Dugoni is a prolific writer of mysteries with three different characters who have their own series as well as several books outside those series  I had never heard of him despite multiple honors and 24 prior books, but picked up his latest when it was recommended by a friend.

He writes well with vivid characters and good descriptions of the setting, today’s Seattle, but the book ended up disappointing me.  It started with the obligatory first chapter violence and mayhem, but then steadily lost stem until the ending landed totally flat.

The story itself is engaging.  An investigative reporter is violently assaulted one night when the tipster she was supposed to meet shows up as a murder victim. The rest of the book revolves around her disappearance—was she murdered or did she walk away voluntarily.  Sadly, Dugoni relies on that age old ‘cheat’, amnesia to tie the story together and while he set us up for a violent ending directed either at the newly returning reporter or the police detective who found her, the ending was a non-event, leaving me unsatisfied.

Well written, but I will probably not read further in Dugoni.