How do you follow up a 35-year career as an electrical engineer with Honeywell? If you’re Ray McGinley, the answer is to write a murder mystery with a subplot involving a real-world casino venture dispute.

“Theresa’s Secret Legacy” follows Chris Brennan, a man who has learned that his sister was recently found dead. The police report says the cause was suicide, but Brennan has his doubts.

Set in Phoenix, the backdrop of McGinley’s tale is the controversy surrounding the construction of the Desert Diamond Casino. While McGinley plugged this real-world intrigue into his story, the characters and events are fictional.

“I’ve always been interested in writing, so I decided to try my hand,” McGinley said. “Even during my career, I enjoyed writing. Even though the writing was technical, sometimes a proposal needs a little flair. It still needs to appeal to people and there’s a story that needs to be told, and I had a talent for that.”

One of McGinley’s short stories, “What to do with a pot of gold,” was published last year in Liguorian Magazine. As for his new novel, it was a finalist in the 2017 Phoenix Rattler Writing Contest in the category of mystery/thriller/romantic suspense.

“I’ve always been interested in a plot where you uncover things about people after they die,” McGinley said. “You find secrets about them. I was also interested in this casino that was being built on the west side of town recently…There was a long legal struggle about it, so I thought it would be interesting if I combine those two stories.”

The titular character is a woman who has made a name for herself thanks to her charity work and her job as a court reporter. Despite the conclusion local authorities come to concerning Theresa’s death, her brother decides to do some digging of his own, never expecting where the various unknown parts of his sister’s life will lead him.

McGinley said he likes to write from home and the book took him about a year to put together, writing in spurts.

“I’m happy with how the plot turned out,” he said. “I’m not a John Grisham or anything, but I think it’s a reasonably good story. I’ve also had some reviews done by people who seemed to like it, so we’ll see.”

McGinley said that, as a Catholic, his novel definitely has some Christian influences, but he wouldn’t describe it as a “Christian book.” If you’re into intrigue, he suspects you’ll enjoy the ride.

“People interested in a mystery, particularly one centered around a family, should enjoy this,” McGinley said. “People interested in a casino story may find this interesting, too. But fundamentally, it’s a mystery.”

“Theresa’s Secret Legacy” is available for $19.90 at BookLocker, Amazon and Barnes and Noble, or it can be purchased from McGinley’s website, AuthorRay.com, for $15.95 plus $3.95 shipping. McGinley’s website is also where interested readers can check out the first three chapters free of charge.