When you're on a roll... I woke up this morning and I was still thinking about The Trapped Girl. I have a feeling this story and its characters will stay with me for a long time. What else could I ask for? I've been a fan of Robert Dugoni ever since the start of his wonderful series: My Sister's Grave. That book instantly became one of my favorites and I still think it would make an excellent movie.

I also read book #2 and #3, which means I'm up to date with the series (that never happens!), so yes, I'd say the Tracy Crosswhite series holds a special place in my heart. However, as much I loved Her Final Breath and In The Clearing, I never felt the rush of excitement or satisfaction I had felt with My Sister's Grave... up until I finished his latest installment: The Trapped Girl. I think it might be his best book yet.

The Trapped Girl follows a very complex plot, filled with twists and turns... just the way I like them. The characters' development is strong, too, especially when it comes to relationships. Plus, the characters felt more like a family than ever. Who wouldn't want to work with Tracy, Kins, Faz and Del? Who wouldn't want to date Dan? The book was simply unputdownable, and the proof is that I practically read it in one sitting, devouring the pages like nothing else existed around me.

Can you read this one without having read the previous books? Yeah, sure. One thing that I've noticed about this books is that even though Robert Dugoni mentions the previous cases (especially the first one), he never says anything that could be considered a spoiler. So, of course, you know Dan is there from the beginning and that they have been together for some time, but if you want to start with this one, I'd say you absolutely can. Just make sure you read the others too!

In addition, even though, for example, I absolutely loved other recent procedurals, by the time I reached the final pages, I was able to guess most of what had happened. In The Trapped Girl, on the other hand, I was utterly confused all the way through. And that ending! As I stated on Twitter, excuse me while I pick my jaw up from the floor, because once I got to the climax, everything made so much sense that I couldn't believe I hadn't even considered that option.

In my humble opinion, The Trapped Girl is as good as it gets. As perfect as a mystery novel can be. What are you waiting for?

This a taut, suspenseful murder mystery, set in Seattle, Washington. It is book 4 in the series, but I thought it worked ok as a stand alone. The book opens with the discovery of a woman's body in Puget Sound, by a man doing some out of season crabbing. The book switches back and forth between the police investigation and the thoughts of a missing woman at the center of this mystery. Tracy Crosswhite is the detective in charge of the case. She does not get along very well with her boss, Captain Nolasco. She has issues explained in one of the previous books in the series.
There are many twists and turns in the case, with the thoughts of of the missing woman leading the reader in one direction and the police investigation in another. I did not suspect the killer until near the end.
Some quotes--
Seattle PD bureaucracy: "After a $1.6 million investment, SPD had the facial recognition software and staff trained to use it, but the Seattle City Council had only approved its use to go through booking mug shots. DOL [Dept of Licenses]had the most comprehensive database of photographs of Washington residents, but the powers that be would not allow SPD to use that database to hunt down criminals because an ACLU lawyer had argued it could invade John Q. Citizen's privacy rights."
Weather "The hottest summer I ever spent was a winter in Phoenix."
This is a solid police procedural and I rate it a solid 4 out of 5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this ebook.

A Jane Doe case. A body found in a crab pot in the sea. And then a name, possibly, and a sad life story. And then the story gets complicated.

Tracy is back! Fully armed by her intelligence and her own story, giving her the needed compassion to entangle a story of another young girl hit by the fate. Or...might it be that Tracy is solving the case not because of her murdered sister, but because of herself, a young girl hit by the cruel fate, too?

The thrill is here all right. The story is intelligent and well-thought. And the courage presented is admirable.
But I can't help myself - what I love the most is how Tracy is moving with her life, how is she able to break free slowly from the shadow of her sister's death. Her humanity is what got me hooked in the first book and what is continuing to get me. I hope she will get her wish fulfilled.

And I hope she (and the posse) will get back soon!

What does a woman missing from the peaks of Mount Rainier and presumed dead have in common with a body found in a crab pot in Puget Sound? Find out by reading Robert Dugoni's latest addition to his Tracy Crosswhite series, "The Trapped Girl". Just when you think you've got it figured out, a new clue is uncovered to lead in a different direction. I hadn't read the other books in this series, but never felt lost or left out of any previous information. I thoroughly enjoyed Dugoni's clear and straightforward style, and look forward to reading the first three novels in this series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite heads out to Puget Sound on one of the hottest days Seattle has seen in years, to check out a report of a woman’s body found in a crab pot. An autopsy determines that the woman had recently had plastic surgery and facial implants. Using the serial numbers on the implants, Tracy and her partner Kins visit the plastic surgeon, get the woman’s name – Lynn Hoff – and quickly determine that it is an alias. Because the physical characteristics of the victim are similar to a woman reported missing from an overnight hike on Mount Rainier, Pierce County detectives asserted their jurisdiction over the case, although the body had been found in King County.

