'Sam Hell' author Robert Dugoni pours heart into every novel
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Robert Dugoni says he has learned to write with his heart rather than his head, whether in his acclaimed coming-of-age novel “The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell” or in his best-selling series featuring Seattle Detective Tracy Crosswhite.
This man of many careers — journalist, then attorney, then author — will speak on Monday, March 13, in the Nick Linn Lecture Series for the Friends of the Library of Collier County.
The 2023 series then concludes March 27 with best-selling novelist David Baldacci. The luncheons and lectures are fundraisers by the nonprofit Friends group, to benefit the Collier County Public Library system’s 10 branches. (Tickets for this year’s series are no longer available. To become a Friends member and learn about next year’s series, go to www.collier-friends.org.)
Dugoni, a self-described overachiever born into a family of 10 children in Idaho, credits his mother, who had studied to be an English teacher, for surrounding him with books, especially classics like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Of Mice and Men” and “The Great Gatsby.”
After graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a journalism degree from Stanford University, then from UCLA School of Law, Dugoni was a civil litigator for 17 years in San Francisco and Seattle, until the urge to write full time proved too strong to ignore.
His Tracy Crosswhite police series was already selling millions of books before he published “The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell” to runaway success in 2018, but he actually had started writing “Sam Hell” several years earlier.
The novel is about a boy born with ocular albinism, which causes his eyes to appear to be red. Sam Hill — the character’s real name — is bullied in school and called “Devil Boy,” but his mother insists he be treated normally and that everything is “God’s will.” Dugoni says he was inspired by his youngest brother, Michael, who was born with Down syndrome, and by their mother’s faith and advocacy for her son.
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Invoking that depth of compassion changed Dugoni’s writing style, he told Publishers Weekly in a 2021 interview.
“There was a moment in my career when I realized I had to stop writing with my head and start writing with my heart,” he said. “This realization first came when I was writing the draft of ‘The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell.’ I carried that thought with me when I first began thinking about Tracy Crosswhite.”
Disciplined and prolific, Dugoni has his 10th Crosswhite novel set to publish this fall. His new Keera Duggan series launches this month. He also writes the Charles Jenkins espionage series and the David Sloane legal thriller series. And, in addition to several stand-alone novels, he co-authored an award-winning nonfiction exposé about a horrific environmental crime, called “The Cyanide Canary,” in 2004.
Dugoni answered these questions ahead of his talk before the Friends of the Library.
Naples Daily News: Has writing about faith and hope, as you did in “The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell,” changed your life?
Robert Dugoni: More than I ever imagined. The emails I have received about what the book has meant to readers have been heart-warming, brought me to tears, and made the years of struggle worth every minute. I never thought I would write a novel that touched readers so deeply, that inspired them, gave them hope, or simply comforted them in difficult times. It has truly been very humbling.
NDN: Was your most recent stand-alone novel, “The World Played Chess,” inspired specifically by knowing someone who was a Vietnam veteran? Your main character, Vincent, is exactly your age — 18 years old in 1979, so too young to have fought in Vietnam, but a good age to absorb life lessons from those men who were sent off to war 10 or 15 years earlier.
RD: The novel was inspired by my own experiences in summer 1979, the summer after I graduated high school. I took a job on a construction crew and worked with two Vietnam veterans. One was struggling with addiction and both had PTSD. Much of the book is inspired by that summer, by the life lessons that I learned from those two men. They really popped the bubble in which I had been living, and made me realize I was about to be exposed to a much bigger world, with much bigger problems than I had ever imagined. I grew up a lot that summer and realized that, like it or not, I had gone from being a boy to being a man without receiving any real guidance on what that meant. I had role models, like my father, but the men I worked with had an experience that few of us can ever imagine.
NDN: “What She Found,” your 9th book featuring Seattle police detective Tracy Crosswhite, came out last year, and the 10th, called “One Last Kill,” publishes next fall. Will that series continue to be your main focus?
RD: My main focus is always the novel I’m researching and writing. I really believe readers deserve the best novel that I can write, and the only way to ensure that is to give that novel my full attention. Tracy Crosswhite is special to me. The success of “My Sister’s Grave” and that series has changed my life and my family members’ lives. I will continue to write Tracy Crosswhite books, hopefully for many more years.
NDN: But before that next Tracy Crosswhite novel, you have a new book due out in March. “Her Deadly Game” also has a female lead character, Keera Duggan, a defense attorney who’s a former prosecutor. Lisa Scottoline said she “adores” your legal thrillers and called this your “best one yet.” Is your creative experience different when your lead character is a woman?
RD: No, it’s really not. People often ask, ‘How do you write from the perspective of a woman?’ My answer is, I don’t. I write from the perspective of a character who comes to the story with the kind of baggage and skeletons we all have in our closets as human beings. Keera Duggan, the protagonist in “Her Deadly Game,” has had a work relationship go badly, she comes from an alcoholic and dysfunctional household, and is now going to work with her father and two sisters. She has scars she must work through. All of us, as human beings, are working through these things, regardless of gender. I just try to write well-rounded characters.
NDN: What’s the status of your many books whose rights have been picked up? You seem an obvious source for these multi-episode streaming series.
RD: Thanks for asking. The Charles Jenkins series is with CBS Studios. “The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell” is with a producer and screenwriter at present, and interest has come in regarding the Tracy Crosswhite series and “Her Deadly Game.” I’m always optimistic.
20th Annual Nick Linn Lecture Series
What: Author talks and luncheons sponsored by the Friends of the Library of Collier County
Where: The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort, 2600 Tiburon Drive, North Naples
When: Luncheons begin at noon. The author takes the stage at 1 p.m. Book signings begin at 2 p.m. after a Q&A session with the audience.
Authors remaining: Robert Dugoni, Monday, March 13; David Baldacci, Monday, March 27
Tickets: Tickets are no longer available for this year’s series. Friends memberships begin at $40/year and also provide access and discounts to other programs. To become a Friends member and get information about next year’s series, contact Marlene Haywood at mhaywood@collier-friends.org or 239-262-8135.
Website: https://collier-friends.org/events/nick-linn-series/
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Best-selling author Robert Dugoni speaks in Naples on March 13
