Burien Books hosted bestselling author Robert Dugoni's book-signing party at the Tin Room in Burien. His series of crime novels refer to Burien locations, including the Tin Room & owner Dan House. His new book "The Conviction" was officially released Tuesday, June 12.
July 11 UPDATE:
It was just announced that New York Times Bestseller and award-winning author Robert Dugoni, whose books utilize Burien locales, ranks first of the three finalists of the ABA Harper Lee Award. The 2nd Annual Harper Lee Prize is sponsored by the ABA Journal and the University of Alabama Law School.
Last year, John Grisham received the inaugural Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for "The Confession". Dugoni's book, "Murder One" has received 176,695 votes, more than the other two finalists, Michael Connelly for "The Fifth Witness", and David Ellis for his "Breach of Trust".
On Facebook Dugoni thanked his supporters and said he was humbled.
-----------------------------------------------------
New York Times Bestseller and award-winning author Robert Dugoni appeared for a book-signing at the Tin Room in Burien Tuesday night to promote his latest work, "The Conviction", Simon and Schuster, his fifth in the David Sloane series. The event was hosted by Burien Books. The former Seattle resident came home to Burien, in a way, as his protagonist, attorney Sloane, lives in Burien's Three-Tree Point neighborhood and hangs out at the Tin Room Bar & Grill in downtown Burien. Its real-life owner, Dan House is featured in his series.
The other four books in the series include "The Jury Master", "Wrongful Death", "Bodily Harm", and "Murder One".
Dugoni practiced civil litigation in San Francisco and Seattle for 17 years. In 1999 he left to write full-time. He is a two-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in journalism and worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times before obtaining his doctorate of jurisprudence from University of California at Los Angeles School of Law.
"Burien doesn't play as large a role as in past books, but Burien is Sloane's hometown," Dugoni told the Highline Times. "This is where he lives. This is where his son goes to school. One of his best friends is a priest at St. Francis right around the corner.
"It's a cool place," he said of Burien. "Readers all over the country will say to me, 'Is that a real place? Is that a real house?' And I say, 'Yes. It really exists.' And the really fun thing is people say to me, 'I came out to visit, and I went to Three Tree Point and found the house'.
"This book takes place mostly in California, " he added. "I wanted a sort of a lawless type of society that Sloane has to face."
Dugoni interrupted signing books for his loyal fans to say a few words.
Dugoni said, "I used to drive down this street all the time to get to my wife's family's house and there was this building that said, 'Dan the Sausage' on it. And for years I thought it had to be the funniest guy in the world to put 'Dan the Sausage' on the side of the building until I realized when you go around the corner it said 'Man'.
"I came here for dinner one night and I saw the picture of Mick Jagger and I said, 'I've got to put this in a book,'" he recalled. "Sure enough, Dan was here that night and we had dinner together. It was the start of a beautiful relationship with my books and his restaurant and I just want to thank you all very much. Burien has become like a second hometown for me. You guys treat me very wonderfully every time I'm here."
Allison Lee-Moore has owned Burien Books since April, 2010. She was stationed at the book-signing table taking turns holding her baby son, Tristan, with his adoring grandmothers as she wrote up sales.
"This is a big author for us so this is very exciting," Lee-Moore enthused. "We are very happy to be part of this. We do a lot of local author signings and Robert's books sell very well."
To read more about Robert Dugoni visit his website here:
