Unearthed
Circle of the Red Lily Book 3
Betrayed
Circle of the Red Lily Book 4
Anna J. Stewart
Tule Publisher
Unearthed and Betrayed by Anna J. Stewart continues the “Red Lily Series.”
Unearthed’s plot has forensic investigator Dr. Cassia Davis living a life of isolation, after surviving the kidnapping by a serial killer. She has self-imposed to confining herself to her apartment and to online consulting. But after a Hollywood Hills murder mystery exposes a mass grave connected to her past, Cass must confront the man who shattered her trust, FBI Special Agent Mitchell Keaton.
His mistake nearly cost her life. Now, working together on the crime scene investigation, they must unearth the truth about a serial killer tied to The Circle of the Red Lily, a ruthless secret society that controls Hollywood’s darkest corners.
But digging into the past means reopening old wounds. As passion reignites between them, Cass and Mitch must overcome guilt, trauma, and the lies that tore them apart. Because the closer they get to the truth, the more dangerous the hunt becomes.
Betrayed highlights Sutton O’Hara, a good friend of the heroines from previous stories. She is raising her orphaned niece and nephew and working as a nutritionist at a retirement home. But when clues among the residents point to the Circle, a powerful secret network linked to decades of missing girls and murder, she refuses to look away.
Former Naval investigator Blake Redford is determined to keep Sutton safe. Posing as her friend gives him the perfect excuse to stay close while they search for answers, but the attraction they’ve both ignored quickly becomes impossible to deny. For the first time since losing his wife and son, Blake can imagine a future again.
Then, Sutton discovers why he really took the job as a building maintenance man, and it rocks everything she thought about him.
Now, with her trust shattered and the enemy closing in, Blake must prove whose side he’s on before the secrets he kept cost him the woman he loves, the family he never expected, and their only chance to expose the truth.
Both books have a suspenseful action-filled story.
Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?
Anna J. Stewart: I knew when I was writing books, one and two, that I was eventually going to have to find the missing women, and they weren’t obviously going to turn up alive. So, I knew that there was going to have to be a mass grave somewhere. And that’s essentially how I came up with the idea for the character of forensic investigator Dr. Cassia Davis (Cass). Although back when I first put her on the page, I didn’t know how complicated she was going to be to write. For me, it was just kind of a natural inclusion into the storyline.
EC: How would you describe the serial killer Jonathan Whittaker, the one in prison?
AJS: Probably a genius and very manipulative. He was powerful because I think there’s an inherent power, good or bad, that comes from believing that you’re always going to get away with something. And I think when he was put away, he always knew he was going to find a way to get out. He managed to find a way to do that.
EC: How would you describe Elliot the dog?
AJS: He’s traumatized and he bonds with Cass. I watch a lot of animal videos on social media just because they’re so healing. There’s a thing in writing called “Save the Cat,” which is how someone knows whether somebody is very good or not, and it usually has something to do with an animal. This allowed me to give Cassia a coping mechanism and another lost soul to bond with to help her through trauma. And dogs inherently know whether or not they can trust you. Elliot himself sensed that Cass needed him as much as she needed him.
EC: What about Mitch, the hero?
AJS: He’s charming, a former FBI profiler, sympathetic, protective, and focused. He’s also dealing with a fair amount of guilt, and guilt is a great motivator when it comes to the rest of your life. Mitch wishes if only he could turn back the clock and make different decisions than he did in the heat of the moment. And this isn’t to say that he made any wrong decisions. When I wrote the prologue to this book and I showed what happened between him and Cass, in the opening pages of that book, that established where she is mentally and even physically. He wishes there was another way he could have done something without breaking her trust, but he doesn’t see it in the same way that she does. He was a safe person for her to strike out against, and to shut out of her life, because it gave her a kind of a sense of control that she needed. But at the same time, I think she really lost something she probably needed.
EC: How would you describe Cass?
