Lois Lewandowski

Lois Lewandowski


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Lois Lewandowski grew up on a farm in northeast Nebraska. As a child, she loved to read and envisioned some sort of literary career. In 1981, she acquired a degree in Journalism and eventually went to work at the Lincoln Journal-Star in classified advertising. In 1988, she began working at the Department of Motor Vehicles where she is still employed, currently as an assistant to the Fraud Investigator.

The idea of a literary career never really left her and in 2001 she finished her first novel, The Fatal Heir. At heart, much of her writing deals with women’s issues and The Fatal Heir is no exception. Gillian Jones, the heroine of the novel, is a thirty-three year old probation officer with fertility problems. Gillian isn’t overly drawn to children (or to cooking) but she would like to have a picture-perfect life and a baby might be the glass slipper that would transform her world. This yearning for perfection is surrounded by a humorous murder mystery.

Lois has also had several short stories published. Her short story, “The River Man”, was a finalist in the 2005 Pebble Lake Review Awards issue. She lives with her husband and children in Lincoln, Nebraska and is working on her second novel in the Gillian Jones series. 

The Fatal Heir: A Gillian Jones Mystery

Lois Lewandowski
iUniverse (2006)
ISBN 059539843X
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (12/06)

Read the review on ReaderViews.com

Probation officer Gillian Jones wants to be a wife, mother, and career woman, but life isn't fully cooperating. At the age of 33, she’s the survivor of a car accident that shattered her ankle and her first marriage. Now that she’s remarried and walking again, her life is almost where it should be – if only she could get pregnant.

Fortunately, her mother-in-law and one of the Bend Brook, Nebraska county commissioners hatch a plan that would enable Gillian to afford the next step in fertility treatment; all she has to do is find the biological parents of the commissioner’s adopted daughter, Caroline, who was left at a Colorado monastery in 1967. Gillian’s clock starts ticking and she is off to Colorado. Unfortunately, no one at the monastery is aware of a baby left there in 1967, or so they say. When a monk goes missing and a woman, who’s sleeping in the bed reserved for Gillian, is murdered, Gillian has second thoughts. She can’t turn back, though, since most of Bend Brook has taken bets on whether she’ll be able to solve the case.

As Gillian uncovers events in the past that lead to Caroline’s true identity, she realizes that sometimes the family you want might be the one you already have.