What She Found by Robert Dugoni @robertdugoni @esuttonsmith @BrilliancePub

the setup…

Seattle Detective Tracy Crosswhite is still dealing with the aftermath of her last high profile cold case when she’s contacted by Anita Childress who wants her to investigate her mother’s disappearance 24 years ago. Lisa Childress, an investigative reporter, purportedly left home in the middle of the night to meet with a confidential source and was never seen again. Anita has been obsessed by the need to get answers, even following in her footsteps by becoming a reporter. Tracy finds that Lisa was working on four potential stories, one of them involving a potentially corrupt unit within the police department that may just point in uncomfortable directions.

the heart of the story…

It’s important to read the short story that precedes this book as there’s a direct connection. While Tracy has four lines of direction to follow in searching for answers about Lisa Childress, she’s not biased towards any but one gets traction rather quickly. The more she probed, the more the path opened up disturbing information. She’s still heading the Cold Case Unit but the investigation leads her back to her former colleagues in Violent Crimes. We know how they connect and I held my breath as she got closer, worrying she’d form wrong conclusions before uncovering the truth. But, this is Tracy so I was just as confident she’d be thorough and exacting.

the narration…

This was all about storytelling, getting the pace and tension just right and Sutton-Smith was perfect in her performance. There were also several character speech dialects and accents important in this one and she nailed them. Just another typical, outstanding delivery.

the bottom line…

I inadvertently started this series by reading the connected story first so I’ve had to wait a long time to see how the events from that book would eventually resurface. If there’s any question, I highly agree that it best fits where it is in the series listing. The search for what happened to Lisa was highly intriguing because Tracy smartly followed the clues and leads, making intelligent connections. It’s almost like she’s perfectly wired to investigate cold cases as she’s methodical, resourceful and sensitive to how the people involved may have shifted priorities. Despite having some insight as to what may have happened to Lisa, I was blown away by the outcomes with twists I never envisioned. This was a low burn, building in suspense about the mystery to a shocking conclusion. The aftermath left residues that have yet to fully manifest themselves. I’m now caught up in this wonderful series, which leaves a vacuum until the next release as I won’t have my normal monthly connection with these characters and their fascinating world.

Book Info

• Release Date: August 23, 2022
• Series: Tracy Crosswhite #9
• Narrator: Emily Sutton-Smith
• Audio Length: 10 hours, 1 minute
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio

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(Thanks to Brilliance Audio for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)