A Wolf’s Demise

A Wolf’s Demise is set in my hometown of Dallas, Texas around the time that my grandfather served as one of the fire captains in the area.

I had so much fun researching for this book! I confess, the Halling Estate is from my imagination, but it is inspired by the DeGolyer House located on the edge of White Rock Lake. Now, it is the centerpiece of the Dallas Arboretum, but in 1949, the family still lived there.

While Old Miss’s business is fiction, the building is real. It used to be called the Busch building but was purchased in 1941 and renamed the Kirby Building after John H. Kirby who was a lumber manufacturer and dabbled in oil. It’s still known as the Kirby building today, but now it is full of urban lofts and high-dollar apartments. It was built in 1913, just after the Adolphus Hotel opened and by the same Adolphus Busch. There are conflicting stories about the building. Some state that it was the first of many Busch business buildings, as Adolphus planned to move his booming beer business to Dallas. Others claim it was just a southwest hub. Either way, there are some secrets about that building that are still real today, but you have to read the book to find out about them! 😊

At the time of this story, my mom was thirteen years old. She and her cousins, who were all the same age, would hop on the McKinney Avenue streetcar and ride from Oak Cliff to Fair Park. It is more of a fairground now with museums, a permanent midway, and a huge music hall, but when my mom was a girl, it was just a park with a swimming pool, lots of trees, and grassy areas for picnicking. It even had a roller-skating rink. Mother and my great aunts would go out early in the morning and spend the whole day there, coming back just after sunset.

It’s so odd to think of Dallas, or any big city, as being so safe. Twenty years later, in the same town, my mom never considered letting me or my brother do anything like that. She barely let my brother have a paper route. And the only way she would let us out after dark was if she was sitting in the front yard with us.

Strange how quickly things can change. Good thing we have folks who tell their stories for us!

Here’s a little about the book:

“You’ve met the wolf, huh?”

Dallas, Texas, 1949

Ruby Stedman expects her first few days in the secretarial pool of a large business to be challenging, especially with her lack of training. But she’s determined to prove to the boss who doesn’t want her there that she can learn quickly and excel in whatever task she’s given. Even if it means working for some of the less than gentlemanly executives on the upper floors.

But dealing with her difficult boss becomes the least of her troubles. She doesn’t expect to be literally chased around an office. Nor does she realize she’s being set up for a rendezvous on the top floor of the building – an empty, after-hours building.

When she finds the leader of the wolf pack lying in a pool of blood, not only is she implicated in the man’s murder, she suddenly becomes a target herself. Even her favorite Dallas detective, Chris Wilson, can’t seem to keep her safe.

Can they figure out all that is going on before a killer strikes again? Get your copy of A WOLF’S DEMISE.