A Steep Price – a #BookReview

Title: A Steep Price (Tracy Crosswhite #6) by Robert Dugoni

Genre: Currently #57 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Crime Fiction, Murder

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

Publication Date: June 26, 2018

Source: Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley

Title and Cover: A Steep Price – Cover hints dark plot

I found Robert Dugoni with number five of the Tracy Crosswhite series, Close to Home, and enjoyed enough that when I saw this offering, jumped on it. Dugoni delivers an intelligent police procedural, explaining certain courses of action that might otherwise give pause. This plot, as well as the last, is multi-layered with parallel investigations dividing the Violent Crimes A-Team, Seattle, Washington.

Tracy is finishing up a trial when she gets a call from a colleague with whom she has previously worked regarding missing person Kavita Mukherjee. While the missing person Detective Katie Pryor referred to her may not appropriately be in her department or jurisdiction, she agrees that the missing student doesn’t fit the normal profile and she calls in her partner, Kinsington Rowe, for some support knowing the window of time with which they are dealing is acutely short. But it is Tracy and Pryor who find Kavita’s body and that investigation escalates with Kins.

The other half of the team, Faz and Del are handling a drive-by shooting death of a young mother the same evening, and they are off to uncover the perp, assumed to be part of a neighborhood gang. At the same time, Faz is dealing with his own personal problems and consumed with thoughts of his recently diagnosed wife.

Added to the turmoil, Tracy has not yet divulged she is pregnant, thinking she has time during the trial to chill, but Nolasco has called in an LA transplant. The female detective gets off on the wrong foot immediately by pegging Tracy as pregnant and accessing her desk and personal computer when she is not there. Because Del wrenches his back and is out, the new gal, Detective Gonzales, accompanies Faz on an unofficial interview that turns deadly. But Gonzales appears to implicate Faz in the shooting rather than take responsibility.

Okay, now the pot is cooking and switches between Tracy’s investigation into the beautiful but murdered East Indian graduate and Faz’s efforts to trace the shooter in his drive-by.

Dugoni wastes no time sucking the reader into the storyline and although there is some fleshing, most has been done in previous series entries. Still, there is no problem getting a sense of each character and what they are about. I had to chuckle when Tracy exhibits those pregnancy hormones with defiance, temper, and emotion. There is banter between twenty-year partners Faz and Del that is natural and believable, Del trying to help ease his partner’s home situation. There is not a continuous thread between series, so each could function as a standalone, although reading previous series entries may further develop characters for you.

The author tackles various issues including arranged marriages, dating profiles, gangs, drug cartels, and work/pregnancy issues. The plot moves with sufficient speed that you have no problem burning through it in short order, although the issue with the East Indian student is obvious from the beginning. Both plot lines hold interest and strongly engage with characters you’ve invested in very quickly. This is a well developed and laid out plot, easy to follow, and quick to read. Satisfying conclusion (especially with Faz), although I’d seriously question the author’s notion of induced labor and (breast?) feeding.

I was granted this uncorrected proof copy by the author, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley and appreciated the opportunity to read and review this exciting new entry to this series. Recommended for any who enjoy mystery, suspense-thrillers, and police procedurals.

Rosepoint Publishing:  Four of Five Stars 

The Author: Robert Dugoni is the New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and #1 Amazon Internationally Bestselling Author of the Tracy Crosswhite Series : My Sister’s Grave (2014), Her Final Breath (2015), In the Clearing (2015), The Trapped Girl (2016) and Close to Home (2017).

Dugoni is also the author of the critically acclaimed, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, which has drawn comparison’s to novelist John Irving’s work. Connect with him on Facebook @AuthorRobertDugoni, on Twitter @robertdugoni, and on Instagram, robertdugoni, author

Other novels include the David Sloane series: The Jury Master, Wrongful Death, Bodily Harm, Murder One and The Conviction.

Dugoni is the winner of the 2015 Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction, has twice been nominated for the Harper Lee Award for Legal Fiction, was a 2015 and 2017 International Thriller Writer’s finalist for thriller of the year, and a 2017 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Finalist for The Seventh Canon. His books are sold world-wide in more than 30 countries and have been translated into dozens of languages including French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Dugoni’s first in the Tracy Crosswhite series, My Sister’s Grave (Nov. 2014), became a months-long #1 Amazon Bestseller in the United States, France, Italy, Germany and in the UK, as well as a New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best Seller and won the 2014 Nancy Pearl Award for fiction. Library Journal gave it a Starred Review and said it “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.”

The sequel, Her Final Breath, also became an Amazon top 10 bestseller, as did In the Clearing. The Trapped Girl was a #1 Amazon and #1 Wall Street Journal best-seller that Kirkus and Booklist are calling his best book to date. Close to Home debuted at #2 on the Wall Street Journal Best Seller list.

©2018 V Williams