The Iris Code: A Tracker Novel by Anita Dickason | Author Guest Post with Ebook Giveaway 6/25

Thanks for sharing!

Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for The Iris Code: A Tracker Novel by Anita Dickason. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!

The Iris Code: A Tracker Novel

by Anita Dickason

The Iris Code: A Tracker Novel
Crime Thriller
Series: A Stand-Alone Story – Part of the FBI Tracker novels
Setting – Fredericksburg, Texas
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mystic Circle Books (June 20, 2024)
Hardcover‎ : 318 pages

Local reporter and photographer Riley Phillips stumbles upon the unthinkable during a routine Human Remains Detection canine training session at an abandoned farm near Fredericksburg, Texas. When her cadaver dog, Milo, unexpectedly alerts, she makes a chilling discovery—a corpse with a bullet hole in the skull.

Riley’s nose for news is already twitching, but when the unidentified body is stolen, her journalistic instincts ignite. Who is determined to keep the victim’s identity a secret—and why?

Could her crime scene photos hold the key? What her camera captured propels the elite FBI Tracker Unit into action and places her squarely in the crosshairs of a killer. Learning the identity of the mystery man takes on an ominous urgency.

Can Riley and FBI Tracker Cody Lightfoot uncover the truth before a deadly plot unfolds—or will they become the next targets?

Author Guest Post: The Day I Said Yes

When I retired from the Dallas Police Department, my transition into retirement didn’t exactly go as planned. I failed to anticipate just how much free time I would have on my hands. It didn’t take long before I realized I needed to do something. Since I’d dreamed of owning my own business, what better time to take the leap than now? During my last several years with the department, I served as an advanced accident investigator. It wasn’t much of a stretch to use my expertise to launch a reconstruction business.

One ground-breaking day, as I now view it looking back, I received an unexpected phone call from a producer with a film company in California. The producer had found my website while searching for accident investigators for a new reality TV series on unsolved crimes. Their first episode dealt with the death of a key witness, Lee Bowers, Jr., to the Kennedy assassination. Bowers was located in the railroad tower near Dealy Plaza and had a birds-eye view of the assassination. In 1966, Bowers was killed in a motor vehicle crash south of Dallas. Over the years, conspiracy theorists speculated that his death was no accident. He was killed for what he saw the day Kennedy was shot.

A date was set for the filming, and the film company had already obtained permits from the Texas Department of Transportation to shut down a section of the freeway outside of Midlothian, a small community about thirty miles south of Dallas. At first, I was not receptive to their offer. The film date was only three weeks away. I had serious reservations about appearing on camera to discuss an accident I knew little about. The producer asked if I would at least look at their documentation. I said, “Yes.”

The packet of materials I received included a video of a Geraldo Rivera episode that was filmed in the mid-1990s on the same topic, Bowers’ death. In the footage, a man stood on the southbound lane of the divided highway, pointing to the bridge where Bowers was killed. This location was the same one the film company intended to use. It didn’t take but a few minutes to realize everyone, including Geraldo Rivera, had the wrong location.

The highway and bridge didn’t exist in 1966. Instead, the roadway was a two-lane road. In fact, documents I located at the local courthouse identified that the state didn’t purchase the land for the highway expansion until after Bowers was killed.

Now, they had my full attention. Could I find the actual location? I did. I called the producer with one of those classic “good news and bad news” conversations. First was the bad news. I informed her that the intended location was utterly wrong and explained why. Then I gave her the good news. I’d discovered what was likely the correct location of the crash. Based on my research material, the producer shifted the filming to the new location.

By this point, the project had fully captivated me. Was it possible to attempt a reconstruction of the crash? If ever there was an ultimate cold case, this was it. The research proved to be painstaking, with many hours at the courthouse and libraries. Every detail had to be examined through the lens of 1966 standards and procedures. By the time I finished, I had enough material to write a book. That book, JFK Assassination Eyewitness: Rush to Conspiracy, details my research and conclusions.

By then, I’d been bitten by the writing bug, though I had no intention of continuing as a writer. That is, until I stumbled across a website hosting a short story contest, 500 words or less. Each month, they posted a picture. Writers had to craft a story based on the image.

The picture immediately caught my attention. A broken doll, tattered and torn, stood in the middle of this dilapidated, barren room. I thought, what the heck. I’d give it a shot. I wrote a story, Not Dead, Not Dead. To my shock and utter amazement, I won third place. And that’s all it took; I was hooked.

That was twelve years ago. I shut down my reconstruction business and started a second one, Mystic Circle Books & Designs, LLC.

I have now written and published ten fictional books in addition to that first non-fiction. My books have won numerous awards and best-seller status.

I became a graphics designer, creating many types of banners for book advertising. I have produced nearly 150 videos and have two YouTube channels. An Author’s World is for my book trailers, and Book Cinema is for anything else that catches my eye.

I have helped over forty authors publish their books, including fiction, memoirs, and children’s books, with cover designs and formatting.

I am one-half of Mystery Review Crew, LLC. I’ve partnered with an exceptionally talented individual, Kimberly Werntz. Our website is The Place for All Things Mystery and includes our Author’s Central platform: The Place for All Things Writing and Writers.

All of this, an incredible new career, came about because I said YES.

My heartfelt thanks for hosting my book.

Anita Dickason

About Anita Dickason

Award-winning author Anita Dickason writes about what she knows, cops and crime. After twenty-two years with the Dallas Police Department, Anita has an unending source of inspiration for her plots. Many incidents and characters are based on her experiences. During her tenure, she served as a patrol officer, undercover narcotics officer, advanced accident investigator, tactical officer and the first female sniper on the Dallas SWAT team.

Links:

https://www.anitadickason.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AnitaDickasonAuthor

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anita-dickason-author-7b6b6650/

https://www.youtube.com/@anauthorsworld

https://www.youtube.com/@bookcinema

Purchase Link – Amazon