Background

Robert Dugoni was born on February 17, 1961, in Pocatello, Idaho and raised in Burlingame, California.

Education

Dugoni studied at Stanford University, receiving writing awards along the way, and majored in communications/journalism and creative writing while working as a reporter for the Stanford Daily. After that Dugoni attended the UCLA School of Law.

Career

After graduating from the UCLA law school, Dugoni practiced law for 13 years in San Francisco. His longing to return to writing never wavered, however, and in 1999 he awoke one morning and made the decision to quit law and write novels. On the 4-year anniversary of his wedding day, keeping a promise to his wife, he drove a u-haul trailer across the Oregon-Washington border and settled in Seattle to pursue his dreams.

For the next three years, Dugoni worked daily in an 8 foot by 8-foot windowless office in Pioneer Square to complete three novels, winning the 1999 and 2000 Pacific Northwest Writer's Conference Literary Contests.

Dugoni's first novel, The Jury Master, followed and became a New York Times bestseller. Deadly Pleasures mystery magazine chose The Jury Master as one of three "Best of the Best" debut novels of 2006 and the Seattle Times likened Dugoni to a young John Grisham, calling The Jury Master, "A riveting tale of murder, skullduggery, and treachery at the highest level."

Dugoni's second novel, Damage Control, reached number 8 on several national independent bookseller's lists. Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal called Damage Control "a page-turner" with "a fast-moving plot and a few twists that will surprise even seasoned thriller readers."

Wrongful Death, Dugoni's second novel featuring Dugoni's popular protagonist, David Sloan, received critical acclaim. Kirkus called it, "An entertaining thriller about a hotshot lawyer with good guys to like, villains to hiss, and windmills to attack.." And Booklist wrote, "Mixing the suspense of a Grisham legal thriller with the political angle of a Baldacci. Dugoni is knocking on the A-list thriller door."

In June 2010, Dugoni released his third in the David Sloane series, Bodily Harm, which Library Journal chose as one of the top five thrillers of 2010. The Providence Rhode Island Journal wrote that Bodily Harm branded Dugoni as "The undisputed king of the Legal Thriller."

Dugoni's fourth in the series, Murder One, was released in June 2011 and hailed as a cross between Presumed Innocent and Basic Instinct. Publisher's Weekly called it "the best yet in the series" and Library Journal again chose it as one of the top five thrillers of 2011. The Miami Examiner wrote, "Dugoni should be cloned." It was a finalist for the prestigious Harper Lee Award given by the University of Alabama School of Law and American Bar Association.

The Conviction, the fifth in the David Sloane series will be released in June 2012 and again hailed. The Associated Press wrote, "The names John Grisham and Scott Turow are mentioned when discussing the legal thriller genre. Robert Dugoni is as good, if not better." TheProvidence Rhode Island Journal agreed. "The Conviction isn't just the best legal thriller of the year, it's one of the best thrillers period."

Dugoni's first in the Tracy Crosswhite series was released on November 1, 2014, by Thomas and Mercer. Crosswhite, Seattle's First Female Homicide detective is on a twenty-year quest to find out who abducted and murdered her younger sister. The answer will shock her, and open horrifying new dangers. Look for the prequel, The Academy, also to be released by Thomas and Mercer this September.

Achievements

• Since 2013, Dugoni has sold more than 5,000,000 books, and My Sister’s Grave and The Eighth Sister have been optioned for television series development. He is also the author of the best-selling standalone novel, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell and The 7th Canon, a 2017 finalist for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for best novel. His expose, The Cyanide Canary, became a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. He is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction, and the Friends of Mystery, Spotted Owl Award for the best novel in the Pacific Northwest.
  
  He is a two-time finalist for the International Thriller Writers Award and the Mystery Writers of America Award for best novel. His David Sloane novels have twice been nominated for the Harper Lee Award for legal fiction.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Wrongful Death

    (When a widow asks Sloane to take her case against the mil...)

    2009
  • Close to Home

    (While investigating the hit-and-run death of a young boy,...)

    2017
  • The Eighth Sister

    (Former CIA case officer Charles Jenkins is a man at a cro...)

    2019
  • The Conviction

    (As David Sloane continues to piece his life back together...)

    2014
  • Bodily Harm

    (Bodily Harm opens with a big win for David Sloane and his...)

    2010
  • Third Watch

    (Tracy Crosswhite is a young patrol officer, paying her du...)

    2015
  • My Sister's Grave

    (Tracy Crosswhite has spent twenty years questioning the f...)

    2014
  • A Steep Price

    (Called in to consult after a young woman disappears, Trac...)

    2018
  • The Last Agent

    (Betrayed by his own country and tried for treason, former...)

