Robert Dugoni's Tracy Crosswhite series remains among his best work. In this novel, Detective Crosswhite explores a topic close to her heart and prior experiences, the disappearances of a young girl and a young woman.

While her chauvinistic supervisor in the detective bureau is clearly unsettled by both her skills and work ethic and as a result looks to isolate and punish her by assigning her to cold case investigations, he has no idea that he has in fact placed her in a position where her attributes and commitment are a perfect fit.

Detective Crosswhite is ultimately able to track down a family with a heritage of sexual abuse and murder who have preyed on women for many years and who, if not stopped, will continue that conduct for many more years.

This Dugoni series features the dedication of a law enforcement officer whose own experiences, namely the loss of her sister, makes her the worst nightmare for those who believe that they are and will be able to commit crimes without being caught and punished. This story has many surprises, twists and turns and is truly another of Dugoni's can't put it down until you know what happens books.

Early in 2020, I reviewed A Cold Trail, #7 in Robert Dugoni’s Tracy Crosswhite series. As I noted them, I first “met” Seattle Homicide Detective Tracy Crosswhite in My Sister’s Grave and I loved her, so I then eagerly read Her Final Breath. Following along in short order (he definitely can crank out books at a fast clip) were In the Clearing, The Trapped Girl, Close to Home and A Steep Price (all of which I reviewed on littorallibrarian.org). I enjoyed them all, particularly the way Dugoni makes his characters REAL, somehow writing a female perspective incredibly well. So I was pleased to receive a copy of #8 in the Tracy Crosswhite series, In Her Tracks, from Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

One thing to know about the books in this series: any one of them can be read as a standalone, and not knowing all the back story doesn’t detract from the excellent plotting and character development. However, as noted above, the characters (particularly Tracy) are so REAL and their lives and situations evolve, so reading them in order is perhaps more satisfying. Tracy has become a wife and mother as the series moves along — but she is still a Seattle Homicide Detective. Or is she? As this latest book opens, Tracy is just returning from an extended leave in her old hometown of Cedar Grove, and she finds her old spot in the squad is being occupied by someone else, and she is being reassigned to the cold case squad. Her first case is that of a five-year-old girl, the daughter of a fellow police officer, who was apparently abducted five years earlier.

At the same time that she is investigating the days leading up to the girl’s disappearance, Tracy is also brought into an active investigation of the disappearance of a young woman who vanished while on an isolated jogging trail. As she and her former partner, Kinsington Rowe, pursue this case, Tracy finds herself working two cases of mysterious disappearances, both of which include secrets and lies — in one case, in a broken marriage, and the other in what appears to be a quiet middle-class neighborhood.

This book is classic Dugoni (and Tracy). It’s a great read, with strong characters and interesting plotlines. Tracy is a strong woman who isn’t hesitant to speak up, while at the same time becoming more comfortably settled with her life choices. Recommended for both fans of this series as well as newcomers. A great way to pass the day while sheltering in place. Four stars.

Very close to perfection for a police procedural, with excellent plot, pace and characters. The storytelling is first rate, and the book is very easy and entertaining to read.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this.
I was thrilled that the author wrote the book while hunkered down during covid and chose to avoid the topic completely. Thank you @Robert Dugoni for that break.
It was a good story, a quick easy read. I can't say I was rivetted, likely because I felt a lot of the story was revealed early on (and the balance could be guessed) but I would still recommend. Especially with the upcoming holidays where easy reads are the theme of this holiday season.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book. Pretty typical Tracy Crosswhite. Moves right along. I like the characters a lot. Getting tired of plots involving women being abducted and tortured but that seems to be what we have these days.

In the 8th installment of the Tracy Crosswhite series, she is no longer working with her old team. Coming back from maternity leave, she is now reassigned to the cold case unit. That doesn't stop her from connecting with fellow detective Kensington Rowe when a young woman goes missing. This also happens to coincide with the cold case she decides to investigate, the abduction of a 5 year old girl.

I really enjoyed having Tracy back and working alongside Kins. I preferred the investigation of the young women rather than the cold case. You know who's "done it", but the satisfaction comes from watching Tracy and Kins working the case out. You also see Tracy coming to terms with the balance of work and new motherhood. I'll continue reading this series if Dugoni keeps writing them!

