Tracy Crosswhite Series in Order: How to read Robert Dugoni’s Books?

Created by Robert Dugoni, the character of Tracy Crosswhite is a homicide detective with the Seattle PD. She made her first appearance in the book My Sister’s Grave published in 2014.

Defined by the murder of her sister Sarah, Tracy used to be a high school science teacher but decided to join the force after her personal tragedy ignited in her a passion for justice.

How to read the Tracy Crosswhite Books in Order?

Every entry in the Tracy Crosswhite book series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

I. Reading The Tracy Crosswhite Prequels

You can go back to the beginning with two short stories written by Robert Dugoni that are prequels to the main series.

1. The Academy – Quitting her job as a high school science teacher to join the Seattle Police Department was an easy decision for Tracy Crosswhite. Years earlier, what should have been one of the happiest days of her life instead became her worst nightmare when her younger sister, Sarah, disappeared. After the murder trial, Tracy turned her lingering questions into a passion for justice.
2. Third Watch – Reporter Tevia Kushman is shadowing Tracy on a ride-along seeking to follow up on a recent exposé about the Seattle PD’s treatment of female cops. Neither woman expects a routine-sounding call to turn into something dangerous, until Tracy walks into a domestic dispute and finds herself looking down the barrel of a shotgun.

II. Reading The main Tracy Crosswhite Series in Order

1. My Sister’s Grave – Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah’s disappearance and the murder trial that followed. When Sarah’s remains are finally discovered near their hometown in the northern Cascade mountains of Washington State, Tracy is determined to get the answers she’s been seeking.
2. Her Final Breath – A serial killer known as the Cowboy is killing young women in cheap motels in North Seattle. Even after a stalker leaves a menacing message for Tracy Crosswhite, suggesting the killer or a copycat could be targeting her personally, she is charged with bringing the murderer to justice.
3. In the Clearing – When Jenny, a former police academy classmate and protégé, asks Tracy Crosswhite to help solve a cold case that involves the suspicious suicide of a Native American high school girl forty years earlier, Tracy agrees. Following up on evidence Jenny’s detective father collected when he was the investigating deputy, Tracy probes one small town’s memory and finds dark, well-concealed secrets hidden within the community’s fabric.

4. The Trapped Girl – When a woman’s body is discovered submerged in a crab pot in the chilly waters of Puget Sound, Detective Tracy Crosswhite finds herself with a tough case to untangle. Before they can identify the killer, Tracy and her colleagues must figure out who the victim is. Her autopsy, however, reveals she may have gone to great lengths to conceal her identity. So who was she running from?
5. Close to Home – While investigating the hit-and-run death of a young boy, a key piece of case evidence goes missing. The suspect – an active-duty serviceman at a local naval base – is cleared of charges in a military court. But Tracy uncovers the driver’s ties to a rash of recent heroin overdoses in the city, she realizes that this isn’t just a case of the military protecting its own. It runs much deeper than that, and the accused wasn’t acting alone.
6. A Steep Price – Called in to consult after a young woman disappears, Tracy Crosswhite has the uneasy feeling that this is no ordinary missing-persons case. When the body turns up in an abandoned well, Tracy’s suspicions are confirmed. Estranged from her family, the victim had balked at an arranged marriage and had planned to attend graduate school. But someone cut her dreams short.

7. A Cold Trail – Dan is drawn into representing a local merchant whose business is jeopardized by the town’s revitalization. And Tracy Crosswhite is urged by the local PD to put her own skills to work on a new case: the brutal murder of a police officer’s wife and local reporter who was investigating a cold-case slaying of a young woman.
8. In Her Tracks – Returning from an extended leave in her hometown of Cedar Grove, Detective Tracy Crosswhite finds herself reassigned to the Seattle PD’s cold case unit. As the protective mother of an infant daughter, Tracy is immediately drawn to her first file: the abduction of a five-year-old girl whose parents, embattled in a poisonous divorce, were once prime suspects.
9. The Last Line (short story) – Del Castigliano has left Wisconsin to work homicide for the Seattle PD. Breaking him in is veteran detective Moss Gunderson, and he’s handing Del a big catch: the bodies of two unidentified men fished from Lake Union. It’s a major opportunity for the new detective, and Del runs with it, chasing every lead-to every dead end.
10. What She Found – Detective Tracy Crosswhite has agreed to look into the disappearance of investigative reporter Lisa Childress. Solving the cold case is an obsession for Lisa’s daughter, Anita. So is clearing the name of her father, a prime suspect who became a pariah. After twenty-five years, all Anita wants is the truth-no matter where it leads.

11. One Last Kill – Tracy Crosswhite is reopening the investigation into Seattle’s Route 99 serial killer. After thirteen victims, he stopped hunting and the trail went cold, stirring public outrage. Now, nearly three decades after his first kill, Tracy is expected to finally bring closure to the victims’ families and redeem the Seattle PD’s reputation. Even if it means working with her nemesis, Captain Johnny Nolasco.

If you like our article about the Tracy Crosswhite reading order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also like the Detective Lottie Parker series, or some of the books series by J. A. Jance.