Mystery Novel Examines the Changes in Women’s Lives over the Last 40 Years
Probation officer Gillian Jones’ biological clock is ticking, and to finance her continued fertility treatments, she takes on a case that will unravel the mystery of a young girl abandoned at a Colorado monastery in the new novel, “The Fatal Heir.”
Author Lois Lewandowski releases her debut novel that offers socially conscious themes with a compelling mystery in “The Fatal Heir: A Gillian Jones Mystery (ISBN 978-0595398430, iUniverse, 2006).
Lewandowski’s story centers on lead character, Gillian Jones, a probation officer in a small Nebraska town, a setting that this native Nebraska author knows well. Making up for lost time after a recent car accident and divorce, Gillian and her current husband are trying to get pregnant. With the high cost of ongoing fertility treatments threatening to end Gillian’s dream of the perfect family, she takes on a case with a big payoff.
A local county commissioner offers a big reward if Gillian can find the biological parents of his adopted daughter, who was left at a monastery in Colorado. Feeling her biological clock ticking, a determined Gillian leaves for Aspen hoping for a lead that stretches back to 1967. Unfortunately, no one at the monastery remembers an abandoned baby, and when one of the monks goes missing and a woman who’s sleeping in the bed reserved for Gillian is murdered, Gillian realizes she may have bitten off more than she can chew.
Lewandowski parallels the mystery with her lead heroine’s personal journey. “Gillian is willing to take some chances to prove to herself, and her family, that she can succeed at something,” says Lewandowski. “But with increasing pressure to have a baby, Gillian is forced to ask herself if this is what she really wants, or if she is just responding to other people expectations.”
Much of this author’s writings, including her published short stories, reflect women’s issues. “There has been so much change in the last several generations in the lives of women,” she explains. “My mother was forty-three years old when I was born, which at that time, was considered late in life. Now that’s completely changed.” Lewandowski’s contrast of Gillian’s present day choices with women’s choices in the late 1960’s provides interesting commentary on how far women have come in this area.
“This is a cozy mystery” adds the author, “meaning violence and sex take place off-stage.” With much humor and a murder that takes place later in the story, this book sets the dominoes up and it’s the murder that gives the push to bring them all down. “The Fatal Heir” is the first in a series featuring Gillian Jones.
Lois Lewandowski resides in Lincoln, Nebraska. She acquired a Journalism degree in 1981, and went on to work at the Lincoln Journal-Star. In 1988 Lewandowski began working at the Department of Motor Vehicles where she is still employed. Lewandowski has had several short stories published including “The River Man,” which was a finalist in the 2005 Pebble Lake Review Awards. “The Fatal Heir: A Gillian Jones Mystery (ISBN 978-0595398430, iUniverse, 2006) can be purchased through local and online bookstores. For more information, visit http://www.loislew.com. Review copies available upon request.
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ne department of motor vehicles
Lincoln, NE March 5, 2007