I just adore this series and whenever I get my hands on the newest book, I drop everything and dive into it. Book 8 was no exception! I loved being reunited with these beloved characters and watching their story play out. As always, the mystery was perplexing and I enjoyed following along with Tracey as she unraveled the pieces. The writing is always excellent and I look forward to the next in this series featuring one of my favorite female detectives! My thanks to the publisher for the advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

In Her Tracks is the most recent novel following Seattle police detective Tracy Crosswhite. We pick up just after the events of the previous novel with Tracy finishing her up her leave and going back to work in the homicide unit of the Seattle PD. The supervisor that she has a contentious relationship with has other plans though and decides to shunt her over to the cold case unit (consisting of one retiring officer). As Tracy works through a few cold cases she's brought on to a current homicide with her old partner Kins and they find that these cases have a considerable amount in common. While a reader (like me) thinks that the killer or killers is obvious there is a bit of a twist that was surprising. I have loved all the Crosswhite books and am enjoying the way that the author is seemingly transitioning Tracy's priorities with the department and her new husband and daughter.

I’ve been a little disappointed in the last few books in the series. I liked them, they helped to pass time, but I didn’t really love them like the early books in the series. But ‘In Her Tracks’ is the Tracey Crosswhite books I remembered from the beginning of the series. I devoured this book in a couple of days.
Tracey is back from maturity leave and encounters office politics on her first day back at Seattle PD. Her boss (and nemeses) is on an ego trip and reassigns Tracey to the cold case unit. There she is overwhelmed by the number of cases she faces being the only detective in the unit. Tracey settles on two different cases to start with: the abduction of a 5 year old girl who’s parents are going through a messy divorce and two vulnerable women missing from the same street in town.
But at the same time, Tracey gets pulled into a current active investigation by her partner Kinsington Rowe, where a young women out jogging goes missing. As Tracey helps investigate the joggers disappearance she begins to suspect it may be related to her own cold case of two missing women.
Torn between cold cases and current cases Tracey needs to rely on her 20 years of police experience and her own personal experiences of cold cases to try and solve all these investigations.
This was a great suspense/mystery/police procedural book that had a few twists and turns. Great addition to the Trace Crosswhite series.

Tracy Crosswhite is back in the eight installment of the Tracy Crosswhite series, In Her Tracks by bestselling author Robert Dugoni. Tracy is just back to work from having taken maternity leave and is disappointed to find that her boss, who doesn’t like her and holds a grudge from the academy when Tracy beat him with her skills, has demoted her to Seattle PD cold cases. Tracy makes the best of it and works on the case of a 5 year old who was abducted from a Halloween corn maze several years ago. However, while working on that cold case, she also helps one of her former colleagues in her previous department investigate the disappearance of a young girl who was a die-hard runner and was most likely running in a place that wasn’t familiar.

Tracy is a likeable character, and Dugoni adds to her validity as a main character with each installment in the series. Tracy seems like a real person, and has flaws and challenges that most readers can relate to. Her character gets more well-developed with each novel. Dugoni is also a very skilled storyteller and makes the story flow so that it’s difficult to put the novel down. There are twists and turns, and while readers can surmise what happened to the missing girl, Tracy and her fellow detectives have not, and it’s interesting how Dugoni inserts the clues so that the case can be solved.

Once again, Dugoni has written a winner; fans of Tracy Crosswhite will want to rush to pick up this excellent installment. Because of all of the previous happenings in Tracy’s life, it is suggested that readers pick up the previous books, which will introduce Tracy, et al and give information about what has happened up to the start of this novel.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Once a detective always a detective. While on maternity leave Kate gets involved in the case of a missing jogger. No one could foresee the evil that is uncovered and the women that are saved.

Seattle Violent Crimes detective Tracy Crosswhite returns from an extended maternity leave to find that she's been taken out of the A Team bullpen and banished to the backwater of cold cases by a chief who, makes no secret of his dislike for her despite, or maybe because of, her previous successes in solving high profile homicides, She's working the still unsolved disappearance of a young girl from a corn maze in the country when she's drawn into an active investigation into the disappearance of a young woman in an area where several other women have also gone missing, not that far from a quiet middle class neighborhood where Tracy begins retracing the missing woman's steps.
Dugoni is a skillful story teller but his series heroine doesn't seem to get more complex or interesting from one book to the next : at least, not enough to make this reader clamor for more.. It may be time to leave Tracy to her own devices and introduce a new protagonist.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advance copy of In Her Tracks, the eighth novel to feature Detective Tracy Crosswhite of the Seattle PD Violent Crimes Unit.

