Robert Dugoni

I am over the moon whenever I am gifted a Robert Dugoni ARC. He is at the top of my list, all the time, no matter the series. From my first reading of “The Extraordinary Life of Same Hell” I was smitten. “The World Played Chess” was close to my undoing - I am still shedding tears. But this review speaks to the third installment in the Keera Duggan series and it is a nail biter.

There is a double murder, a suspect charged, and a courtroom drama. That is compelling enough if you take show more only those elements and create a super charged thriller which pits equally brilliant and motivated individuals fighting to win a courtroom battle. But this story becomes much more interesting and powerful when you understand and examine the extreme and almost complete power a prosecutor has in a criminal case and this is where Dugoni unloads in this installment. How far is this Prosecutor willing to go for a conviction, knowing she has “near absolute immunity for her actions related to her duties in the courtroom “. What will it take for the defense attorney to not just save but exonerate her client? What happens to the integrity of the judicial system through this tug of war? Masterfully told drawing tensions as high as the sky and disappointment as low as the floor of a jail cell.

Condolences to Mr. Dugoni on the loss of his mother which he relates in his “Acknowledgements”. Now I know I have to read “The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell” one more time. I want to express my thanks to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for a copy of “Her Cold Justice”. show less

Keera Duggan and her two sisters, Maggie and Ella, work for the family law firm, founded by their father Patrick, whom everyone calls Patsy. Although she was once a Seattle prosecutor, Keera is now a criminal defense attorney. She agrees to represent an affluent wealth manager, Vincent LaRussa, who is accused of shooting his disabled wife, Anne, in the head. Vince had been the guest speaker at a charity event one evening. He claims that when he returned home, he found Anne slumped in her show more wheelchair.

Patsy Duggan, who was once admired for his knowledge, toughness, and charisma, is a binge drinker. Keera is willing to accept whatever help and advice her father can offer, but she cannot rely on him to stay sober. "Her Deadly Game," by Robert Dugoni, is an engrossing and multi-layered legal thriller. The author skillfully demonstrates how much time and effort it takes to prepare for a high-profile trial. Keera, who is a superb chess player, is competitive, highly intelligent, and a fierce advocate for her clients. However, she fears that Vince may be withholding key information that she needs in order to do her job effectively.

Among the book's vividly depicted characters are JP Harrison, Keera's crack investigator; Anne LaRussa, whom we never meet, but who casts her shadow on the proceedings; Dr. Lisa Bennett, an oncologist and Anne's best friend; and prosecutor Ambrose Miller, Keera's mean-spirited adversary and former lover. The trial is a humdinger, with considerable drama and numerous twists and turns. As long-hidden secrets emerge, Keera scrambles to stay focused. She will come to realize that, in the words of Oscar Wilde, "the truth is rarely pure and never simple." show less

The Silent Sisters (2022) marks the completion of Robert Dugoni’s Charles Jenkins trilogy, following The Eighth Sister (2019) and The Last Agent (2020). For the uninitiated, Charles Jenkins is a six foot, five inch black man who in his sixties has been called back into CIA service so that he can extract several women who were trained to spy for the US since birth. You read that right: a huge, black American spy is expected to go undetected inside Russia long enough to help US spies escape show more the only country they have known their entire lives. Rather surprisingly, Dugoni makes it all seem very possible…if not likely…to work.

Originally, there were seven women working in critical Russian positions who were providing key intelligence information to American counterintelligence officers. Each of the women had been groomed and trained by their Russian parents from birth to believe in what they were doing, and to do it well. But now, things are starting to fall apart, and time is running out on the Seven Sisters because an American traitor has revealed their existence to the Russians. Russian intelligence officers do not know their names, but do know that seven women were planted — and that some of them are still on the job. Now, the Russians are ruthlessly looking at all women in their early sixties who are working in jobs that would allow them to pass critical intelligence to the US. In biblical fashion, all of these women are going to be eliminated in order to make sure that no spies survive the purge; they will be tortured and killed, one-by-one, until that possibility is eliminated.

The CIA knows that two of the women are still active, but each has gone silent in recent weeks, meaning that the women realize the end is near for them. They need to get out of Russia, and if they are to survive, they need to do it now. Charles Jenkins, who has already gotten one of the seven women out, is going back again to rescue the surviving pair before they meet the fate of those who have already been arrested, tortured, and killed. That the odds are stacked against Jenkins is an understatement. Before this one is over, Jenkins and the women will simultaneously be chased by Russian intelligence agencies, the Russian police, and the Russian mafia, all of whom want to capture Jenkins for reasons of their own. But is being chased by three such powerful groups at the same time necessarily a bad thing?

Bottom Line: Robert Dugoni writes a heck of a thriller, the kind of story involving long, potentially deadly chases where the hero must run for his life even though survival seems a long shot at best. But what Dugoni does better than most thriller writers, is create characters that the reader truly cares about because they become so easy to identify with. We learn about their spouses and children, their hopes and their fears…what makes them tick. And Dugoni does it for both the good guys and the bad guys. The world is not as black or white as we used to believe it was; it’s a hundred shades of grey, instead. There are good guys, and there are bad guys, on both sides. The beauty of The Silent Sisters is watching the good guys find, recognize, and help each other.

I recommend the Charles Jenkins trilogy to spy novel fans, and personally I’m happy to see that Dugoni has at least left the door cracked open enough to allow for the possibility of a fourth Jenkins book. So here’s hoping this is not the last time I’ll be reading about the man.

Review Copy provided by Thomas & Mercer
The Silent Sisters to be published on February 22, 2022 show less

Robert Dugoni is a brilliant writer. I am a fan of his Tracy Crosswhite series as well as the series employing the character Charles Jenkins. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell rocked me to my core. Dugoni has upped his game once again with The World Played Chess. Told in rotating chapters by three men, the style is honest and allows for revelation of each personality.

Where to start, how to explain how this book pierced my heart on so many pages. The connection was easy. I was of the Vietnam show more War era. Friends were drafted, goodbyes were said and prayers offered, so many prayers, that I would see my friends again. I have first hand knowledge of what was written in this book. It took me back to that horrible, conflicted time and then allowed me the time to reflect as tears flowed.

“Growing old is a privilege, not a right.”

“You can’t expect to be treated as a man if you act like a child.”

“Growing old is a privilege, not a right.”

“He taught me not to waste the opportunities I had, because so many young men never had a chance at them, never had the chance to grow old.

“Growing old is a privilege, not a right.”

“It scares me how matter-of-fact they are about death, guys still in their early twenties…to know the drill so well. To not even flinch.”

“Growing old is a privilege, not a right.”

“You give boys guns and vests, throw them into general chaos and hope for the best.”

“Growing old is a privilege, not a right.”

This is the repeated mantra from beginning to end.

Reading from William Goodman’s Journal, Vincent Bianco remembers the stories and reflects upon some of the hard learned lessons which were a part of the summer before he entered college. The parallels to Vincent’s son, Beau, while interesting were enlightening to a lesser extent.

This is a story written for a young man who has no idea that “The world is playing chess and you’re playing checkers.” He has so much to learn and despite his fallacies he is blessed with a teacher tenured in some of life’s hardest lessons. This is “the story of William, of Vietnam and the summer of 1979.”

“May we never forget, so we never again have to experience it”

Thank you Robert Dugoni for another incredible book and to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a copy show less