A Cold Trail by Robert Dugoni

A Cold Trail by Robert Dugoni, this is the 7th novel from Tracy Crosswhite series. It has its own independent story. Though there are few references of characters and incidences from the previous novel in the series, the author has given enough clarification on them to make sense to the reader.

Tracy Crosswhite, a detective from Seattle Polis Department and mother of two moths old Daniella, is back to her home town, Cedar Grove. Tracy has painful memories of this town as, her dear sister Sarah had been disappeared and found murdered at this same place. Tracy is struggling to get comfortable in Cedar Grove, which was once home for her and hoping that someday this could mean something to Daniella. Tracy observed that Cedar grove is changing with new businesses opening and a lot of architectural modifications. And exactly for this reason, Dan, being an attorney, is involved in a legal fight against City council and mayor of Cedar grove on behalf of his client Larry Kaufman, a local businessman. According to Dan and Larry, the Mayor and city council are doing some fraud with local businesses and sacring them to sell the building to the city.

While Tracy is still on maternity leave, she faces an opportunity to investigate the murder of a local journalist, Kimberly Armstrong. This puts her in a dilemma, whether to choose her career, which she is passionate about or give time to her baby. Passion wins. While investigating, Tracy discovers, Kimberly was looking into murder cases of Heather Johansen from 1993. When Tracy starts relating these crimes, new facts and evidence come into picture which puts different people into suspect's category. Meanwhile, Dan is trying to find the proofs of how City council and Mayor, Gary Witherspoon, are involved in scamming local businesses. Further, in the novel, you will witness how Tracy and Dan collectively uncover the mysteries of these crimes with the help of local authorities and friends.

What a terrific couple, Tracy and Dan. I fell in love with them the instant I started with the story. The author has represented through this couple, what marriage is. Nothing fancy but the raw reality and challenges every married couple faces. Tracy, a female lead of story and series, represents a very strong character. But what impressed me is Dan’s character in this novel. The way Dan supports Tracy cares for her and loves her is something the author has very beautifully represented. An uncertainty to choose between carrier and family, which every working woman faces at least once in her life, is portrayed in a way that, it pulls correct string.

The character of Tracy shows us a strong woman and at the same time, she represents the emotional side of human nature. She tells us, its easy to take a convenient path of ignoring your social responsibilities but, how much it is important to take a correct path, even though it’s not much convenient. And Dan, they say “it takes a strong man to handle a strong woman”. This is exactly applicable to Dan. He is smart, charming, makes her smile despite all her worries. And above all this, Dan is an excellent attorney. The courtroom sequence is one of the best parts of this novel.

I am a huge fan of thriller novels, and most of the time it makes me sad when, in the end, I come to know that my guess was right about who would be the killer. I must say, Robert Dugoni has done the exceptionally well job of showing different possibilities to the reader and surprising them at the very end.

I loved this novel. A few lovely quotes by the author adds the charm to the story, “Worrying is a part of loving”, “Contemplating one’s mortality or the mortality of someone we love isn’t conducive to getting a lot of sleep”. One I liked the most is “She’d learned from experience to dot her own i’s and cross her own t’s”. The book is nicely edited and I would recommend it to the audience who like to read thriller novels. I would rate this novel as 4.7 out of 5 stars.