In addition to the continuing fuss over jurisdiction of the case, Tracy and Kins and their colleagues Del and Faz keep discovering things that simply don’t fit upper management’s views on the case. Even after they were told to wrap it up and give it all over to Pierce County, the four detectives persisted.

There were so many things I did not expect in this book! Twists and turns, trips to Portland and San Bernardino, and the ever-present battle over jurisdiction. When it came right down to “whodunit?” I will admit that I didn’t see it coming. As always, Robert Dugoni has written a compelling and interesting book you will not want to put down.

As far as opening chapters are concerned, this had a very striking one. A high school kid who is illegally trying to catch crabs for extra money gets way more than he bargained for when he pulls up a crab pot and a women is trapped inside. That certainly grabbed my attention and my desire to get to the bottom of what happened to the woman never decreased.

Tracy Crosswhite is one of those special characters that only come around every so often. She’s been through hell and back and had plenty of tragedies in her family from the death of her parents to the murder of her sister. Though she’s haunted by these events from her past, it doesn’t negatively impact how she works as a detective, instead it drives her even harder and makes her focused to find justice for victims and their families. The woman in the crab pot is initially thought to be Andrea Strickland who went missing after a hike on Mount Rainier, but things are not clear cut, and as Tracy digs into Strickland’s history, she finds that they have a lot in common. The connection she feels to the young woman only serves to make her bound and determined to solve her case, and fast.

Dugoni’s writing style is polished and crisp, he’s crafted a story here that has a very detailed and complex plot and its chock full of the kind of twists and turns I’ve come to expect from any good thriller. I jumped into this series with this book, which is number four and I’m kicking myself for not starting at the beginning as it’s clear from just reading one of his books that this series is one not to be missed. It’s heavily character driven and Tracy is definitely the type of woman that I want to find out more about. And now you’ll have to excuse me while I go hurry and buy books one through three and frantically try and move things around in my TBR to try and fit them in.

You know that feeling when you read a book that is written by an author whose work you’ve never read before and you absolutely love it? Because it means that a whole door has just opened up to who knows how many books written in the same style as the one you just became obsessed with. That’s how I felt when I read this newly published Robert Dugoni book. I had heard of this author before but had never actually picked up one of his books.

The book opens up with a guy who is illegally setting his crab trap and whose own trap gets caught on another trap. This other trap holds the body of a deceased young woman and the police are set out on a wild goose chase to find out who the girl really is and how she got there. Without giving too much away, let’s just say the police have their work cutout for them. The main character, Andrea, narrates part of the story which I really found helpful, as the reader, to understand what happened before the murder. The whole time I was reading the book, the facts starting falling into place. It seemed so obvious that Andrea’s husband, Graham, had killed her. Right? Sure. From the outside that’s definitely what it looks like. Definitely. There is so much more to this story and as it unravels, we realize that the head officer in this case, Tracy Crosswhite, has really great instincts from the get go. If everyone had just paid attention to her spidey senses, the goose chase wouldn’t have taken so long to be over with.

Like I said earlier, I really enjoyed this book and would like to thank NetGalley and the book’s publishers for my copy of The Trapped Girl, in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this novel l. A clever mystery with complex characters. I had not read any of the other Tracy Crosswhite series and did not have any problems following the story. I am definitely going to read the first 3 now. If you like a good suspense mystery novel you will love Robert Dugoni.

This is the fourth installment in the Tracy Crosswhite series; and until now, I'd found it difficult to pick a favorite because I've loved them all, but I believe The Trapped Girl is not only my favorite but Robert Dugoni's best yet.

When a teenage boy discovers a woman’s body in the Puget Sound, Detective Tracy Crosswhite and her colleagues face one of their toughest cases yet. Identifying their victim leads to the unsolved case of a woman presumed dead in a hiking accident on Mount Rainier months earlier. But how does an unrecovered body that seemingly disappeared off the side of a mountain end up in the Puget Sound? The more clues Tracy uncovers, the more twisted the case becomes.

