In the Clearing

Detective Tracy Crosswhite has a skill, and a soft spot, for tackling unsolved crimes. Having lost her own sister to murder at a young age, Tracy has dedicated her career to bringing justice and closure to the families and friends of victims of crime.

So when Jenny, a former police academy classmate and protégé, asks Tracy to help solve a cold case that involves the suspicious suicide of a Native American high school girl forty years earlier, Tracy agrees. Following up on evidence Jenny’s detective father collected when he was the investigating deputy, Tracy probes one small town’s memory and finds dark, well-concealed secrets hidden within the community’s fabric. Can Tracy uphold the promise she’s made to the dead girl’s family and deliver the truth of what happened to their daughter? Or will she become the next victim?

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From Publishers Weekly

A cold case preoccupies Tracy Crosswhite in Dugoni’s well-plotted third crime novel featuring the Seattle homicide detective (after 2015’s Her Final Breath). Klickitat County Sheriff Jenny Almond asks Tracy to take a look at a file that Jenny’s late father, retired sheriff Buzz Almond, held on to for forty years. One night in 1976, high school senior Kimi Kanasket never made it home from the diner where she worked. Her body was later found in the White Salmon River, and her death was ruled a suicide. Buzz, then a deputy sheriff, did his duty by retracing Kimi’s route home, but he was later told by the detective in charge, Jerry Ostertag, to leave the investigation alone. In the present, Buzz’s file and the help of experts like senior crime scene analyst Kaylee Wright and forensic anthropologist Kelly Rosa put Tracy on the trail of four former high school football stars known as the Four Ironmen. Tracy displays ingenuity and bravery as she strives to figure out who killed Kimi.

Review

“Tracy is a well-crafted character...Readers of the first two books will enjoy this one, and, because it can be read as a stand-alone, newcomers can jump right in.” —*Booklist*

“Dugoni’s third Tracy Crosswhite novel (after Her Final Breath) continues his series’s standard of excellence with superb plotting and skillful balancing of the two story lines. ­VERDICT: New readers can enjoy this as a stand-alone; they and series fans will be captivated by the issues and foibles that drive Tracy and strengthen her resolve.” —*Library Journal*