You can take the girl out of the cop station, but you can’t take the cop out of the girl. In Robert Dugoni’s A COLD TRAIL, Tracy Crosswhite is back in her hometown of Cedar Grove, where she and husband Dan O’Leary and two-month-old daughter Daniella are staying in Dan’s childhood home while their home is being renovated to make more room for their family. Tracy is still on maternity leave, and she is learning the joys and concerns of motherhood. When the former police chief Roy Calloway calls her to discuss a case, Tracy’s detective juices start flowing. The wife of the current chief has died in a fire, and the chief, Finlay Armstrong, is on leave, so Calloway is acting chief. Not only is there a mystery surrounding Kimberly Armstrong’s death, but there is also the unsolved murder of a high school girl back in 1993, not long before Tracy’s sister Sarah went missing. Back then, Finlay was considered a suspect in Heather Johansen’s murder; now, with the murder of his wife, fingers are pointing at him again. Despite Dan’s concerns for Tracy’s safety and well being, Tracy agrees to investigate. Cedar Grove is a small town, and tongues start wagging immediately. Not everyone wants to cooperate.

Dan has business of his own to attend to. He is representing a small business owner in a lawsuit against the city.
Businesses have been springing up like crazy, and Dan’s client has been the lone holdout in selling to the city. It would seem that he doesn’t have a chance, but Dan decides that perhaps you CAN fight city hall.

I love the complex cases that both husband and wife face in this story. Since they both grew up in Cedar Grove, they cross paths with former classmates, friends, and rivals. Tracy, especially, faces a ¬¬¬¬whole spectrum of emotions, especially since it’s her first time back in her hometown following the trial of her sister’s killer. Her parents are gone; her father, dead by suicide over her sister’s murder. Now she is a mother, and she wonders what kind of life she owes her daughter and her husband. Love, gratitude, duty...She is a mother and a wife, but she is also a cop. How does she find the perfect balance?

The personal touches felt very real to me. I really liked the big role that Dan plays in this book. I also really enjoyed Faz (Vic Fazzio) and his wife Vera. That is loyalty! And Vic was a hoot!

The legal issues were a bit confusing for a reader like me, who is a bit challenged when it comes to understanding torts, contracts, and the like. So things got a bit bogged down in a few places, but I liked how Dan sort of pulled a rabbit out of his hat in court! Yay, Judge Harvey! Who’d’ve thought?

There are some big dramatics at the end, so hold on to your winter hats and gloves! (It snows A LOT in this novel.) As usual, Mr Dugoni has provided a very thrilling, entertaining story.

My thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer, and the author for this ARC. My views are my own.

4.5 stars

Book 7 of the Tracy Crosswhite series, A Cold Trail finds Tracy, a Seattle homicide detective, her lawyer husband Dan, and their two month old baby Daniella back in Cedar Grove, their hometown, while their home near Seattle is remodeled. Dan has taken on a case in Cedar Grove with a business owner who feels like something isn’t right as the city is forcing the main street businesses to sell. While Tracy loves being a mother, she is a little bored, and when the acting Chief of Police, Roy Calloway, an old friend of her father, asks her to help on a cold murder case and a new murder case that may be related, she jumps at the chance.

Although Roy is retired, both he and Tracy suspect Finlay Armstrong, Calloway’s successor, in both murders, so Finlay is off and Roy has taken charge. Tracy is excited to be back working, however it has caused a bit of a rift between her and Dan. Dan is worried about her safety, but knows that she is, after all, a homicide detective and he knew what she did before he married her.

The Tracy Crosswhite series is a favorite, and Dugoni has developed the characters so that they seem like real acquaintances. He has also captured the small town feeling and the fact that news travels fast. Tracy isn’t particularly popular now that she has come back to town due to the fact that she wasn’t sure that her sister’s murderer was guilty and brought a trial back a few years before. Dugoni is organized and the story flows; the novel is well-written and very hard to put down. Although this book can be read as a stand-alone, it helps to read the previous novels to get a sense of the past.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Another good entry in this solid series. This book takes it back to the town where it all started in the first book but with a different story. But Dugoni managers to work in the characters from Seattle we have come to know and love.

This is about Tracy Crosswhite who is returning once again to the town of cedar grove. this time for herself . But the local police ask her to help in the investigation of a police officers dead wife. This is the 7th book in series. and as I read each book they keep getting better. the only bad thing I can say about this book is that after I read it I have to wait for the next one to come out. wish you could come out faster. this is one of the best series books I have ever read.