    2020
  • Her Final Breath

    (Tracy Crosswhite returns in the second book in the page-t...)

    2015
  • In the Clearing

    (The gripping third book in the internationally acclaimed ...)

    2016
  • The 7th Canon

    (In San Francisco’s seamy Tenderloin district, a teenage s...)

    2016
  • A Cold Trail

    (Seattle homicide detective Tracy Crosswhite returns home ...)

    2020
  • Murder One

    (Attorney David Sloane takes on his first criminal case… d...)

    2011
  • The Trapped Girl

    (Tracy Crosswhite must first identify the victim to catch ...)

    2017
  • The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell

    (Sam Hill always saw the world through different eyes. Bor...)

    2018

Views

"I liken the experience to a mechanic working on everyone else’s cars. It forces you to evaluate what works and what doesn’t and why. It helps you to see when an engine is running smoothly and when it needs some work. Teaching reinforces all the principles that go into writing a book. For instance, letting the character tell the reader what he wants in every scene, so the reader has a vested interest in that scene and in that character succeeding. Then putting obstacles in the path of the protagonist’s goal to create tension in that scene. When I teach, I’m learning. When I’m learning, I’m a better writer.

I liken my teaching to being a golf coach. Every person who swings a golf club does it a little differently. But if the person is getting results, there’s no reason to correct the swing. If a golfer is slicing the ball, a good golf coach will first tell the student the principal behind the ball slicing so that the student knows and understands why the ball is doing what it is doing and can then seek to fix it. I ask students all the time, “Should a character change throughout a novel?” They all say, “yes” because they’ve read somewhere that characters should change. So I then ask, “Why?” You’d be amazed at the blank stares I get. I ask, “How much should a character change? More blank stares. If a student doesn’t understand the principal behind a character’s need to change, how can they fix it? I tell students to study the craft and then find what process works best for them. But I also tell them don’t be stubborn. There are certain principles that underscore all good fiction – plots that move, characters in action, tension, tension, and more tension. Ignore those principles and the process doesn’t matter.."

Quotations: "Writing is a craft. Learn the craft. Yes, it’s true that just about everyone can write. But just about everyone can also hit a golf ball – that doesn’t make them a professional golfer. You’re not just “writing”. You are story-telling. And if you don’t know all that is involved in telling a great story, you can’t possibly build a great novel people are going to want to read."

"We’re both teaching the reader that at some point in your novel you need an inciting incident. You need the protagonist to commit to the journey. You need an opposite force pushing against what the protagonist wants so they can’t have it, either easily or quickly. Screenwriters are very specific about the craft and principles. They go so far as to say, by page 10 of a romance this has to happen. By page 25, this has to happen. The principles haven’t changed, but the message has. Why? Because screenplays are usually 120 to 200 pages. The screenplay is written for a different medium – one that is experienced through sight and sound. So it is imperative that certain things happen at certain times. But that is really process, not principal. The principles are the same. The process to achieve those principles is different because it is a different medium."

"I never think of anything I’ve written as a masterpiece, though I appreciate the kind words. I’m always pleased if my work is well-received by readers, but as much as I love getting those emails, there’s nothing anyone can say that will make me go and change the novel. It’s done. That story is written. It’s out in the world existing. When it is, my world has changed a bit, but my job hasn’t. My job is to write the next novel, maybe a better novel, with better characters and a killer climax."

"Religion is complicated. Organized religion is something that is perpetuated by men and women and those men and women are fallible. Faith is not religion. Religion is tangible, with its sacraments and its rituals and its masses. Faith is intangible. You can’t touch it. You can’t prove there is or is not a God. You just have to believe or not believe."

Membership

Robert is a member of the International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America and a board member of Sisters in Crime.

Personality

Growing up the middle child in a family of ten siblings, Dugoni jokes that he didn't get much of a chance to talk, so he wrote. By the seventh grade, he wanted to be a writer.

As of today, Robert likes to work out a lot. It’s his stress release: "I used to play a lot of sports, but as I’ve gotten older, body parts break down. I enjoy my wife and my kids. I love to travel to new places and to see new things. I’m not passionate about golf, but I love to hit the ball and use it as a social outlet. I also ride my bicycle frequently. Finally, I’m a big movie buff and I love it when the new releases come out."

Interests

• theater, signing, movies, traveling

• Writers

  Stephen King, Stephen Hunter, Phil Margollin, John Lescroart, J.K. Rowling

• Sport & Clubs

  golf, bicycle riding

• Music & Bands

  Elvis Presley

Connections

Robert is married and lives with his wife and two children in the Pacific Northwest.

Son:

Joe Dugoni

colleague:

Grace Doyle

Senior Editor, Thomas & Mercer, Amazon Publishing

References

• Author's Robert Dugoni Official Website