A review by amateur_bookworm
A Killing on the Hill by Robert Dugoni

mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

My summary: Set in Seattle in 1933, William “Shoe” Schumacher is a budding news reporter who has just earned his press badge from the chief of police that gives him access to crime scenes. Sent away by his parents after graduating high school, the Depression has hit his family hard back in Kansas City and Shoe is determined to work hard and send any money he can back home. When Shoe receives a call from a detective about a high-profile murder at a ritzy drinking and gambling club, he soon realizes this will be the case that makes or breaks his career. But covering the trial of the century may just be too much for Shoe to handle with the rampant corruption that rules Seattle. 

My thoughts:

I really love Robert Dugoni’s books and I was eagerly awaiting the release of this one. His first historical thriller stayed true to his roots of being set in Seattle. It is a great glimpse of the area during this time period of the Depression and Prohibition— and the rampant corruption of government officials and politicians amongst the organized crime. 

This book is good but I didn’t find it to be nearly as up to par as Dugoni’s other books. It’s hard to write a review that doesn’t sound scathing because it truly is a good book, it’s just nearly not at the high level of writing I have come to expect from his books. 

I feel like he spent too much time explaining the historical setting to the detriment of developing the plot and characters. I had trouble connecting with any of the characters or the plot because of this. Instead of describing the historical setting while forcing bits of the plot into it, I would have preferred that he just wrote the plot to let the historical setting naturally take shape in the readers minds. 

There are a lot of characters thrown at you. It was difficult to keep them straight and I found myself repeatedly flipping backwards to find the introduction of each character and their role in the plot.  

I felt like the first two thirds of the book was a bit of a slog but it did pick up steam in the last third as the plot began to come together more cohesively. 

I wish that snippets of the Author’s Note had been placed at the preface to the book instead of at the end of it. I feel like the insight it gave would have vastly improved my overall opinion of the book while reading. 

Overall, it’s a good first foray into historical fiction and an interesting legal thriller that took twists that I wasn’t expecting. I do hope Dugoni continues to explore historical fiction in this setting in Seattle as it is a very interesting time period that is largely untapped in fiction as of yet. 
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