The Rightful Future follows a retired librarian who investigates a brutal murder and uncovers a century-old secret that threatens her family and an entire town. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Three things inspired me to write this story. The first is that I was a career records and information manager who managed the records of a large corporation. The paper records were stored in a building on the campus that had originally been built to test jet engines during WWII. We stored the records in the old test cells and observation platforms, which had been modified to accommodate our needs.

The place was a little spooky, especially if you happened to be there alone, which I frequently was after my staff left for the day. The strange creaks, whooshes, clangs, and occasional bats could set me on edge. Even security officers were reluctant to do their walk-throughs at night. I would regularly joke that one day I was going to write a murder mystery set inside that very building. While Marian discovers the body in the library in The Rightful Future, the seed had already been planted long ago.

My second inspiration came by way of the state of New York. I was born there and lived my first fifty years there before moving South. I’ve always been fascinated by the rich history and multiculturalism and diversity of the state. I learned of the influence of Iroquois culture, specifically Onondaga language and culture, when I lived in Syracuse for thirty-five years. The whole state was originally inhabited by the Six Nations of the Iroquois: Onondaga, Seneca, Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, and Tuscarora. Colonialism displaced the tribes and took land, some of it sacred land, to use as they wanted and without regard to the people it originally belonged to.

The forefathers of this country based their governance model on the governance principles of the Onondaga. New York was also an epicenter of abolitionism, suffragism, and the Underground Railroad. Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady-Stanton lived in New York state.

My third inspiration is my fifty-year interracial relationship with the love of my life, Ronald. I’d already written two memoirs about our experiences, but fiction seemed like a perfect place to explore some of the larger issues of race in America, and a mystery series was an excellent vehicle to unveil the history and show its connection to the present.

How do Marian and Lester’s different backgrounds and perspectives influence their understanding of the events unfolding in Cadence?​​

Marian and Lester have been together for so long, they share a similar perspective born of shared experiences. However, they are both strong-willed individuals, who approach crises from different angles: Marian’s understanding is driven by curiosity, while Lester’s understanding is driven by caution and protection. Uncovering secrets in Cadence tests them both—forcing Marian to confront uncomfortable historical truths while Lester seeks to shield the family from looming danger. 

What inspired you to explore racial violence, white supremacy, and Indigenous history within the framework of a historical murder mystery?

It truly comes down to that collision of history and lived experience. By choosing to place Cadence inside the borders of the complex legacy of New York and then creating a framework of mystery and secrecy in which to tell the story, I am able to directly explore the realities of racism and systemic bias that I have witnessed firsthand on a deeply personal level for decades. Mystery (and horror) fiction allows me to expose these hard truths in a slow-burn dissection, showing how tightly the past is connected to our present.

Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out and what can your fans expect in the next story?​

The Rightful Future is the first book of A Cadence Mystery, a multi-award-winning series. I’m happy to report that six more books have been published since this came out in 2021. They are, in order: The Eagle Speaks; Stony Place; Stone Coat Man; Improbable Future; Fallen Deer; and Creature of Secret Sorrows.

Children of Broken Promises, book 8, is expected to be released in late Spring 2027, and I’ve already begun book 9. As the series progresses, the mysteries grow more complex and the past becomes a character of its own, choosing to be represented in the Indigenous folklore found not only in New York, but across the world, that comes calling with demands to be heard. In this upcoming installment, readers can expect Marian, Lester, Enoch, and others you will meet in the later books to confront the lingering broken promises of the past.

Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website