HER DEADLY GAME by Robert Dugoni - Spotlight & Interview & Giveaway

 

A defense attorney is prepared to play. But is she a pawn in a master’s deadly match? HER DEADLY GAMES (Thomas&Mercer) i a twisting novel of suspense by New York Times bestselling author Robert Dugoni.

Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor, until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has. With the right moves, she hopes to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career.

Keera’s chance to play in the big leagues comes when she’s retained by Vince LaRussa, an investment adviser accused of murdering his wealthy wife. There’s little hard evidence against him, but considering the couple’s impending and potentially nasty divorce, LaRussa faces life in prison. The prosecutor is equally challenging: Miller Ambrose, Keera’s former lover, who’s eager to destroy her in court on her first homicide defense.

As Keera and her team follow the evidence, they uncover a complicated and deadly game that’s more than Keera bargained for. When shocking information turns the case upside down, Keera must decide between her duty to her client, her family’s legacy, and her own future.

WE GOT TO ASK ROBERT A FEW QUESTIONS

1. Explain the success of your novels.

Answer: A couple of things, I believe. First, I think there is a contract between a writer and his or her

readers. If a reader is going to buy my book, it has to be the very best that I can make it. I will never mail in a novel to meet a deadline.

I also have a great team of editors at Amazon publishing who push me to write the best novels I can. Beyond that, I never try to make my characters superheroes.

My characters, like Tracy Crosswhite, are very good at what they do, but they are also human, with all the same problems we  all have in our daily lives—difficulty with the boss at work, responsibilities as a spouse and parent. I think that is what readers relate to.

2. Why do you believe your characters are so popular and make your novels so successful?

Answer: See Number 1. I think readers find my characters relatable because they are real. They have real life problems. They’re not superheroes. They make mistakes at work and in their homelife.  

3. How did you become a novelist? Was it always your dream?

Answer: Since the seventh grade. I was a kid who got in trouble in grammar school. Then I ran into a kind nun. Sister Mary Williams thought I was bored and told my mother to give me books to read outside the classroom. 

My mother was a former literature teacher, and she had all these books at home. She started handing them to me. Before I knew it, I had read The Count of Montecristo, The Old Man and the Sea, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird and many more.

I fell in love with stories, and from that moment forward I wanted to create characters and tell stories.

4. I'm sure Hollywood has approached you. Any plans to turn your books/novels into movies?

Answer: I have an agent in Los Angeles, and she is queried often. Several projects are under contract. The Charles Jenkins espionage series is at CBS Studios. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell is with a producer and screenwriter. There is interest in Tracy Crosswhite, and in the new series with Keera

Duggan in Her Deadly Game. Movies are a long process, and it could be years, but I hope to someday see my characters on the screen.  

5. When you have an idea for a novel, do you outline or just go for it?

Answer: I don’t outline, but I’ve been doing this for 25 years now, and I have studied and taught story structure. I have a strong foundation of how stories are told, inciting incidents, emotional climaxes, and twists to make the ending exciting for the readers. 

I’ll often sit back and listen to the story my characters are telling me, then transcribe it within the confines of recognized story structure. It saves a tremendous amount of time for me, and I think I’ve gotten better as I’ve aged, because I listen more

intently to my characters. It improved the tension in my stories because they’re less formulaic.

I often don’t know where the story is headed, or who is the killer. Everything unfolds for me much the way it unfolds for readers.

6. Anything else you'd like to share?

  

Answer: I love what I do and I’m so very grateful to have readers who follow my career and love my novels. It’s humbling. I hope to do it for many more years.

Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle, which has sold more than 8 million books worldwide. 

He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and the literary novels, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell - Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, for which Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award and the critically acclaimed, The World Played Chess; as well as the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. 

Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and a three-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. 

He has also been a finalist for many other awards including the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.

Robert Dugoni’s books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Visit his website at www.robertdugoni.com, and follow him on twitter @robertdugoni and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AuthorRobertDugoni 

Lucky for us, Thomas & Mercer have provided one copy of his new novel, HER DEADLY GAME to giveaway. Just tell which of his numerous books is your favorite ... and there are plenty to pick from. We'll announce a winner soon. Good luck.