Secrets that defy time!

An inconceivable disaster brings Tori Winters’ plans for the historic house she inherited to a traumatic standstill. A section of the escape tunnel built by her great-grandfather, a notorious Dallas gangster, has collapsed. Within the rubble, there is a gruesome discovery. A skeleton with a bullet hole in the skull.

The shocking cave-in triggers an ominous scheme to condemn her property as accusations arise that the tunnel is dangerous.

Embattled, Tori soon discovers that more than the destruction of the house is on the line. It seems she can’t escape the past. It keeps clawing its way into her life with deadly consequences.

Who hides in the shadows with a motive for murder? And … is Tori the target?

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Interview with Anita Dickason

How did writing this book differ from Deadly Keepsakes, the first book in the series?

While writing the first book, I soon discovered that writing a series was very different from a standalone novel. The challenge certainly continued in book #2. The problem was the backstory. How many details from the first book did I need to include for the reader’s benefit without overwhelming them? It resulted in many revisions.

 What did you like most about Murder’s Legacy?

The characters. The first book primarily evolved around the how and why of Tori’s arrival in Granbury, the historic house she inherited, and the Texas-sized skullduggery she encountered. While my cast of secondary characters was a fun addition, I didn’t get to elaborate much.

In this book, I expanded on them and their roles in the plans for Tori’s house. Two of my favorite lines from the book are from Mia. In one, Mia is speaking to Tori. “Yes. Annoy you. I have made my mission for today.” In the second, she is talking to Parker Hayes, the private investigator. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

 What prompted the changes in the characters?

For some, it came from the readers who had read Deadly Keepsakes. I received several comments about Parker Hayes. They liked the character, even though he didn’t appear until toward the end of the book. In Murder’s Legacy, Parker has a much more significant and startling role.

The coffee sparked another comment. One reviewer took objection to the use of coffee and not iced tea. There is some fun nonsense and dialogue with the characters about the merits of coffee vs. Texas iced tea. I am still chuckling over this one.

Where do you get the ideas for the plot?

This is where it really gets fun. I had no idea when I initially created the house and a tunnel built by a gangster that it would be a wealth of opportunities for plots. In this book, it was the secret tunnel. During the demolition of the old guest house, the tunnel collapses. Here’s another favorite line in the book from Colt McLean, the construction contractor. “Tori, we found bones in the tunnel. I think they’re human. I’ve already called the police.”

What’s next?

I’m not sure. There is the attic. What secrets does it hide? Or the wine cellar. There might be a mystery there. And then there are the antiques. What are they hiding? Endless possibilities. The question becomes: Has the house given up all secrets?

Award-winning Author Anita Dickason is a twenty-two-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. She served as a patrol officer, undercover narcotics detective, advanced accident investigator, tactical officer, and first female sniper on the Dallas SWAT team.

Anita writes about what she knows, cops and crime. Her police background provides an unending source of inspiration for her plots and characters. Many incidents and characters portrayed in her books are based on personal experience. For her, the characters are the fun part of writing as she never knows where they will take her. There is always something out of the ordinary in her stories.

In Anita’s debut novel, Sentinels of the Night, she created an elite FBI Unit, the Trackers. Since then, she has added three more Tracker crime thrillers, Going Gone!, A u 7 9, and Operation Navajo, which are not a series and can be read in any order, and Deadly Business, a crime thriller.

As a Texas author, many of Anita’s books are based in Texas, or there is a link to Texas. When she stepped outside of the Tracker novels and wrote Not Dead and the Tori Winters Mysteries series, she set them in the small Texas communities of Meridian and Granbury, respectively.