MY SISTER'S GRAVE

5 stars out of 5

Always on the lookout for a good series, I found this book on sale at Amazon and zeroed in on it. Now that I've finished it, I'm almost sorry to learn that there's only one more that's currently available (the next is Her Final Breath, which I definitely plan to read). Yes, there's also a short story (Kindle Single), but I've said on many occasions I have zero interest in those things no matter how much I love the author's work. If that practice brings in some extra bucks for the authors, so be it, but suffice it to say none of those bucks will come from me.

This one introduces Tracy Crosswhite, a Seattle homicide detective who (understandably) never got over the murder of her younger sister Sarah some 20 years earlier - her body never found. A suspect who confessed to the murder was tried and convicted and remains incarcerated, but Tracy has had doubts about his guilt and some of the evidence that was presented all those years ago. 

As she investigates another case involving the death of a young stripper, her sister's body is unearthed - literally - so she returns to her former home in the Washington State mountains. Discovery of the body brings even more into question, and with a little help from an old but rediscovered attorney friend, she focuses on getting to the truth no matter who gets hurt along the way. 

This certainly isn't the best murder mystery I've ever read - I've gone through so many that I'm not even sure what is - but it certainly held my interest throughout; I was even a bit annoyed that I was forced to put it down for two days when good friends from out of town popped in for a visit (good thing I love them dearly). But the minute they left  - well, as soon as we'd washed the wine glasses and put away the leftover pizza - the first thing I did was open up my Kindle to see how the story ended. And for the record, it got even more exciting the closer I got to the finish line.

Now I'm off to see about getting my hands on the sequel, and after that I'll just have to wait till May 2016, when the third is slated for release (In the Clearing).

My Sister's Grave by Robert Dugoni (Thomas & Mercer, November 2014); 418 pp.