A dead draw

Dugoni's propulsive latest adventure for Tracy Crosswhite (after One Last Kill) finds the sharpshooting Seattle detective facing old demons after being transferred to her department's cold case unit. Following a traumatic shoot-out with master criminal Ed House, who kidnapped and killed her sister, Tracy has been pulled from the SPD's major crimes division. Her first cold case leads to the arrest of Erik Schmidt, a mentee of House's, for the murder of two young girls. A technicality gets Schmidt released from jail, and he seeks revenge. Meanwhile, Tracy retreats to her hometown of Cedar Grove, Wash., to hone her marksmanship skills and protect her family. She discovers that Schmidt has followed her when he kidnaps her young friend and shooting instructor, Lydia, and demands a sunrise duel with Tracy in the ghost town of Silver Pines in exchange for Lydia's freedom. Dugoni elevates the proceedings by fleshing out Schmidt's psychology and smartly mixing western tropes into the action. It's another solid entry in a reliable series. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (May)

A legal error in a routine arrest leads Seattle cold case detective Tracy Crosswhite down another harrowing trip into her family's tormented past. What's especially galling is that the error isn't even Tracy's. The handgun that Det. Kinsington Rowe, her old partner in Violent Crimes, confiscated from Erik Schmidt during a drug bust was identified as the weapon used to kill Julia Hoch and Bridgette Traugott. But because Rowe ran the firearms test without securing the proper warrant, the judge throws out the evidence and turns Schmidt loose. Before that happens, though, Tracy interrogates Schmidt about the cold cases, and Schmidt, an obvious sociopath, takes the opportunity to taunt Tracy with the news that while he'd been incarcerated on previous drug charges, he'd been especially close to fellow inmate Edmund House, the man who'd kidnapped and murdered Tracy's sister, Sarah, 30 years ago, leading to her father's suicide. Convinced that Tracy had worked to set House free so that she could execute him personally, he's vowed revenge on his late buddy's behalf. That means doing whatever he can to make life hell for Tracy, her husband and daughter, her nanny, and anyone else in her circle. As Schmidt hatches one intimidating plot after another, Tracy is forced to acknowledge that her own skills aren't what they used to be. Even her marksmanship has suffered so much that she withdraws to improve it under the guidance of Mason Pettibone, her first shooting instructor. Pettibone, claiming that he's too old, turns Tracy over to the tutelage of his granddaughter, Lydia "Lightning Strike" Johnson, a dead-eyed shooter who's on the spectrum, and that's when things start to get seriously intense. Not much mystery, but plenty of thrills for readers open to another peek at the skeletons inside the heroine's family closet. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.