Taylor Walker, now widowed, awaits the trial of the nemesis who tried to kill her in Blood Ties. Her judgment is as flawed as ever with relationships: The one with her rescuer, former DEA agent Jeremy Briggs, hits a snag as she realizes she doesn't love him. Jeremy's involvement with his boss, Eve McGuire, further muddles matters and drives Taylor into a relationship with George Arroyo, a charismatic Cuban-American architect. There's one obstacle: George may have strangled his pregnant socialite fiancee-a dead ringer for Taylor-in Miami; his red tie was found knotted around her neck. Taylor's sheriff father cautions her about George: He's convinced George is a killer who's after Taylor's inheritance. A crime wave strikes the tiny panhandle town of Walker, Fla. Once again the crimes are somehow tied to Taylor. One murder mimics the dead socialite's: This time the murder weapon is Taylor's red bra: The work of the Miami killer or a copycat? The trauma Taylor suffered in Blood Ties, coupled with an undercurrent of menace and murder, prove toxic for Taylor: Alarmed at her weight loss and recurring nightmares, family and friends rally to place her in a Pensacola mental health facility. Is someone trying to drive Taylor over the edge to nab her money? Taylor confronts a killer and vows to take charge of her life.

Artists run amok at the 2006 Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival The idyllic setting of Seville Square provides a canvas for murder and mayhem. The trouble starts when an obnoxious artist, Manolo Friedman, proves to be a pain in the palette. From there, things go consistently-and literally-down the Port-a-let: Fishermen, environmentalists and developers wrangle over a proposed resort project in Pensacola Bay. Money turns up missing in the festival account. An artist "finds" 100 grand-and turns it over to the festival treasurer. Some people aren't who they say they are. A bumbling pair of petty thieves steals a bracelet-the wrong one on the wrong day. But, worst of all, a killer's painting the park red.

Blood Ties: Under the title Blood Relations, a finalist in the Mystery Category of the Writers' League of Texas 2008 Manuscript Contest After a brutal rape and beating causes Taylor Walker Campbell to miscarry, the panhandle town of Walker, Fla., rallies around her. When her husband, Capt. Cameron Campbell, returns from Iraq, he shoots an intruder in their home, coincidentally one of Taylor's attackers. Struggling to regain control of her downwardly spiraling life, Taylor finds her retired judge father ordered the attack to "protect" her. When she recalls the day of the attack, Taylor realizes a vicious misogynist remains at large. Crime continues to stalk Walker-arson, murder, breaking and entering-all with ties to Taylor, causing Pensacola cops to cast Taylor as the "queenpin" of a drug ring. The photogenic, charismatic Cam reveals a darker side: Taylor stumbles upon evidence of a torrid affair with a military subordinate. After Cam publicly accuses Taylor of an affair with Julius Perry, her 14-year-old black neighbor, she fears felony charges. Her mother enlists an unlikely ally to thwart Cam's scheme and subvert justice. Friends and family uncover the truth about Judge Walker's first wife, who presumably died in New Orleans five decades ago. When Taylor stumbles into a cold-blooded killer's tri-state drug headquarters, she's held captive.