She Treads Softly: A Dead Draw

Friday, May 9, 2025

A Dead Draw

A Dead Draw by Robert Dugoni
5/27/25; 395 pages
Thomas & Mercer
Tracy Crosswhite #11

A Dead Draw by Robert Dugoni is a highly recommended thriller and the eleventh book in the Seattle Detective Tracy Crosswhite series. It can be read as a stand alone novel.

A handgun that Detective Kinsington Rowe confiscated is identified as the weapon used to kill Julia Hoch and Bridgette Traugott, two cold cases Tracy Crosswhite is working on in her department’s cold case unit. When interrogating Erik Schmidt, the owner of the weapon, he taunts her and makes it clear that he was close to Ed House, the man who kidnapped and killed her sister, Sarah. Tracy is rattled by the sociopath and uncharacteristically loses her temper. When Schmidt is released on a technicality he is out for revenge and is likely targeting Tracy.

Talking to Schmidt induced flashbacks from the past for Tracy and leads to a critical mistake during a department shooting exercise. Needing to refocus and get her concentration back, Tracy, Dan (her husband), daughter, and their nanny go to their weekend house in her hometown of Cedar Grove. There she can practice her marksmanship skills with Mason Pettibone, her first shooting instructor. He has Tracy work with his granddaughter, Lydia, an exceptional shooting instructor who’s on the spectrum.

The writing is excellent, as expected. The tension remains high throughout because the stakes are high, even though it is clear early on in the narrative where the plot is heading. At the same time there is not much investigating. Readers will know Schmidt is stalking Tracy. Proficiency with firearms and marksmanship is an essential factor in the plot. There is plenty of information and interaction with firearms, along with tie-ins to westerns in this outing for those who are interested. If you aren't, you can skim sections.

Adding to the tension are memories, inner conflicts, and past events coming back to haunt the present. Tracy is a fully realized character at this point and is always a sympathetic reliable one too. Her struggles with past memories resurfacing is understandable and something many can experience and wrestle with as they try to get back on course. Lydia is a wonderful new character and I hope she reappears in future novels.

Those following the Tracy Crosswhite series will enjoy reading A Dead Draw. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.