When Tori Winters becomes the star witness in a murder trial, someone tries to kill her. Terrified, she’s not giving the killer a second chance. With all her worldly possessions packed in her car, Tori is on the run. A mysterious phone call about an inheritance leads her to Granbury. After all, who would look for her in a small, quaint Texas town?

Instead, Tori’s life is about to spin into an existence where nothing is as it seems. The historic house she inherits is steeped in secrets from the past. Secrets that may prove deadly. A stranger in a strange town, who can she trust? There is the disinherited step-grandson and the lawyer and his son. What are they hiding?

Tori’s inheritance may not be a blessing when a killer strikes again. It could be her death warrant.

What is different about Deadly Keepsakes?

GUEST POST

BY ANITA DICKASON

Typically, I write crime thrillers and paranormal suspense. I am a twenty-two-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. It’s not much of a stretch to see why I write about cops and crime.

My first book, Sentinels of the Night, debuted an elite FBI team, Trackers. I have written three more Tracker novels, Going Gone, Au79, and Operation Navajo. While each is a standalone novel, I draw on a concept of a team of characters. In each book, a different Tracker agent takes center stage. I soon added a paranormal suspense, Not Dead, and another crime thriller, Deadly Business.

In these books, the plot revolves around the crime and the investigation. Developing the characters is somewhat limited as the main focus is their investigation. Another common feature with all of these books was the main characters were law enforcement—FBI agents, ATF agents, Interpol agents, a police chief, Special Ranger, U.S. Marshal, homicide detectives, a sheriff, and private investigators.

This all changed with Deadly Keepsakes. It started with a conversation about plots for books with a friend. She told me about several poker chips found during the renovation of an old gambling casino, Top O‘ Hill Terrace. At the time, I was involved in writing Deadly Business. Once the book was launched, I started thinking about my next book. I came back to the poker chips, wondering how I could weave them, a 1930s gambling casino and a Dallas gangster, into a story.

As the plot began to develop, I knew I had to switch to another concept. What I wanted to write wasn’t going to be a crime thriller. This was a mystery. I soon found that changing to a new genre, a cozy-style mystery, presented a unique set of problems. In Deadly Keepsakes, the plot revolves around the characters and how the crime affects their lives. It may not seem to be a big difference, but I found the writing extremely challenging.

Not a single lead character is a cop. Instead, Tori Winters is a nurse. Her life is about to change in ways she could never imagine. It’s a rags to riches story, with murder, mayhem, and Texas-sized skullduggery. It was a fun story to write. I have characters you’ll love and characters you’ll love to hate.

Deadly Keepsakes is the first book in the Tori Winters mystery series. This was another interesting challenge as I had to lay the foundation for the following books. I am excited about seeing where my characters will take me in the series. I hope to have the second book published by year’s end. So, stay tuned, more to come.