Not only did this book fit all my requirements for a mystery; but along with keeping me on my toes and giving me that adrenaline rush I love, it also pulled at my heartstrings and satisfied the romantic in me. I've loved Tracy and her co-workers-turned-family for a while now; and because of the heartbreak and loss she's experienced, I've longed for certain things for Tracy. Mr. Dugoni delivered those things and then some. Kept me on the edge of my seat? Check. Gave me clues to figure out one twist while blindsiding me with another? Double check. Made me laugh and cry and fall even more in love with these characters? All the checks!! While these books can be read as stand-alones because the author does a great job of catching new readers up without it being overwhelming, I still recommend starting with book one. I can't imagine not having been with this group from the start. Books one through three made four all the more satisfying for me.

I highly recommend this series for readers who love mystery and suspense but also for those who love endearing kickass heroines and brilliantly done detective novels. As always, this author’s writing is rich in detail, the characters captivating and compelling. I can hardly wait to see where he takes Tracy (and me) next.

I am a fan of the Tracy Crosswhite books and this book did not change that. I like where he is taking Tracy in the series in her personal life and I love her development from the first book in the series. This story was the same for me as the others in that it takes you in quickly and you don't want to put it down. Another great one for Mr. Dugoni.

Tracy Crosswhite is one of my favorite fictional detectives, and this series just keeps getting better and better with each book.

My review was posted on Goodreads on 1/25/17.

I've just discovered a new author and series that have captured my interest. I appreciate mysteries centering in the Seattle area so jumped at the opportunity to review this book. I'm glad I did.

I liked the plot. It has a number of twists and turns. People are not who I thought they were. Crimes are not what they initially seemed. It could have been quite confusing. The way the plot develops, however, leads us directly through the investigation process and the revealing of facts.

I really liked the characters. Dugoni has crafted the detectives to be people with depth. One of the detectives, for example, has an issue with water. He can't swim and has some real anxiety when he has to interview a person on a boat docked at a marina. I especially appreciated Tracy, lead detective in this mystery. I am sometimes cautious when an author writes with the lead as a person of the opposite sex. Does a male author really understand how a female might think and feel in a situation? But I was pleasantly surprised and felt comfortable with Tracy's character.

I like the setting. Who in the Pacific Northwest is not in awe of Mt. Rainier? I like the mystery. I learned something new about police forces and their territorial thinking. I like the characters. The team of detectives working with Tracy are like family to her. That brought some warmth to this mystery.

I am not positive all the elements of the plot were wrapped up to my satisfaction at the end. Nonetheless, I did really enjoy this mystery and will be looking for more in the series. While it is book four in the series, it is the first I've read and enjoyed it.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a very good mystery. I was kept guessing till the end. There are a lot of twists and turns and it's full of suspense. Tracy Crosswhite is a great character. I highly recommend this book.

As soon as I knew that Tracey Crosswhite had another murder to solve, I had to have a copy of the book. Yet again, I was not disappointed when Tracey and the rest of her A Team set out to solve the mystery of the body in the crab pot. The author, Robert Dugoni has given us intriguing storylines and fascinating characters that have become more real as we get to know them. What a great start to the year, I can only hope that we don't have to wait too long for my next fix otherwise I may start to get withdrawal symptoms.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Tracy Crosswhite has another engrossing adventure as she pursues the case of a female body found in a crab trap. The setting and characters are familiar, but the investigation follows a twisted path with new problems at every turn. The reader stays in suspense until the very end. In addition to the strange case, Tracy's relationship with Dan reaches a new level. The story offers suspense, danger, romance, and a great environment in Seattle and Portland. The story combines VOG narrative of Tracy and her crew with occasional first person messages from the suspected victim. This approach forces the reader to think and to become more engrossed. This episode in the series is easy to read as a standalone story, and maintains the high quality of the other books.

Another strong entry in the Tracy Crosswhite series by Robert Dugoni. This time around the murder is less of a cold case and more of a deep mystery. The identity of the victim, discovered by accident in a crab pot in the frigid water of Puget Sound, seems obvious after a bit of forensics. That also reveals an obvious suspect and their motives. But the clues never add up until the final chapters. Just following the investigation and getting to know the investigators on Tracy's team a little better make a wonderful story.

The author isn't satisfied with that story. He also weaves in the background story from the perspective of the victim. This both clarifies and confounds (in a good way) the reader's understanding of what's going on. There is misdirection all around. I can hardly wait for Mr. Dugoni's next entry.