AJS: She is reclusive, traumatized, anxious, and wants safety boundaries. She is self-protective, has imprisoned herself, remote, and paranoid. Cass is angry and I think that might even be close to where most of her issues come from is how angry she is. She doesn’t necessarily know what she’s angry at or who she’s angry at. So, I think it all kind of manifests itself in different ways. It is an illusionary control because what she learns through the story is that even though she thinks everything around her is safe, she’s still not safe. And that’s because she’s brought with her the trauma, and she’s been trying to outrun it by locking herself away, but there’s really no way to do that until she faces it.
EC: What about Temple House?
AJS: I think Temple House is honestly the heart of the story, where everybody has built their community. And that was purposeful. I wanted a central location where everybody had a connection to not only the building and the history of the building and the sense of community that it offers, but also a place where everybody who lives inherently becomes family. My stories, no matter what type of story I write, there is always going to be family found including with a circle of friends.
EC: The relationship between Mitch and Cass?
AJS: It’s complicated because they both are keeping secrets from each other. They’re both frustrated and they care about each other. They love each other. But just because you love somebody doesn’t necessarily mean you can be with them, and they really find their way through a lot of previous trauma to make the decision to fight to be together. And that’s really what they do throughout the story.
EC: In all the books the bad guys are in this group, The Circle?
AJS: They’re abusive, they like to kidnap, believe in ritualistic murders, want power and prestige. They’re like a fraternity and a cult. Past stories about events like this really did kind of influence how I approached creating the circle and what it is that they’re about.
EC: Idea for the fourth book, Betrayed?
AJS: This has been the trickiest story to write so far, and I say that getting ready to hit into the last book of the series. Because when I first introduced Sutton O’Hara, she’s a Midwest girl, a cook, a nutritionist, very much a homebody, because she’s built her life and her career around comfort and nutrition and caretaking. And I wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to bring to the story that could equal what the three previous heroines had done. Each of the three previous heroines had an actual role to play in the investigation and were properly motivated to want to see the investigation proceed. It was a puzzle on what to do with Sutton when she’s raising her niece and nephew. And she’s kind of an outlier, and it actually became a plot point of the story where even she’s wondering, ‘well, what do I have to do with any of this,’ even though she’s also being targeted, partly because she lives in Temple House, but also partly because she’s very good friends with the other women who the circle sees as a threat. I really challenged her into stepping up and deciding what she wants to fight for in her own life. Then there was the hero, Blake Redford, who was introducedin the first book of the series, Framed, book one of the series. I knew from the start what his secret was, and that doesn’t usually happen for me because I don’t plot out my books. I’m usually surprised as I’m writing them. Blake’s appearance, when he showed up in that scene in Framed, he was going to be there for reasons other than being there for a job. When I got to the end of book three, and I kind of had that twist ending in the epilogue, that surprised me. I knew there was some connection between Sutton and Blake but I didn’t realize how deep it particularly went.
EC: What about Blake?
AJS: Blake is former military, calm, and strong. He lost his wife and son. He’s honorable. The honorability is really something that was interesting to play with, because he’s extremely honorable, and he’s extremely loyal, but the loyalty shifts as he becomes more involved in the case. The reasons that he’s originally sent to help at Temple House aren’t necessarily on the up and up, but he’s doing a favor for a friend, and he’s the kind of person who’ll always do something for a friend. When he realizes that there’s more to this than he’s been told, his loyalties begin to shift away from his friend and into the new circle of friends that he’s found, that he didn’t expect to find. No matter what he’s done, he always does it with a sense of honor, which is one reason why he really can’t play a victim when the betrayal comes out. He realizes ‘I have to pay the price for what I set into motion.’ And that’s honorable.
EC: How about their relationship?
AJS: When I started with book four, he really is lying to everybody about why he’s there in Temple House and why he came to Temple House. And Sutton is somebody who needs to trust. And that is the one ultimate thing that she would possibly never be able to forgive is being lied to from the start from somebody that she develops feelings for. This book had a heavier romance lean to it than the suspense, but that’s mainly because Sutton’s position within the friendship circle really didn’t lend itself to quite as much suspense and danger as the other three heroines. Their relationship is complicated. She feels disappointed and betrayed by him and he is hurt by her. I think he’s hurt, but I think he also understands because he knew it was going to happen. He was just hoping to stay ahead of it. But as he’s learned through other events in his life, that it doesn’t matter how much he hopes for things, sometimes he just can’t make something happen that he needs to have happen. It was also an element of self- sabotage: ‘if she doesn’t forgive me, then I’m still protected and, I was right to be leery of getting involved.’ But at the same time, he still hopes that something will work its way out for the two of them.