This is the latest installment of the Tracy Crosswhite series. I haven’t read any of the previous books in this series, but this one stands alone pretty well. There are references to past murder cases and trials and I will now go back and start the series from the beginning. This installment deals with a court case that Dan, Tracy's husband, has brought about the rejuvenation of Main Street. All the old businesses owners have sold their property to the City for redevelopment except one and he has no intention of doing so. In the meantime, there are three separate murders that have happened in the little town of Cedar Grove.; some many years ago and some more recent. When Tracy starts to investigate the murders, it looks like they all point the Police Chief. Could he have killed his old girlfriend, his current wife and an attorney that was nosing around the town? As Dan investigates the Main St. deals and Tracy investigates the murders, they realize that there are similarities and there may be more than they bargained for in their hometown of Cedar Grove.

3.5 stars

In this 7th book in the 'Tracy Crosswhite' series, the homicide detective investigates three cases. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with earlier books is beneficial.

*****

At the core of the story are three unsolved deaths, all of which occurred in Cedar Grove, Washington. Heather Johansen - an eighteen-year-old girl who worked for the then mayor was killed in 1993; Jason Matthews - a retired criminal defense lawyer hired to look into Heather's death was killed in 2013; and Kimberley Armstrong - a journalist writing a book about Heather's murder recently died in a house fire.

Cedar Grove's Chief of Police, Finlay Armstrong, has connections to all of the above. Finlay was Heather Johansen's stalkerish ex-boyfriend 26 years ago; was acquainted with Jason Matthews; and was Kimberly Armstrong's husband.

Since Finlay can't investigate his wife's death - AND is a person of interest - he's on mandatory leave. Former Police Chief Roy Calloway, who has always been a formidable figure in Cedar Grove, is now Acting Chief, and is investigating Kimberley's demise.

It so happens that Seattle Homicide Detective Tracy Crosswhite and her attorney husband Dan - new parents to two-month-old Daniella - are staying in Cedar Grove while their Seattle house is being renovated.

Both Tracy and Dan grew up in Cedar Grove, and they're staying in Dan's family home with their baby, their two Rhodesian mastiffs Sherlock and Rex, and their nanny Therese - who was hired to help with Daniella.

Acting Chief Calloway, an old friend of Tracy's family, asks the detective - who's on maternity leave - to help investigate Kimberley's homicide AND the cold cases. Calloway believes all three murders are related, and may have been perpetrated by the same person. Tracy agrees, to the dismay of Dan - who was hoping his wife would stay home with baby Daniella.

Tracy proceeds to re-examine all the murder scenes, and to re-interview people who knew the victims. It soon becomes clear that someone doesn't want Tracy to investigate, and will take drastic measures to stop her.

In the meantime, attorney Dan accepts a local client named Larry Kaufman. Larry, who owns the only open business on Market Street, is being pressured to sell. The city wants to rejuvenate the run-down area, and has bought almost all the old stores and sold them to developers.

Now the city's lawyers are trying to use some murky statutes to acquire Larry's establishment, and Larry is fighting them. Since Dan is in town, Larry hires the lawyer to help him. When Dan looks into the matter, he learns that things going on 'under the table' could generate a lot of money for Market Street entrepreneurs.

Two favorite recurring characters in the series, Seattle Detective Vic Fazzio (Faz) and his wife Vera, drive to Cedar Grove to help Tracy. Faz assists with the homicide investigations, Vera helps with the baby, and both Fazzios prepare meals.

It turns out that Tracy's investigation and Dan's legal case have connections, and uncovering them helps resolve all the mysteries in Cedar Grove.

I enjoyed this intriguing story and recommend it to readers who enjoy suspense novels, especially Tracy Crosswhite fans.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Robert Dugoni), and the publisher (Thomas & Mercer) for a copy of the book.

Still enjoying the Tracy Crosswhite series. This one was a little slow to start, but, ultimately, delivered the same pace and plotting that I love in this series.

Great addition to this series. The first time I was hooked on a series was when I read Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels, and I read them from the 1960's all the way through. Although each installment proposed a new situation, it was the back story that kept me grabbing them up on publication day. In hardback. Robert Dugoni has hit on the same formula -- finely crafted characters a reader can truly care about, and ongoing situations, almost like reading one book in serial form.

