The Tracy Crosswhite Series
The Tracy Crosswhite series has everything I love, so it’s with great pleasure that I’ve found the writing as well as setting, plot and mystery to be excellent. We read the first in series for the book group this year, and I’ve continued reading and enjoying.
Tracy is a very strong female lead, working for the Seattle Police. She has a well fleshed out back story that we learn about in the first novel, so I recommend reading them in order (although there is also a prequel that I have not read).
The series is mostly set in Seattle and its environs, although other places in Washington State-both real and imaginary-are visited. Dugoni writes about Seattle with a knowledge only a resident could have and does it seamlessly. No awkward “Best of Seattle” references to tourist spots. Tracy visits places in the city that a Seattle cop really would, and Dugoni writes about the neighborhoods with subtlety as well as precision. This is the city where I live, easily recognizable and not bashing one over the head with visits to Pike Place Market and the Space Needle.
Tracy is a complex character, driven by her family’s tragic past as well as her skills as a detective. She’s smart, a sharp shooter, a team player but also able to manage on her own and kick some butt when necessary. The author is male and this is perhaps the best example of a male successfully writing a female perspective that I have ever come across. Even the love interest, which is present but doesn’t overshadow, is done with a sensitivity to Tracy as a fully realized human, not a token female.
I’ve just finished the third in the series, “In The Clearing,” and as with the other two, was impressed with the ability Dugoni shows in weaving two separate cases (one contemporary, one a cold case) together using flashbacks, police files, current interviews and modern perspectives. There is a twist ending that is well done. The story is gripping and the characters sympathetic and complex. These are police procedurals, but also studies of the intricacies of conflicting human emotions and motives.
My only criticism is that towards the endings we are faced with the main character facing life threatening peril. Completely unnecessary and a pet peeve of mine in many otherwise excellent mystery fiction novels. We KNOW that the main character will be fine, so it feels manipulative and doesn’t in any way further the plot. Nor does it in any way help develop the personality of the character. Granted, it’s subtle in the third entry, but Tracy going into a potentially threatening situation without backup is the equivalent of the amateur detective going into the basement alone to face a serial killer. But this is a minor point and in no way compromises the writing or story.
If you enjoy a strong female lead, a Pacific Northwest setting, tight plotting and cold cases, I highly recommend this series.