Review link is below.

The latest edition to the Tracy Crosswhite series is full of suspense. The characters are complex and the mystery is intriguing. We see all our favorites from the series and learn more about Tracy. The story in this one is full of twists and kept me reading late into the night. The ending is not only believable, but satisfying. I'm ready for the next one!

The fourth book in the Tracy Crosswhite series is a must read, top notch thriller with twists at every turn. This is Dugoni at his best!

Tracy Crosswhite finds herself called out when a woman’s body is found submerged in a crab pot in Puget Sound. This is not going to be an easy case. Before they can do anything else, Tracy and her team must first identify the victim who has gone to great lengths to keep her identity a secret. This raises the question, who and what was she running from. Following the evidence the team is lead to believe that their Jane Doe might be a woman who disappeared several months earlier climbing Mt. Rainier with her husband, who was a suspect in her disappearance. Without a body on the mountain, it was hard to make a case against the husband. All this hits close to home with Tracy as she remembers the disappearance of her sister and how that case consumed her life. Each clue brings about another one that conflicts with the previous, making the investigation that much harder. Tracy is more determined than ever to find the truth of what happened and is determined not to let anything get in her way.

Robert Dugoni is now one of my top favorite authors with the Tracy Crosswhite novels as one of my most recommended series. The first in the series is my favorite, but The Trapped Girl gives it a run for its money. This story goes back and forth at times between Tracy and what is happening with her and then to Andrea Strickland, the woman they think they found dead. This can sometimes be confusing but Dugoni has found a way to write both scenes without losing the reader at any point. These are the stories I love to sit down and devour in one siting if I have the time. With two boys at home it took me a few days to read but I loved every page. I’m can definitely say that a Dugoni novel has never bored me and a Tracy Crosswhite novel keeps me up well into the night. Dugoni has found a way to write characters that are easily likable (Tracy), and characters that you can’t help but despise, (Nolasco, Fields). I really hope this isn’t the last in the series. There is so much more I could see happening with Tracy and the squad. Her relationship with Dan is continuing to pay out nicely and the rest of the squad has developed a dynamic that is hard to find in other books. I know it is early in the year but I feel certain I can say this will be in my best of the year list, it will be hard for another book to top this one. I can’t say that this is the best in the series, the first one is one of my top books of all time and that’s just hard to beat. But this one is a very close second. The way I know a book is one of the best, like My Sister’s Grave, is several years later I can think about that book and recall most of it. Many of the books I read fade from my memory within the next year. I am sure The Trapped Girl will stick around and be one I recommend for a long time.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat guessing at what is going to happen next. There is some mild language that may not be suitable for young readers.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

“The Trapped Girl” is the 4th installment in Robert Dugoni’s Tracy Crosswhite series. And while I have truly enjoyed this book’s predecessors, “The Trapped Girl” is my favorite in this series to date. The storyline is unique and suspenseful and offers numerous twists and turns along the way.

The story begins with the discovery of a young woman’s body trapped inside a crab pot in the Puget Sound. As the investigation unfolds, Tracy and her fellow detectives in Seattle’s Violent Crimes Section, piece together clues to discover the woman’s identity. The investigation soon leads them to Mount Rainier, were the woman identified as Andrea Strickland went missing weeks earlier. Previously presumed dead, the investigation raises more questions than it answers. Could Andrea Strickland have faked her own death only to have met her demise shortly thereafter? Complicating events even further for Tracy and her team, is the internal dispute over jurisdiction with Pierce County’s Major Crimes Unit.

Snippets from Andrea Strickland’s life leading up to her mysterious disappearance--and eventual death--are sprinkled strategically throughout the book. Adding a layer of depth to the story, these glimpses into Andrea’s life gives the reader some much needed insight into her troubled relationship with her husband Graham. But don’t be fooled into believing that this murder case can be easily figured out. Because despite evidence to the contrary, nothing is quite as simple as it might initially seem.

Robert Dugoni is truly the master of suspense. Right from the very start, “The Trapped Girl” grabbed ahold of me and I was reluctant to ever let go. The story’s unique premise is not only captivating, but it’s executed in a smart and detailed manner, featuring characters that are well-developed and complex. While “The Trapped Girl” can be read as a standalone (as is the case with each book in this series), I would strongly urge you to read each and every one.