I really enjoy Robert Dugoni’s Tracy Crosswhite series. However, this one wasn’t one of my favorites. It took a really long time for me to get to the resolution of the murders. I did not see the ending coming which kept me at 4 stars. If you’ve read the previous books in the series, this one is still good, just a little slow in my opinion. If you haven’t read them, go back to book one!

I received an advanced copy from NetGalley.

So Tracy Crosswhite is now a mom. Cool! But the beginning part of this book seemed much slower as she dealt with becoming a new mom. The second half of the book went much faster. Also the case involved more of her husband's law practice, so again these events slow down her usual pace.Good to see the character changing in an appropriate way.

I was super excited to have received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, Thomas & Mercer. I have read nearly everything Dugoni has written, and the Crosswhite series is by far my favorite. I highly recommend that you start at the beginning with book one and by the time this one, book seven, is released in February you will be up to completely up to speed, and like me, dying for more.

Tracy Crosswhite grew up in Cedar Grove, a small town in northern Washington. Her sister, as a teen, disappeared and was found murdered which forever changed the course of Tracy's life from chemistry teacher to Seattle homicide detective. For this installment she finds herself back in Cedar Grove, with a brand new baby and trying to get used to the idea of a nanny. Things are heating up in Cedar Grove, and Tracy can't seem to stay away, much to her husband's dismay. He's busy with his own law case against the city on behalf of the business owners and is secretly hoping that Tracy will slow down and retire. As if! Strangely enough the names of the players in the murder that Tracy is helping investigate seem to be overlapping with Dan's case and someone(s) is not happy in either case as Tracy and Dan seem to be getting closer to the truth.

This was my first book in the series, but it didn't present a problem enjoying this book. I knew there was back history that I was missing out on, but it didn't stop me from connecting to the characters and the story. I felt the book flowed well and the suspense kept building like a snowball down a mountain.. I recommend this book and look forward to going back and finding out more about the characters from earlier books.

I love the characters in this series. Really every day, down to earth. Mr. Dugoni's books kept me up to late night reading. Books that keep your interest to the the very last page.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advanced read in exchange for this review.

I was super excited to read another Tracy Crosswhite novel!  It did not disappoint.

Tracy is a new mom to daughter Daniela.  She and her husband find themselves working on cases that somehow cross each other.  How much is Tracy willing to risk to solve a decades long homicide?

Wow!  Impressive myster with characters that I love.  Dugoni does a fantastic job of building the mystery while keeping the reader attached to the characters.  I really hope he writes another in this series.

There is a certain amount of excitement sitting down to start a new book. Has the author written another complex mystery? Will the story feel fresh? What can a new setting offer to characters I've seen before? Robert Dugoni has delivered all that and more In his new book A Cold Trail.

The story opens in Cedar Grove, Washington. The year is 1993. Heather Johansen is walking home on a cold snowy night when she hears a car coming. Should she try to get a ride home or is it him trying to change her mind?

Being surprised by the opening pages is a great way to begin a story. The characters and plot continued to keep me interested throughout the book. There was no question about the rating of this book. Five stars all the way.I

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from Thomas & Mercer through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are completely my own.
#AColdTrail #NetGalley

I love this author and have read other books in this series. For some reason I really could not get into this book. I tried several times because I know this author is good. This book was just too slow getting moving. After several attempts I have up for good.

A Cold Trail is another solid entry in the Tracy Crosswhite series. Tracy and Dan are back in Cedar Grove while their house in Seattle is being renovated. Tracy, who is still on maternity leave from the Seattle PD, agrees to help the local police chief with a suspicious death of a police officer's wife. Dan is working on a case involving Cedar Grove's attempt to revitalize its downtown by buying failing businesses from their original owners. As Tracy and Dan continue to work on their respective cases it becomes clear that they both might be connected to an unsolved murder from years ago. I look forward to seeing more of Tracy and Dan in future books.

Unfortunately I could not get into this book. Read about 50 pages... my limit, and could not get into. Good luck with the book. I have read some of the authors others but for some reason this one started too slow.

Fast moving murder mystery,one present ,one past.Great to catch up with this family,the characters are very real,the dilemmas very true.

I’ve been obsessed with this series since the very beginning and I absolutely was not let down by this book! I LOVED getting back to the original roots and was obsessed with the mystery/characters, and everything else!! Seeing Tracy become a mother was also so sweet and I adore hers and Dan’s relationship. My Sisters Grave has always been my favorite in the series but now I’m finding it really hard to choose! I can’t wait for the next one to come out and see the next steps in Tracey, Dan and Daniellas lives!
•ARC kindly given for my honest opinion•