Elizabeth Heiter | Writing a Multi-Author Series

4 books. 4 urgent cases. One team of crime-solving experts.

That’s the premise of the Tactical Crime Division (TCD), a new continuity series from Harlequin Intrigue. It features an ensemble cast a la CSI or Criminal Minds and functions in a unique way – each book in the series is written by a different author.

When my editor at Harlequin Intrigue asked me to participate, I was nervous. I’d contributed to a few anthologies, including the upcoming novel-in-stories THE SWAMP KILLERS, which links sixteen short stories together over the course of three crazy days. But I’d never written an entire novel that would be connected to other authors’ stories. I wondered how exactly it would all work.

It came together like this: Intrigue provided us with some series and character background and then the four authors involved (me, Carla Cassidy, Cindi Myers, and Nichole Severn) fleshed out our individual stories. Along the way, overlapping characters and backstories were updated in a master list, too. That way, as each of us worked on our own stories, we could refer to the master list to help us keep everything consistent. But it was still a challenge to manage all the ensemble characters in all of their myriad specialties.

The Tactical Crime Division is a (fictional) tech and tactical team within the FBI, created to mobilize quickly to remote locations dealing with crime that the locals don’t have the resources to manage. The members of TCD are specialists in weapons, crime scene investigation, protection, negotiation, IT, and more. These crime-solving experts work together in rapidly-evolving criminal investigations – and along the way, they fall in love.

Each individual book in the series stands alone. But if you read them all, you’ll get to catch up with the ensemble characters in the background, because each book features a new TCD agent in the hero or heroine role.

Book 1, 48 HOUR LOCKDOWN by Carla Cassidy, features Evan “the Closer” Duran, a hostage negotiator with a personal connection to one of the hostages he’s trying to save. Book 2, SECRET INVESTIGATION – which I wrote! – features Davis Rogers, TCD’s weapons expert, who goes undercover to find the person responsible for a friend’s death and falls in love with a suspect in the process. Book 3, MIDNIGHT ABDUCTION by Nichole Severn, features kidnapping and ransom specialist Ana Sofia Ramirez, who has to help a frantic father recover his missing twins. Book 4, RUNNING OUT OF TIME by Cindi Myers, features undercover operative Laura “Smitty” Smith as she pretends to be married to a fellow TCD agent in order to solve a series of poisonings.

Something else that’s a little different about the Tactical Crime Division continuity that you don’t usually see in Intrigue books? There are bigger subplots, featuring secondary characters. In Secret Investigation, my primary storyline revolves around Davis and Leila Petrov, a CEO who’s trying to protect her company, her father’s legacy, and her employees while she works with Davis to figure out who’s trying to frame her. But that’s not all! There’s also a subplot involving TCD profiler Melinda Larsen and agent-at-large Kane Bradshaw, who are running down leads on a potential connection Davis’s case has to a larger criminal group.  They make a good team, but the tension between them – romantic and otherwise – grows with every step of the investigation.

Working on the Tactical Crime Division continuity was a different kind of challenge – but ultimately, it was a lot of fun to be a part of the TCD author team. And I love how the ensemble cast came together! You can order the books today.