and had planned to attend graduate school. But someone cut her dreams short. Solving the mystery behind the murder isn’t Tracy Crosswhite’s only challenge. The detective is keeping a secret of her own: she’s pregnant. And now her biggest fear seems to be coming true when a new detective arrives to replace her. Meanwhile, Tracy’s colleague, Vic Fazzio, is about to take a fall after his investigation into the murder of a local community activist turns violent and leaves an invaluable witness dead. Two careers are on the line. And when more deadly secrets emerge, jobs might not be the only things at risk.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction

Sam Hill was born with red pupils, and was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates. He believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls. Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design --- especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

While investigating the hit-and-run death of a young boy, Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite makes a startling discovery: the suspect is an active-duty serviceman at a local naval base. After a key piece of case evidence goes missing, he is cleared of charges in a military court. But Tracy knows she can’t turn her back on this kind of injustice. When she uncovers the driver’s ties to a rash of recent heroin overdoses in the city, she realizes that this isn’t just a case of the military protecting its own. It runs much deeper than that, and the accused wasn’t acting alone. As Tracy moves closer to uncovering the truth behind this insidious conspiracy, she’s putting herself in harm’s way.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

When a woman’s body is discovered submerged in a crab pot in the chilly waters of Puget Sound, Detective Tracy Crosswhite finds herself with a tough case to untangle. Before they can identify the killer, Tracy and her colleagues on the Seattle PD’s Violent Crimes Section must figure out who the victim is. Her autopsy, however, reveals she may have gone to great lengths to conceal her identity. After evidence surfaces that their Jane Doe may be a woman who suspiciously disappeared months earlier, Tracy is once again haunted by the memory of her sister’s unsolved murder. As she begins to uncover a twisted tale of brutal betrayal and desperate greed, Tracy will find herself risking everything to confront a killer who won’t go down without a deadly fight.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

In San Francisco’s seamy Tenderloin district, a teenage street hustler has been murdered in a shelter for boys. And the dedicated priest who runs the struggling home stands accused. But despite damning evidence that he’s a killer, Father Thomas Martin stands by his innocence. And attorney Peter Donley stands with him. But a ruthless DA seeking headlines and a brutal homicide cop bent on vengeance have their own agendas. Now, as he unearths the dirty secrets surrounding the case, Donley must risk his neck to save his client’s life --- and expose the face of true evil.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Detective Tracy Crosswhite has a skill, and a soft spot, for tackling unsolved crimes. Having lost her own sister to murder at a young age, she has dedicated her career to bringing justice and closure to the families and friends of victims of crime. So when Jenny, a former police academy classmate and protégé, asks Tracy to help solve a cold case that involves the suspicious suicide of a Native American high school girl 40 years earlier, she agrees. Following up on evidence Jenny’s detective father collected when he was the investigating deputy, Tracy probes one small town’s memory and finds dark, well-concealed secrets hidden within the community’s fabric.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

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 Tracy Crosswhite, suggesting the killer or a copycat could be targeting her personally, the homicide detective is charged with bringing the murderer to justice. With clues scarce and more victims dying, Tracy realizes that 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.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Tracy Crosswhite has spent 20 years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah’s disappearance and the murder trial that followed. When Sarah’s remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she’s been seeking. As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long-kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past --- and open the door to deadly danger.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Lawyer David Sloane’s teenage son, Jake, and his friend find themselves in a wilderness detention camp after being convicted of vandalizing a general store. As Sloane fights the conviction against the boys, he discovers that the local judge’s authority seems to extend far beyond the confines of his courtroom. Meanwhile, Jake is learning the hard way that this detention center has a very different purpose than rehabilitating troubled youths.

by Robert Dugoni - Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Thriller

Barclay Reid is struggling to cope with the death of her teenage daughter from a drug overdose. When she’s accused of murdering a drug trafficker she blamed for the overdose, attorney David Sloane is not only her potential romantic interest, but her chosen defender, in his first criminal case.