Robert Dugoni’s newest legal thriller, “My Sister’s Grave,” is sure to be another New York Times bestseller as it’s already climbing up the sales chart already reaching the top spot on Amazon among the top purchased ebooks, even before its official release Nov 1.

It also has critics raving.Twenty years ago, Tracy Crosswhite’s younger sister, Sarah, disappeared on her way home to their small town of Cedar Grove. A young ex-con, Edmund House, was quickly tried and convicted for Sarah’s murder, despite never finding her body, a fact that’s haunted Tracy ever since.

After spending nearly two decades conducting her own investigation Sarah’s remains are uncovered from a newly-exposed lake bed, calling into question all the evidence used against House.

Although the “whodunit” story filled with twists and turns, Dugoni said what he really wanted to create, was a story about relationships and the strain losing a loved one can have, not just one those closest to the victim, but the entire community.

“When someone is killed the person who dies isn’t the only victim,” Dugoni said. “It’s the family, it’s the community who suffers. When you lose a family member or loved one to a violent crime you never truly get justice.”

Throughout the book, Dugoni said he wanted to reiterate that fact, writing in flashback scenes to when Sarah and Tracy were just 8 and 12-years-old, and to when they were nearly adults and the events leading up to Sarah’s disappearance.

For many male authors, writing one female lead, let alone two, can get lost as the writer creates a fantastical version instead of a simple one, stopping some readers in their tracks. Dugoni said he hopes he was able to avoid the pitfall by focusing on the characters, not their genders.

“I didn’t try to be a woman, I just played it straight,” he said. “I tried to be a character that simply lost someone they loved. It’s a universal emotion.”

Dugoni said it also helped growing up with some excellent examples of female role models. The middle child of four sisters and five brothers, Dugoni said his sisters, especially those who were older, were merely an extension of their mother, a matriarch in every sense of the word, to the point that when any of them spoke, he listened and followed the instructions.

However, every time Dugoni dared to tell his mother “I’m bored” he soon found himself digging a hole, cleaning something or reading a book. After cruising through various classics including “The Count of Monte Cristo” “The Lord of the Flies” and “Of Mice and Men,” Dugoni was hooked and boredom seldom reared its head again.

Because of his mother’s insistence to spend his time expanding his literary library instead of complaining about his lack of entertainment, Dugoni discovered his love of writing and at age 13 decided he wanted to be a novelist.

As it so often happens however, Dugoni’s professional career led him a different path and his dream of writing was set aside.

Twenty years later, as a successful lawyer in California, Dugoni woke one morning and realized he’d ignored his dream, his passion, for far too long.

“I couldn’t not pursue what I wanted to do anymore, so I talked to my wife and she said, ‘Then don’t’ and that was that,” he said.

The couple moved with their children to Bellevue where Dugoni began his new writing career.

Five bestsellers later, and another on its way, Dugoni said the choice was one of the best he’s ever made, but his success didn’t come easy.

Working out of an 8-foot-by-8-foot windowless storage closet in Seattle’s old Pioneer Building, Dugoni spent most of his afternoons at the nearby Elliot Bay Bookstore reading every book on writing in the “How To” section.

The research paid off. Dugoni met a new friend at a party, bonding over authors they both loved. The next day, Dugoni got a call from his new friend about a case he’d been working on in Idaho, one that led to Dugoni landing his first deal and the subject for his first book “The Cyanide Canary.”

Using his knowledge of law, his prior experience as a reporter at the LA Times, Dugoni has since been able to carve out an award-winning career, often being compared to literary giants John Grisham and Scott Turow.

The Associated Press wrote, “Robert Dugoni is as good, if not better.”

For Dugoni, the greatest compliment he gets is from readers who simply couldn’t put down his work.

One reader told Dugoni she was “haunted” by Tracy, asking “is Tracy really going to be OK?”

“The bond between sisters, especially sisters close in age is so strong,” he said. “When one dies, it kills a part of the other, of Tracy. Everyone can sympathize with this story even though not everyone has lost someone to a violent crime.”

Dugoni is currently working on a sequel to “My Sister’s Grave,” in between tour stops to promote the book, and a short story “The Academy” a quasi prequel is available for free online, he said.

Dugoni is scheduled to appear for book signings at Kirkland Park Place Books on Nov. 5, Third Place Books on Nov. 6, and University Bookstore on Nov. 12.

jstilts@bellevuereporter.com or 425-453-4290 on Twitter: @JoshStilts