A Dead Draw
A Dead Draw (Tracy Crosswhite #11)
By: Robert Dugoni
[Fulfilled ‘A book translated into at least 25 different languages’ (Dugoni’s books have been translated into 30+ languages so I counted it) prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2025 Reading Challenge]
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]
“‘Revenge can be a powerful motivator.’”
This one felt a little different than other books of this series (that I’ve read). Granted, there is a year break in between reading each one so my memory of them might not be the best.
A Dead Draw felt a little more technical with some of the descriptions of guns and shooting and the legal stuff in the trial. He brought in an autistic character and some commentary on video games. There was also a good deal of Tracy thinking about her sister Sarah.
I probably could have done without some of the gun details, but I didn’t have a problem with the other themes. It made the book feel a little more layered than usual, which isn’t a bad thing.
I liked the old Western vibes in this one— even if I don’t have the same ‘watching Westerns with my dad’ nostalgia Dugoni had— and liked the more atmospheric vibe that got woven into the plot.
The final duel was also pretty epic. I think the cover of this book should have somehow depicted the ghost town or something like that instead of the mansion.
This book doesn’t really connect with the previous ones and could probably be read as a standalone, but as with most series, it always helps to know where the main character has come from. Especially since this one talks so much about Crosswhite’s murdered sister.
This story begins with Crosswhite still working in the cold case department. She is working on a trial for Erik Schmidt, a suspect in two cold case murders of young women. During her interrogation of him she finds out that he was prison mates with Edmund House, the guy who murdered Crosswhite’s sister, Sarah.
Schmidt’s taunting gets under Crosswhite’s skin causing her to lose her cool. When he gets off on a technicality and threatens Tracy, she takes her family to Cedar Grove to get away.
But Schmidt won’t let her off that easily. He has some revenge to enact and it has more to do with Cedar Grove than Tracy realizes.
We know that Tracy did shooting competitions when she was younger and that she is an amazing shooter, but her nightmares and demons have affected her ability to react and discern at the speed her job requires. Can she get her ‘mojo’ back before she’s forced to face Schmidt?
Overall I really liked the book and its layered, different feel and atmospheric setting. But I do have one pretty big bone to pick that costs this book one star.
Dan, Tracy’s husband, runs into a suspicious guy at the coffee shop. When he tells her about it at home they wonder if it was Schmidt. Dan has to go to San Francisco for a trial but tells Tracy he wants to stay back with her.
She says no and that “We don’t have any evidence the man in the coffee shop was Erik Schmidt.”
Because all she does is ask Dan to describe the man he met. I’m tempted to put this in all caps but I’ll refrain: Why didn’t she SHOW Dan the MUGSHOT of Schmidt to verify if it was him?!?!?! Okay I had to use some caps, because duh. She HAS a mugshot because she gave it to the local police. Even if she didn’t, it’s called GOOGLE. He was just on trial and would have been in some sort of article or story online. It would be so EASY to make sure if the guy was Schmidt or not.
I was just dumbfounded. Man, I just really wish there was a way to know if the guy that threatened me is now in our very small town that we escaped to- what color was his hair and eyes again? Shoot, it’s so hard to know. Welp, time for you to leave for the airport- I’m sure everything is fine.
Even further, if we were getting out of town to avoid a dangerous guy that is out and about, I would be sure to know what that guy looked like so I would be on the lookout if I saw him near my family. Dan is a smart guy, but not smart enough in this scenario.
And it’s not just Dan. When Calloway goes back to the coffee shop to ask the barista about it, he tells Crosswhite that she “gave us a description.” He didn’t say anything about SHOWING HER THE MUGSHOT because God forbid we confirm an identity on the exact picture of a person. We just don’t have the technology.
At least it ended up not being as big of a plot point that I thought it was going to be, but even still, Dugoni really missed this one.
Part of Crosswhite’s extra training involves FSP games. I personally have not played any of these and I know there is mixed data on the use of violent video games. In the author’s note at the end Dugoni mentions his use of them in the book after talking with a friend in the gaming industry and how “games are not about violence but more about strategic thinking at a very high and very fast level.” I’m not entirely convinced of these benefits and would like to see more research on whether playing these games would actually improve someone’s actual shooting.
Along these lines Dugoni says of this book, “I wanted her to face a lawless situation where she stood isolated, on her own, and had to either kill or be killed, to put her shooting to the ultimate test— take a life or lose her own.”
I actually really liked this premise. It built on Tracy losing her shooting edge and needing to work to get it back using a unique method and encountering a young girl who reminded her of her sister who was arguably a better shooter than herself. It built on the Western duel and lawlessness culture.
It also tapped into Tracy’s motherhood and being part of a family who needs her. Dan gets involved with this one after Tracy doesn’t heed his advice, “During their years of marriage, he had become his wife’s conscience when she needed it most. He was the voice in her ear talking sense. And he would bring her home before she did something that would impact him and Daniella for the rest of their lives.”
He knew that she had gone and put herself in a dire situation without any backup and couldn’t let her put herself in harm’s way so deliberately.
It will be interesting to see where this series goes. Tracy moving into the Cold Case division was a way to stay out of the danger of the field and just use her detective skills after she had Daniella. Will she be able to go back to that situation or will she have to look at a different career path that provides more safety for her family? Is this series going to be wrapping up?
I also liked the way Dugoni chose to connect the video game aspect with real life— the idea of just focusing on the level that you are on, not the past level or what’s to come:
“‘One level at a time’… a way to live her life, not to dwell on past mistakes, regrets, or losses, and not to anticipate what could or might be— things that had not yet happened and might not ever occur. She would stay in the present, living each moment fully, handling whatever problem she might encounter, and enjoying every blessing.”
New word alert: I had never heard of the term ‘spaghetti western’ before. If you haven’t either, it’s a subgenre of Western films by Italian filmmakers mostly filmed in Europe in the 60s and 70s. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a popular one.
Recommendation
As with the rest of this series, I do recommend it. Tracy Crosswhite is a great character and I’ve loved seeing her progress not only in her detective career but in her family life.
You may not want to start with this one, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you did.
The main downsides to this book were just the increase in technical content and the mugshot debacle. Some reviewers thought there were too many uncharacteristic things of Tracy and that this book diverted from the typical caliber for this series. I did feel the difference but didn’t feel like it was entirely bad and I actually really liked the ending even if it was a bit dramatic. To me it fit the vibe nicely.
But definitely if you like police procedurals, strong female leads, Westerns, or a person with two big dogs, this book is for you!
[Content Advisory: 4 f-words, 35 s-words]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
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