Description
Author Robert Dugoni has written twenty-three novels and one nonfiction book. A Killing on the Hill is his first historical fiction novel. Rest assured he writes what he knows best, so this is obviously a crime novel. Dugoni lives in Seattle, Washington, so his locations in the city are accurate, and he paints a richly layered description of Seattle in 1933 during the Great Depression.
William Schumacher is the narrator of his chilling adventure as a young reporter for a Seattle afternoon newspaper. Shoe, as he’s known, has his first big crime story. He migrated from Kansas looking for work. As the saga unfolds, part one is not an in-your-face shocker. Shoe introduces the most important people in his life, Amara Giovacchini, whose father owns a bakery; his boss, Howard Phishbaum, Phish for sort; and Chief Detective Ernie Blunt of the Seattle PD.
Halfway into Shoe’s narrative, the tale picks up momentum. The number of characters expands as he digs deeply for the truth. There are gangsters, cops on the take, and rival newspaper reporters, all of whom have slightly different views of how the killing took place. This historic novel from Dugoni is worth the read.