The first book in the series that has garnered millions of readers across the globe, from New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.
Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah’s disappearance and the murder trial that followed. She doesn’t believe that Edmund House—a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah’s murder—is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers.
When Sarah’s remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she’s been seeking. As she searches for the real killer, she unearths dark, long-kept secrets that will forever change her relationship to her past—and open the door to deadly danger.
This has been on my to read list for a lifetime and I finally got around to it and now I'm hooked. I stayed up all night reading. That said, while this is good and I did enjoy it - it is extremely long. The mystery was fascinating but there's a lot of mundane detective work. It's not a thriller as such. Which will undoubtedly make it not for everyone. Frame of reference it's more like Cold Case than Law and Order SVU or Criminal Minds.
Tracy was an interesting character. She was stubborn and resilient but she was surprisingly vulnerable. I thought it was actually addressed really well - her grief and sadness and fears - but it's also never the main focus of the novel.
The case itself was riveting. I didn't see the twist coming (although maybe I should have). I didn't like the final motive at the end. He was always after her? Are you freaking kidding me? That kind of ruined it for me. Not completely - because for 95% of this book I was hooked but the last 5% certainly made me disappointed. I've already read and finished the second book. And I'll definitely pick up the rest.
