My Sister's Grave

My Sister’s Grave (2014) is a crime thriller by Robert Dugoni and the first installment in the Tracy Crosswhite series. Dugoni is a New York Times best-selling author known for his legal thriller novels, including the popular David Sloane series. The novel unfolds across two timelines and is primarily narrated by protagonist Tracy Crosswhite, a Seattle homicide detective whose career was inspired by the disappearance of her 18-year-old sister, Sarah.

The present-day narrative follows Tracy’s investigation of Sarah’s case after her remains are finally unearthed 20 years later. This storyline is interwoven with extended flashbacks to 1993 that recount Sarah’s disappearance as well as the original investigation and resulting conviction. Through Tracy’s journey to find justice for her sister—which entails challenging the original conviction and uncovering a local conspiracy—the novel examines themes like The Tension Between Truth, Compassion, and Justice; The Lifelong Burden of Guilt and Unresolved Grief; and Reinterpreting the Past Through Memory and Discovery.

This guide refers to the 2014 Thomas & Mercer edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, graphic violence, rape, death by suicide, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The story begins with an introduction to Tracy Crosswhite, a dedicated but emotionally scarred homicide detective in Seattle, Washington. Her career was driven by a trauma from 20 years prior, when her younger sister, Sarah, disappeared. Tracy’s work consumes her life.

The 1993 flashbacks interwoven throughout the narrative provide additional context for that event. The first flashback depicts the very day Sarah disappears. Tracy and Sarah are competing in the Washington State Single Action Shooting Championship, which Tracy wins after Sarah throws the match, much to Tracy’s anger. Sarah intentionally missed two targets to ensure that Tracy would be in a good mood for her boyfriend Ben’s planned marriage proposal that evening. Against Tracy’s wishes, and ignoring her advice to avoid the dangerous county road, Sarah drives home alone. Before they part, Tracy gives Sarah her black Stetson hat and presses the championship belt buckle into her hand. Tracy never sees her sister again.

James Crosswhite, Tracy and Sarah’s father, is desperate for a conviction. He is convinced that Edmund House, a recently paroled rapist, is behind Sarah’s disappearance. Sheriff Roy Calloway agrees with him. However, without evidence, the sheriff cannot obtain a search warrant to search the House property, so he recruits a traveling salesman named Ryan Hagen to testify that he saw House’s truck the night Sarah disappeared. That testimony is enough to obtain a search warrant, but they still need certain evidence to “prove” House’s guilt.

Calloway asks James for help in implicating House. Despite his determination to bring Sarah justice, he initially refuses to plant false evidence. He only relents after speaking with George Bovine, whose daughter House had raped. James provides blonde hairs and a pair of Sarah’s earrings, which investigators found when executing the search warrant. At the trial, Calloway also testifies that House admitted to murdering Sarah in an unrecorded confession. House is convicted and sentenced to life in prison based on this circumstantial evidence. Overcome with grief over Sarah’s death, James later dies by suicide.

At the beginning of the novel, in the present day, two hunters and their dog discover human remains in the hills above Tracy and Sarah’s hometown of Cedar Grove, a small town outside of Seattle. When Tracy learns of the discovery, she immediately suspects that the remains are Sarah’s. She returns home and negotiates with Sheriff Calloway to observe the excavation. The grave is located in an area that was searched after Sarah’s disappearance but subsequently flooded by a dam project and only recently became accessible again. When the championship belt buckle—which went missing with Sarah—is unearthed, Tracy’s worst fears are confirmed.

Forensic anthropologist Kelly Rosa determines that the remains are Sarah’s. Her analysis uncovers new evidence that contradicts the original trial narrative. Sarah’s body shows signs that rigor mortis set in before burial, suggesting that she was not buried immediately after death. The presence of certain jewelry, carpet fibers, and garbage-bag remnants also conflicts with the prosecution’s theory of the crime.

Convinced that House was framed, Tracy enlists Dan O’Leary, a childhood friend who is now a Cedar Grove attorney, to review the case. They file a petition for post-conviction relief for House, who agrees to cooperate. A hearing is granted before a respected retired judge, Burleigh Meyers. Before the hearing, Dan’s dog is injured by a gunshot fired into his house.

Undeterred, Dan systematically dismantles the prosecution’s original case. He picks apart Calloway’s investigation methods and exposes Hagen’s testimony as unreliable, proving that Hagen regularly visited Cedar Grove and knew of the case long before he claimed. Tracy testifies, presenting a photograph from the shooting competition that proves that Sarah was wearing different earrings the day she disappeared. Finally, forensic expert Harrison Scott testifies that DNA analysis of the hairs found in the truck revealed that they belong to both Tracy and Sarah, suggesting that they were planted from a shared hairbrush.

Judge Meyers rules House’s conviction a miscarriage of justice and orders his immediate release, which shocks the community. Afterward, a wave of violent retaliation by an unknown attacker sweeps through Cedar Grove. DeAngelo Finn, House’s original defense attorney, is found crucified to a closet door in his home after an arson attack. Tracy connects the shooting at Dan’s house to a flatbed truck registered to House’s uncle Parker’s furniture business.

Tracy drives to Parker’s remote property during a severe snowstorm, certain that he is the killer. She finds Parker crucified to a chair, but before he can warn her, she is ambushed and knocked unconscious. She awakens chained in an underground room in an old mine, the same place where Sarah was held captive. Her captor is Edmund House. He reveals that it was Tracy whom he had stalked and intended to abduct 20 years ago. The night of the crime, however, he mistook Sarah for Tracy because she was driving Tracy’s truck and wearing Tracy’s Stetson. He held Sarah captive for seven weeks before murdering her and burying her body just before the dam flooded the area.

Later, Tracy discovers a message that Sarah scratched into the concrete wall, part of a shared childhood prayer: “I am not afraid” (363). She also finds a metal spike that Sarah hid. Meanwhile, Calloway and Dan realize that Tracy is in danger and follow her to Parker’s property. Calloway proceeds to the mine alone, where he is caught in a bear trap set by House and dragged inside. As House prepares to torture Calloway, Tracy attacks him with the spike. In the ensuing struggle, she frees herself, retrieves Calloway’s revolver, and shoots House dead. Soon after, they are rescued by Dan and Deputy Finlay Armstrong.

To protect the reputations of Calloway and others involved in the original conviction, Tracy holds a press conference and presents a revision of the truth. She claims that the evidence that enabled House’s conviction was planted by her father, who died by suicide after Sarah vanished. In truth, this is a fabrication to protect the living conspirators: Calloway, who enlisted Hagen as a witness; Parker, who planted the evidence; and prosecutor Vance Clark, who was also involved. This narrative, born of a desire to let the community heal, effectively shields the living from prosecution. Calloway later explains to Tracy that her father’s suicide was driven by his immense grief over Sarah’s death.

In the Epilogue, Tracy begins to move forward. She starts a hopeful, long-distance relationship with Dan and returns to her job in Seattle. A final visit to her childhood home in Cedar Grove brings a sense of peace, allowing her to reconcile with her past and embrace her future.