David Sloane is the best wrongful death attorney in San Francisco. But despite his professional success, he's plagued by a nightmare of a childhood he cannot consciously remember. When he recieves a package from a White House confidant who then turns up dead, the contents reveal a history he could never have imagined.
A writer turned lawyer turned writer.
Robert Dugoni was born in Pocatello, Idaho and raised in Burlingame, California. 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 knew he wanted to be a writer.
Dugoni wrote his way to 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. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and worked briefly as a reporter in the Metro Office and the San Gabriel Valley Office of the Los Angeles Times.
Dugoni attended the UCLA law school and 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, 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."
June 2010, Dugoni released his third in the David Sloane series, Bodily Harm, which the Providence Rhode Island Journal wrote branded Dugoni as "The undisputed king of the Legal Thriller."
Dugoni's fourth in the series, Murder One, will be released June 2011 and Publisher's Weekly has called it "the best yet in the series." Others are calling it a cross between Presumed Innocent and Basic Instinct.
In addition to writing novels, Dugoni teaches the craft of writing throughout the United States and has been a keynote speaker at many conferences and for many companies. For more on Dugoni and his novels, visit his website at www.robertdugonni.com
