Curious about what goes on in the mind of an author? Check out this deep dive with local author Robert Dugoni!
Tell us a bit about your new book, A Killing on the Hill, coming out on Tuesday, April 9. What inspired you to write a book set in this specific time and place?
I was cleaning out the attic at our house and found two large scrapbooks filled with newspaper articles from the 1930s. Turned out they belonged to my wife’s grandfather. He was a prominent lawyer in Seattle, and he kept scrapbooks of his cases. As a young lawyer, he represented the business interests of George Moore, who was described as a gangster. Moore had opened a nightclub called the Pom Pom Club in a mansion on what was then known as Profanity Hill. It was called Profanity Hill because atop the hill was the original courthouse, and when the trolley cars broke down, frequently, litigants, lawyers and judges had to climb the hill to the courthouse with all their heavy materials.
The many articles from newspapers and magazines involved Moore’s shooting of Frankie Ray in the morning after a long night at the club. Moore eventually got the remaining employees to lie and say that Ray had attacked him with a gun. When the detectives determined the gun was Moore’s, he pleaded self-defense, one of the first times the defense was utilized. Lost in all this was the fact that The Great Depression was going on as was Prohibition. The trial became a glimpse into the glamorous world of those who had money, slinking out at night in their firs and tuxedos to drink, eat scrumptious meals, and gamble, while many lived in Hooverville’s starving.
My book’s story is told through the perspective of a 19-year-old reporter who is himself struggling through the Depression, while trying to help his stressed family. Lawyers were embedded with the police to gain access to stories, but only if they cooperated. William Shoemacher soon realizes he might be in way over his head, and the story is just a cover for a bigger story and a pot of gold. The trial became known as “The Trial of the Century” and was a fascinating look at Seattle during this time as it evolved. Many of the characters are real, and some I created to tell the story.
What library resources did you use in your research?
I spoke to a librarian at the Seattle Public Library downtown, and she helped me with maps and business in downtown Seattle in 1933. Not many books were written about Seattle during this period of time, so I had to find biographies and other materials. Luckily, I had all the newspaper and magazine articles that provided a flavor of the people and the atmosphere surrounding Seattle at that time. The librarian also helped me with how people dressed and what they ate and drank.*
What are you working on next?
Many things. The second Keera Duggan book, A Reasonable Doubt, A World War II historical novel, Hold Strong, and the 11th Tracy Crosswhite novel, not yet titled. I will then be starting the second William Shoemacher novel, and I’m excited about all of these projects.
What are you reading right now?
- Out of the Clouds: The Unlikely Horseman and the Unwanted Colt that Conquered the Sport of Kings by Linda Carroll & David Rosner
- Echoes of Us (forthcoming in October 2024) by Joy Jordan-Lake
- The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
- The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen
- The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
*You can access local newspaper archives via the Library’s databases, and have a look at some historic maps of Seattle HERE!
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