The Fatal Heir: A Gillian Jones Mystery

Gillian Jones is a thirty-three-year-old probation officer. A few years previous, she survived a car accident that shattered her ankle and her first marriage. Now she's remarried and walking again and life would be perfect-if only she could get pregnant.

Fortunately, Gillian's mother-in-law and one of the Jackson County commissioners from Bend Brook, Nebraska, hatch a plan that will enable Gillian and her husband Clint to afford the next step in fertility treatment: they ask her to become an investigator for the county. Her first assignment is to find the biological parents of the commissioner's adopted daughter, Caroline. With only one concrete fact to go on-Caroline was left at a Colorado monastery in 1967-Gillian heads for Aspen. Unfortunately, no one at the monastery remembers any such event-or so they say. When one 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 she uncovers past events that lead to the discovery of Caroline's true identity, Gillian realizes that sometimes the perfect family might be the one you already have.