On her return from extended leave Tracy is transferred to the Cold Case Unit where the case of five year old Elle Chin who disappeared five years ago catches her attention. Before she can get really started on that investigation her former partner Detective Kinsington Rowe asks for her help on a current case, the disappearance of nineteen year old Stephanie Cole, which reminds her of a couple of cold cases she is also interested in.

I thoroughly enjoyed In Her Tracks which is a straightforward(ish) police procedural with a couple of big twists in the resolution, one more surprising than the other, which is fairly well signposted, but still a surprise in how it is resolved. The novel is mostly told from Tracy’s point of view but there are plenty of scenes from the events surrounding Stephanie’s disappearance. These are particularly well done as they lead the reader down one path while covering up a completely different story. It’s clever and effective. The Elle Chin disappearance gets less airplay, despite the more attention grabbing set up, and is more mundane in its solution.

I really like this series with its very likeable and relatable characters and clever, exciting plot lines. This is, perhaps, not as action packed and dangerous as some but still has its moments. I enjoyed the way it starts with one big and one more pedestrian disappearance and that the more regular one, Stephanie’s, morphs into something much bigger while the initial attention grabbing one, Elle’s, fizzles into the pedestrian. It’s a lesson in not judging by appearance, or, in my case, not being taken in by the author’s presentation. Do I mind being gullible? Not at all, as the novel held my attention from start to finish.

Throughout the novel Tracy is on her own journey. Her therapist is worried that working cold cases will upset her as they are mostly crimes against women and bring back memories of her 20 year quest to solve her sister’s disappearance. I’m not sure I buy that argument or how effective it is in the novel, a bit too publicly touchy-feely for me, but the old Tracy is in there somewhere. Her revenge for the transfer from her old job to cold cases is epic.

In Her Tracks is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

This is another series I like very much and was so pleased to be given an ARC of the upcoming newest entry by NetGalley.

Tracy is returning to work after her last, explosive entry, and hopes she will take up where she left off with her squad. But of course her jackass of a boss has other ideas and puts her in charge of Cold Cases after the retirement of its officer. Little does he know that he has set in motion a chain of events that will test the limits of Tracy Crosswhite’s mental endurance and lead to a thriller of an ending and maybe a new road to take for Tracy.

By the way, did I mention the little surprise that pops up near the end? Well, put this one on your Spring to-read list for 2021. Well worth the wait.

Seattle detective Crosswhite has had a bit of a transition recently following maternity leave, expecting to return to her position as part of the Violent Crimes Unit and finding herself instead in Cold Cases. The retiring detective of Cold Cases left a couple of awesome, caring shoes to fill as well as credible stats. Violent Crimes partner Kins, however, taps her for just a bit of help in his active kidnapping case and as Crosswhite begins her journey into Cold Cases finds a thread that might provide a crossover.

Big hook at the beginning gets the ball rolling into her cold case while Kins’ investigation adds dimension to the storyline. Crosswhite still struggles with some of her history and the kidnapping cases heap on the anxiety and apprehension.

The author does an amazing job of gradually upping the tension (the pacing is perfect), slipping into the house as a fly on the wall of three brothers living in their parents old home, persons of interest in the missing person’s case. Dugoni has a way of fleshing the most sinister despots, highlighting all the warts, their character development coursing seamlessly between Crosswhite’s team, her investigations, and the scheming predators.

The well-plotted storyline just flows, grabs and holds attention as it builds toward a pulsing, overwhelming sense of urgency—so close…HURRY!! And the conclusion so satisfying. Should I mention the little red herrings and one devil of a shocker near the end I NEVER saw coming in Kins’ case (while I’d correctly guessed the resolution to Crosswhite’s Cold Case).

I’ve read a number of Dugoni’s books. This one, however, may be my favorite, until another comes out, that is. Highly recommend this thriller and the series, though this could work as a standalone if this one is your introduction to the series. (Trust me, you’ll catch up quickly.)

Another Dugoni book and another 5 star review!

I love Dugoni as an author and the Tracy Crosswhite series is one that goes from strength to strength.

