A Valerie Urniak Mystery Series by Rebecca A. Engel

Valerie Urniak is a hairdresser with a difference. She can shrink your head as well as style your hair. Valerie gave up a promising career as a psychologist to return to the vocation that put her through school. Her belief is that she's still helping people, but in a much more hands-on manner. Then, within a period of three weeks, three of her clients die. Only one is a natural death. One is a suicide... moreValerie Urniak is a hairdresser with a difference. She can shrink your head as well as style your hair. Valerie gave up a promising career as a psychologist to return to the vocation that put her through school. Her belief is that she's still helping people, but in a much more hands-on manner. Then, within a period of three weeks, three of her clients die. Only one is a natural death. One is a suicide. Valerie cannot accept that she did not recognize the depths of her client's depression. Nor can she shake the feeling that there is a connection between that suicide and another client's murder. Her penchant for hands-on work leads her to conduct her own investigation into these deaths, much to the displeasure of the detective working the cases. And they both learn that sometimes displeasure can lead to something else... Permanent Damage is the first book in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series. The setting is Chicago, and the series starts in 1973. This book contains some sexual content, and is intended for mature audiences. less

Things aren’t always what they seem to be. Hairdresser Valerie Urniak learns that lesson when tragedy strikes in her apartment building. What at first seems to be a terrible accident turns out to be something else entirely… Things aren’t always the way you remember them. Valerie’s sister Jill, from whom she’s been estranged for sixteen years, wants to burrow her way back into Valerie’s life... moreThings aren’t always what they seem to be. Hairdresser Valerie Urniak learns that lesson when tragedy strikes in her apartment building. What at first seems to be a terrible accident turns out to be something else entirely… Things aren’t always the way you remember them. Valerie’s sister Jill, from whom she’s been estranged for sixteen years, wants to burrow her way back into Valerie’s life. Valerie resists this, but Jill makes promises of sharing information that could provide Valerie with closure to events in her own past. By giving in to her curiosity, Valerie finds herself in a web of deception that dates back to her teenage marriage and beyond… with fatal results. Contrive to Kill is Book 2 in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series, and picks up three months after Permanent Damage , Book 1, ends. The setting is Chicago, and the year 1973. Books in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series: Permanent Damage , Book 1 Contrive to Kill, , Book 2 Next release in series: Variants of Déjà Vu , Book 3 less

Valerie Urniak Cardonza thinks she is losing her mind. How else can she explain why she sees the same man wherever she goes, yet when she tries to point him out to anyone, he’s gone? Worse, while it’s been six years since she lived alternate lives while in a coma, there now appears to be evidence one of her coma lives was real. Or is that another aspect of the problem that she’s having? Valerie’s best friend is going through problems of her own... moreValerie Urniak Cardonza thinks she is losing her mind. How else can she explain why she sees the same man wherever she goes, yet when she tries to point him out to anyone, he’s gone? Worse, while it’s been six years since she lived alternate lives while in a coma, there now appears to be evidence one of her coma lives was real. Or is that another aspect of the problem that she’s having? Valerie’s best friend is going through problems of her own. She’s experienced some recovered memories, and wants Valerie’s help in determining if the events she recalls were real or figments of her imagination. Valerie is willing to do whatever she can to help ease her friend’s mind at the same time she is dealing with the possible deterioration of her own. If Valerie’s mental health is intact, the other possibilities for what she’s experiencing might be worse than dementia. PARTINGS is the ninth and final book in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series. This series is set in Chicago, starts in 1974 and ends in 2010. The complete series consists of: PERMANENT DAMAGE , Book 1 CONTRIVE TO KILL , Book 2 VARIANTS OF DÉJÀ VU , Book 3 A RING OF TRUTH , Book 4 TOO SOON , Book 5 DANGEROUS UNDERCURRENTS , Book 6 ZUGZWANG , Book 7 ALTERNATE LIVES , Book 8 PARTINGS , Book 9 less