Incidental Daughter

Readers who would enjoy a family drama interwoven with romance, suspense, and a touch of the paranormal will find it hard to put down Val Stasik's break-out novel, Incidental Daughter. When successful publisher Liz Michaels' marriage to blue blood, Addison Tiffin Payne, fails after the loss of their baby and his growing alcoholism, she pours all her creative energy and passion into her work and finds comfort in her friendships and the appearances of the spirits of her Polish mother and grandmother, who never speak except in dreams she cannot remember. Only her feelings from those dreams linger. When her ex-husband plans to stage her suicide by pushing her off the balcony of her high-rise home, he topples to his death instead. When the police arrive, the potential victim becomes the prime murder suspect. She meets Pittsburgh Police Detective Jim Shannon, who may threaten her freedom or possibly gain her love. Her swirling feelings are complicated by the simultaneous appearance of a talented, familiar-looking intern at her workplace. Internal conflict is soon compounded by external threats created by her ex-husband and his mother as well as someone seeking revenge on Shannon and his partner. Wll Liz be destroyed by this vortex, or will she use the crisis to open the door to a second chance at love and family?