Tracy returns to work after a long break with a mixture of maternity leave and compassionate leave.
Her position in the A team has been filled by another woman and her spiteful boss offers her an opening in cold cases, as the one detective on that department is retiring.

She reluctantly agrees and immediately starts investigating the cases of a missing child and seperately 2 prostitutes also missing.

When one of the A team, Kins, receives a new case on his lap, a female jogger gone missing from a park, with all of the rest of his team tied up on other cases, he asks Tracy to give him a dig out.
Its not long before Tracy sees similarities between the missing jogger and her legacy case of the two prostitutes. If she solves one it should solve the other too. She also has her missing child case to follow up on too.

I flew through this one. The book feels short, which is a great thing. I didnt realize I was so far into the book I was so engrossed.
We know the perpetrator for the missing women from near the start so its a matter of if Tracy can figure it out.

Theres a perfect balance of police work and Tracys personal life in this one and the personal stuff is important to this story arc and the story arc of the series overall.

Its another brilliant read from Robert Dugoni. Will work as a stand alone but there are back reference throughout.

Hugely entertaining. An easy 5 stars from me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have heard great reviews of Robert Dugoni books and "The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell" is on my TBR, but I have never read anything by him. So when I came across this ARC on Netgalley - a book by this bestselling author - I couldn't resist requesting it (even though I was swamped with ARCs). I was so glad when my request was granted!

So, now I get what the hype is all about. The book is about missing children and how Detective Tracy Crosswhite tackles the case. It was a hair-raising, edge-of-the-seat thriller through and through. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

I am herewith adding all Robert Dugoni books to my TBR because that's how much I loved this book.

Thanks to Netgalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Robert Dugoni for the ARC.

The only other book I read by Robert Dugoni was “The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell” which I loved. I received the ARC to read this book from the publisher and NetGalley and I thank them very much because I loved this one too! Unfortunately for me this is book eight in the Tracy Crosswhite detective series, however, it was not difficult to understand what was going on. In fact, I was all in from the very start.

Veteran Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite returns from a lengthy maternity leave to find her position has been given to another female detective. She is forced to take the position of the retiring cold case detective which she is not convinced she wants. She quickly becomes ensconced in two cold cases and one current case with her former partner. Although the story bounces back and forth between her investigations into the three cases it flows beautifully. I was just floating along for the very enjoyable ride while Detective Crosswhite put two and two together and wrapped up everything in a nice neat bow. She did this while juggling a husband, new baby and jealous back-stabbing supervisor. The shocking ending had a twist I totally did not see coming.

I’m so excited to find a new mystery/thriller series to read and will most definitely be starting to read this series with book one. Dugoni is a master at his craft. I gave this 4.25 stars rounded down to four. #NetGalley #InHerTracks

In Her Tracks caught my attention very, very quickly! First of all, author Robert Dugoni, is a favorite of mine and as soon as I see is name, I know that I'm in for the ride of my life! And most importantly, we can't leave out the main character, Tracy Crosswhite is a detective with the Seattle P.D. and finds that, upon returning to duty after being on a leave of absence, her position with Violent Crimes has been assigned to someone else by her captain and nemesis, Johnny Nolasco. This man irked me to no end!

Tracy finds herself assigned to the Cold Case unit and her first case involves a child who's been missing for a year. She's immediately drawn to this case and finds herself in a maelstrom of emotions. Are the parents lying about the disappearance? Then, just as fast, she finds herself involved in ongoing missing person's case, a case that's both confusing and challenging to her. Tracy is a never give up kind of gal!

And that's all I can say. Don't want to spoil your reading fun! Thank you #NetGalley for providing me with AC!

4.25 STARS

In this 8th addition to his Tracy Crosswhite series, Robert Dugoni delivers yet another enthralling, suspenseful installment to one of my all-time favorite series! Back from maternity leave, Tracy finds herself delving into cold cases while simultaneously working a missing person’s case with her former partner, Kins. Deep in the trenches of investigating these cases, life-work balance comes into play, as Tracy adjusts to her new role as a working mom.

Boasting an intriguing storyline with complex, well-developed characters, “In Her Tracks” is a character-driven mystery that serves up a surprise or two along the way. Whether you are a long-time fan of this series as I am, or you are discovering it for the very first time, this story doesn’t disappoint!