What She Found is the 9th installment of Robert Dugoni’s Tracy Crosswhite series, but the first that I have read. Crosswhite is a Seattle homicide detective now working cold cases. She’s got a knack for it and is generally considered an outstanding investigator. She also has awards for valor.
This book opens in 1996. A talented and successful (if disorganized) investigative reporter named Lisa Childress drives to meet a confidential source in the middle of the night. She finds him dead before she herself is violently attacked. It’s not clear what happened, but 24 years later, her 26-year-old daughter, Anita, is still trying to solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.
Anita brings her concerns to Crosswhite, who promises to look into the matter. Initially, it looks like a complete dead end of a cold case. No one saw anything. No one has seen or heard from Lisa in 24 years. The police suspected her husband of killing her, and the man has lived under a shadow of public vilification. But, there’s nothing to tie him to the crime, and no body, so he’s been left to fend for himself as an ostracized single dad for 24 years.
Crosswhite warns Anita that she might proof that her father killed her mother. No matter, Anita says. I want the truth, no matter what. Crosswhite gets more thorough, and more discouraged. However, after a careful review of four possible investigative stories that Childress was working on at the time of her disappearance, she finds the slenderest of leads.
Suspicions that an elite anti-drug task force was stealing drugs from dealers sets off alarm bells for Crosswhite. Her investigation takes her right to some of her closest friends and colleagues in the department. Could they be guilty of stealing drugs and killing Childress all these years ago? It’s a shocking possibility, but Crosswhite is determined to get to the truth no matter where it leads.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Police has told her to stand down. The Childress case is a loser, and the department needs more cold case clearances that make the cops look good so the city council won’t “defund the police,” as they are threatening to do. Crosswhite ignores the order, teeing up major political trouble for her later on.
Dugoni knows how to deliver an engaging police procedural mystery. The book is heavy on investigative detail, but never boring. You’re constantly trying to figure out what’s really happening. There’s also a touch of Crosswhite’s family life here and there, which gives some additional definition to the character. She’s got a toddler daughter the same age as Anita was when her mother disappeared. This leads Crosswhite to empathize with Anita’s situation.
The phrase “What She Found” could apply to Childress, the investigative reporter, or Crosswhite the investigative detective. They’re both women on a mission to reveal the truth, no matter how badly it reflects on powerful and dangerous people. Dugoni takes you to places you will definitely not be expecting. It’s a good read overall.