An Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling series.

A girl’s unsolved disappearance. A tragic shooting. Two crimes, forty-five years apart, with a blood-chilling connection in a gripping new Tracy Crosswhite novel by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Detective Tracy Crosswhite is assigned to defend an old friend. Sheriff Jenny Almond has been charged with first-degree murder for shooting an unarmed veteran on a stormy night of confusion, paranoia, and split-second choices. Tracy is certain there’s more to the story of Anthony Alvarez’s killing—and her investigation draws her back to a cold case that still haunts the community.

More than forty years ago, Alvarez was the prime suspect in the unsolved disappearance of a teenage babysitter. The lead investigator, Jenny’s late father Buzz Almond, always believed Alvarez had been framed. Decades later, his suspicions of a conspiracy are driving Tracy to find answers. Digging deeper into both the past and the present, she discovers a complex web of sinister motives and long-buried secrets, unearthing them one by one.

As a decades-old mystery casts its dark shadow on a small town, only the truth will finally set the innocent free.

Published
September 15, 2026
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Tracy Crosswhite

The series

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The rain-slicked streets of Seattle don’t give up their secrets easily—but detective Tracy Crosswhite never stops digging. Beneath the gray skies and murky alleys lies a world of long-buried truths, and in this gripping crime fiction series, one woman’s search for justice becomes a relentless journey through grief, corruption, and the shadows of the past.

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Once a high school science teacher, Tracy’s life was upended by the disappearance of her younger sister. That personal loss became a driving force behind her transformation into one of Seattle’s most formidable homicide detectives. Each novel in this darkly atmospheric series peels back layers of the human psyche, exploring not just the mechanics of murder, but the quiet, aching spaces grief leaves behind.

The series opens with a cold case that hits too close to home, but it soon unfolds into something larger: a portrait of a city teeming with political games, twisted loyalties, and moral gray zones. Over the course of the books, readers witness Tracy evolve—not just as a detective, but as a woman struggling with trauma, love, and the high cost of truth.

Written with a precision that mirrors its protagonist’s analytical mind, the series balances the gritty realism of police procedurals with the emotional resonance of psychological thrillers. It doesn’t just ask who did it—it asks why, and what justice really means when the system itself is flawed.

With each installment, the tension builds—not through cheap shocks, but through carefully layered storytelling that lingers long after the final page. From serial killers and courtroom battles to betrayals within the force, every case Tracy takes on is a step deeper into the city’s darkest corners—and her own.

Perfect for fans of suspenseful detective fiction with strong female leads and morally complex mysteries, this series continues to captivate readers and critics alike, earning spots on bestseller lists and year-end accolades. But at its core, it’s one woman’s quiet defiance in the face of loss—and her refusal to let the dead be forgotten.

Step into Seattle’s shadows, and follow a detective who never lets them close in.

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