Solid background for [b:What She Found|57585371|What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite, #9)|Robert Dugoni|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1635173055l/57585371._SY75_.jpg|90182835] and a couple of Tracy Crosswhite's friends ( )

I've read all of Robert Dugoni’s Tracy Crosswhite novels, but this is a 53-page novella that I only recently come across. It's a story that is set in the 1990s and introduces many of the characters that have become old friends in the longer books. What I enjoyed about this is that it very quickly goes from "new detective" on the block to a much darker and bleaker tale of someone arriving in a city where many secrets live and thrive. Helping achieve this is Del, a bright but personally bruised new Detective seeking a fresh start. He comes across as honest and bright and initially the group he joins seems welcoming but the potential murder by drowning of two unnamed men seems a little too convenient to wrap up very quickly. He meets another officer, Vic Fazzio, and they bond with a common sense of doing the right thing and also a shared Italian American heritage. This friendship produces some warmth in a story that is cold and not just through Robert Dugoni’s description of Seattle in a bone shivering winter...but a wider story where it suddenly feels we are in deeper waters as the facts get unearthed by Del’s patient examination of witnesses and clues. That feeling in particular really makes the story work and always impressed when a crime author also attends to the issue of the police service itself not always making a place better. If you've never read any of this series this is a good, short story to begin with. ( )

A different character, a different writing style, a different outcome. Perfect police procedural on everything a rookie should not do. Short, fast and well thought out. Arghh - killer ending or non-ending. ( )