Reviewed: 30 May 2024

A Killing on the Hill

by: Robert Dugoni

A Novel

Rating: (4.0/5)

Was a hospital bill really worth killing for?

From what I understand this is the author's first historical fiction book. I find that hard to believe. It was very well done. As an avid reader of the Tracy Crosswhite series I wanted to find more by this author. In this one, we don't have a law enforcement officer, we have a wet behind the ears reporter trying to earn a living in Seattle 1933 without losing his soul.

I liked William "Shoe" Schumacher from the beginning and rooted for him throughout. I loved Amara and her spirit (her brothers were hilarious picking Shoe and walking him through the house). I even found the nosy boarding house matron endearing.

The story not only entertains but gives you nuggets to ponder. Maybe it was me, but I saw parallels to today. As I read I wondered, what would I have done in their shoes?

Not a book to fly through but one to sit with, engrossed and reflective.

A well-written, slow burn, heady and thoroughly entertaining read.
Happy Reading!

Release Date: 9-April-2024

Thriller, Historical Fiction

Plot Summary

The Great Depression. High-level corruption. And a murder that’s about to become Seattle’s hottest mystery. It’s the kind of story that can make a reporter’s career. If he lives to write about it.

Seattle, 1933. The city is in the grips of the Great Depression, Prohibition, and vice. Cutting his teeth on a small-time beat, hungry and ambitious young reporter William “Shoe” Shumacher gets a tip that could change his career. There’s been a murder at a social club on Profanity Hill—an underworld magnet for vice crimes only a privileged few can afford. The story is going to be front-page news, and Shoe is the first reporter on the scene.

The victim, Frankie Ray, is a former prizefighter. His accused killer? Club owner and mobster George Miller, who claims he pulled the trigger in self-defense. Soon the whole town’s talking, and Shoe’s first homicide is fast becoming the Trial of the Century. The more Shoe digs, the more he’s convinced nothing is as it seems. Not with a tangle of conflicting stories, an unlikely motive, and witnesses like Miller’s girlfriend, a glamour girl whose pretty lips are sealed. For now.

In a city steeped in old west debauchery, Shoe’s following every lead to a very dangerous place—one that could bring him glory and fame or end his life.