RELEASE DAY: A Steep Price by Robert Dugoni

 

A STEEP PRICE
Tracy Crosswhite Series: Book 6

Robert Dugoni

26^th June 2018
Published by Thomas & Mercer

No. 1 Wall Street Journal and No. 1 Kindle bestselling crime author Robert Dugoni began his career as a lawyer in the US, before following in the footsteps of his crime writing heroes John Grisham, Scott Turow and David Baldacci to become a bestselling crime novelist. Drawing from his 13 years’ experience as a lawyer, Robert has written fourteen incredible novels, including the David Sloane legal series and the bestselling Tracy Crosswhite crime/homicide thriller series.

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A Steep Price (Thomas & Mercer; 26 June 2018), is the sixth novel in the No. 1 Wall Street Journal and No. 1 Kindle bestselling Tracy Crosswhite series, and follows Seattle Homicide Detective Tracy Crosswhite as she is called in to consult on a young woman’s disappearance. But right away Tracy has an uneasy feeling that this is no ordinary missing-persons case. When the body turns up in an abandoned well, Tracy’s suspicions are confirmed as it is revealed the victim was estranged from her family after breaking off 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’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 may not be the only things at risk.

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I do believe I’ve missed a couple of the last books in the Tracy Crosswhite series by Robert Dugoni. I didn’t recall Tracy being pregnant. So besides that, major surprise, I didn’t feel like you had to read the other books in the series to read this one. However, the first two books in the series, “My Sister’s Grave” and “Her Final Breath” have been my favorite in the series thus far. Mr. Dugoni writes really in-depth police procedural type thrillers. Now, this started out a bit slow but once he finds the gas he floors it!

One of my favorite things about Robert Dugoni’s books is getting that up-close look at the way cops get from point A to point B. The procedures and the things they can use to solve a case. The Steep Price also takes a look at the way cops and officials, in general are being scrutinized these days. There were parts in the story where Detectives Del Castigliano and/or Vic Fazzio would try to joke to release a bit of tension but it seemed unacceptable in the book giving us another glace into the seriousness of life on the streets for cops and all the citizens.

I enjoyed the way this book flipped back and forth between a shooting in broad daylight. Which killed a woman with tons of witnesses but no one saw a thing. The woman was an African American activist, a strong activist that refused to back down. Tracy Crosswhite is dealing with being hormonally pregnant and fighting the good fight with her bladder! She’s also testifying in a court proceeding and is called to help with a missing woman…. an Indian woman that lives the life of her culture mixed with a bit of American life. It’s interesting to say the least.

It was fascinating to learn and experience the different cultures in The Steep Price. Not only did I feel like I learned something but it was obviously well-researched and socially and politically timely. Tracy isn’t as Tracy-ish in this book. I could definitely see the fear of being pregnant in the type of career she has. It’s hard for women these days to have everything they way in life. Goals these days aren’t just raising a family… that is showed vividly in this book. This book really offers a lot. You’ll find yourself sucked into Mr. Dugoni’s world from start to finish.

I received an ARC of this book with the hope that I would leave an Unbiased Opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that... my opinions.

Research for A Steep Price and the Tracy Crosswhite series

Robert’s adopted hometown of Seattle, Washington provides an inspirational setting for the Tracy Crosswhite series and A Steep Price. According to Robert’s connections in the Seattle Police Department, Seattle has a much higher than average number of serial killers (Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgeway, Robert Lee Yates Jr., to name but a few) and Washington state is known by the FBI as ‘America’s killing fields’ as its huge range of remote and wild locations from mountains, oceans, lakes and marshes make it the perfect place to dispose of a body. The weather also lends a melancholy, oppressive and often sinister mood with its famous almost-constant rain and grey overcast skies. The character of Tracy Crosswhite herself was also inspired by Seattle and a friend of Robert’s who is a real life female homicide detective on the Seattle Police Force. Tracy’s fictional hometown is also based on a small, isolated town in the Cascade Mountains near deserted old mining towns that Robert has frequently visited. Having graduated from Stanford in 1984 and UCLA in 1987 Robert practised as a civil litigation lawyer for 13 years in San Francisco, giving him a unique insight into how the legal system works and how lawyers and prosecutors think. For research into his legal and crime thrillers, Robert would sit in criminal trials, including several murder trials and would watch the jury, the defending lawyer and the defendant. Robert believes that a good detective is similar to a good lawyer: no detail is too small, no coincidence not worth investigating and everything has a thread to follow.

The arranged marriage storyline from A Steep Price was inspired by a conversation Robert had with an Indian taxi driver who told Robert about how he was pressured into a very unhappy arranged marriage by his parents. Although originally from India, this man considered himself American and the tension between these two sets of ideals lead to a breakdown of the marriage and a very difficult divorce. Robert also did extensive research into crimes of passion relating to arranged marriages in India, specifically into a case where a mother murdered her son for backing out of an arranged marriage.

Robert also uses his special family connections to help research his novels and to ensure all his portrayals are authentic. Robert’s father-in-law is a retired pathologist, and his brothers are both surgeons: all three provide Robert with insider secrets about murder victims, their injuries and survival rates to make Robert’s fiction as true-to-life as possible. No detail is too minute for Robert Dugoni: his brother in law is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist who Robert has worked closely with to ensure that his portrayal of Tracy’s pregnancy is also as accurate as possible.

About the Author 

Robert Dugoni is the No. 1 Kindle bestselling and No. 1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite series, including My Sister’s Grave, Her Final Breath, In the Clearing, The Trapped Girl, and Close to Home. His books with Amazon Publishing have reached more than 3 million readers through print sales and digital downloads, and have twice been nominated for the International Thriller Award. He is also the author of the Edgar Award–nominated The 7th Canon; the New York Times bestselling David Sloane series, which includes The Jury Master, Wrongful Death, Bodily Harm, Murder One, and The Conviction; the stand-alone novel Damage Control; and the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year selection.

Dugoni is a two-time nominee for the Harper Lee Award for Legal Fiction and the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for fiction. 

Visit his website at www.robertdugoni.com.

Follow him on Twitter @robertdugoni.

Like him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorRobertDugoni 

PRAISE FOR THE TRACY CROSSWHITE SERIES

‘Dugoni is a superb storyteller…’– Boston Globe

‘Another winner from Dugoni. He has a gift for creating compelling characters and mysteries that seem straightforward, but his stories, like an onion, have many hidden layers. Readers who enjoy quality crime fiction should add this compelling tale to their bedside pile.’– Associated Press

‘Crosswhite is a sympathetic, well-drawn protagonist, and her next adventure can’t come fast enough.’– Library Journal

‘Dugoni has become one of the best crime novelists in the business…’– RT Book Reviews

  ‘Robert Dugoni breathes life into the police procedural like never before. Put the Tracy Crosswhite series on your “must read” list!’– Suspense Magazine

‘In bestseller Dugoni’s nail-biting fifth Tracy Crosswhite mystery… [he] embellishes this clever procedural with well-developed characters and an interesting exploration of Navy criminal justice.’— Publishers Weekly