EC: How would you describe Sutton?
AJS: Sutton is impulsive, gives people confidence, organized, smart, snarky, concerned, determined, and must deal with the death of her brother and sister-in-law. Earlier I was talking about trying to figure out the puzzle piece that she has. Her friend tells her, ‘You have a vital part to play in our circle, because you’re who we all come to for logic and reason and stability. You’re the anchor. And if you weren’t here, we’d all be untethered.’ And I think that was an important thing for her to be able to see through somebody else’s eyes, especially since she’s had a lot thrown at her when her brother and sister-in-law died, and suddenly she’s a single parent to two young children. It’s given her a purpose, but it’s also, kind of taken away from whatever she had planned for her own life. But she never resents that. Sutton kind of becomes the soul of Temple House, taking care of everybody. She cooks for them, and she’s always the one who will open the door and say, ‘what do you need?’
EC: There are a lot of quotes in both books from movies. Are you a movie fanatic?
AJS: I grew up on old movies. I grew up with Shirley Temple and Bogey movies and Marilyn Monroe always been a fascination of mine. I have a huge movie collection. I still collect DVDs because I’m a big fan of physical media where I want to watch what I want to watch. I don’t have to find the streaming service that’s on. I love everything about the whole bringing an imagination into the visual world. I was 7 when Star Wars came out, and that’s really the first movie I can remember where I’m like, ‘oh, this is what it’s like to step into somebody’s imagination.’ And that’s really where my lot of storytelling began. When I created this world and set it in Hollywood, it was just a natural fit because I’ve always been so interested in all kinds of things that have to do with Hollywood movie making.
EC: Who is Moxie Temple based upon?
AJS: Moxie Temple, who is Riley Temple’s great aunt, who I kind of created as a combination of Shirley Temple and Debbie Reynolds, because of the way that she moved through Hollywood. She is trying to reinvent herself, starting from the 1940s all the way up to present day and she’s still driving. She’s still trying to find the spotlight, which she always manages to find.
EC: Next books?
AJS: I think the one thing I know for certain is going to happen in book five is Moxie Temple finally going to find that spotlight again. No title yet, but it will be featuring Laurel Fontaine, who’s the character I have been dying to write. She’s the celebrity defense attorney who is very well known nationwide. She has a reputation. She’s very smart. I have no idea right now what her background is. I don’t know how she became what she became or why, so I’m really looking forward to figuring that out. She will be paired off with somebody we meet in book four, Granger Powell. I want to cause as much conflict and tension as I can, and I think putting those two on the page together is going to be really, fun. It should be out next summer, hopefully late June, early July. I am in the dark as much as the readers are right now as far as how the Circle organization is going to work out because the person I thought headed it, that is not the person. But part of the fun of not being a plotter is that I get to be surprised along with the reader. As far as I know, these five will be the only books in the “Red Lily Series.” That said, I am going to be introducing one or two new characters for a new series.
The new series will take a darker turn, and I’m not sure if traditional publishers would be interested in that. I’d really love to write something where I’m untethered and anything is open to what I want to write. The new series is a story about revenge and justice. I am 90% sure I’m going to be self-publishing it, and if I do, it would probably either be late 2027, early 2028. There’s going to be four books in that series.
The McKenna series is going to end with book four. That’s Aidan’s story and that will be out in February. Readers will meet a bunch of characters for my new series with Harlequin Romantic Suspense, which is called “Deep Current Solutions.” It will revolve around a security agency that deals with aquatic situations working on oil rigs or underwater science facilities. I’m really looking forward to writing those. I believe the first deep current book will be out next fall.
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