Lois Lewandowski

“The Burden of Truth” is an exciting whodunit set in a small town where everyone has an opinion and many are quick to judge as Gillian Jones knows all too well. She is the town probation officer and one of her clients, 17 year old Jessica Coffers, is the current talk of the town. Many feel she should be in prison for abandoning her baby under a bridge but Gillian has a feeling there is more going on than meets the eye.

While trying to come up with a plan to keep Jessica out of jail she is visited by Bob Johanson, a man dying of cancer who has one final request, to find out the identity of the man who attempted to rape his daughter, JoJo, 20 years earlier. JoJo’s death is also surrounded by suspicion and Jillian reluctantly agrees to look into the events. When she finds evidence to suggest the attempted rape may have been committed by a serial rapist, she asks county attorney Trent Green to see if he can find any information that may help in the investigation. Unfortunately, Trent is murdered and Jessica becomes suspect number one. Gillian decides to do whatever she can to prove that Jessica had nothing to do with it and with the help of a retired cop, finds more that she bargained for.

Author Lois Lewandowski is a good writer and the plot was interesting and intense. I just wish the book had been a little longer as it felt a little rushed and some of the characters weren’t fully developed making it difficult to keep them straight. This could be due to the fact that this book is the second in a series and some of the characters were more fully introduced in book one but, for a reader starting with book two, it was a bit confusing at times. That said, it was still a good read with many twists and turns that I didn’t expect. I would recommend this author to those who enjoy mysteries but would suggest starting with book one if reading a Gillian Jones mystery.… (plus d'informations)

Gillian Jones, the protagonist, is a married probation officer working in Nebraska who has been assigned to a 17 year old girl who abandoned her baby under a bridge Many in the town want to see Jessica, the young girl, charged further for this. She is now raising the rescued infant but her guardians want to put the baby up for adoption. Gillian and her husband are even considering adopting the adorable baby.

Gillian is also approached by another man in town who is dying of cancer and wants to solve the mystery of his daughter’s death. There had been an attempted rape and questions about her death.

These two stories come together when the county attorney who Gillian confided in about the rapes turns up dead before giving Gillian the information he found. Jessica is considered a prime suspect.

Gillian investigates and finds out things she wished she didn’t. The birth of the baby was not what everyone thought and the rapist was too close to home. The plot moves along quickly and the different story lines are nicely woved together and believable. There are twists and turns and suspense as Gillian is thrown into finding the truth.

This is the second book in the series but Lewandowski gave enough background information that I did not feel like I was coming in cold. Gillian is a likeable character who has a strong marriage, goes to church and works hard. I found her to be refreshing compared to the many smart aleck female protagonists in today’s mysteries. Her mother-in-law also adds some humor to the story and you get a brief encounter with Gillian’s own mother to know there is some unfinished business there.

I finished the book wanting to read the first in the series and hope that Lewandowski continues to write Gillian Jones mysteries.… (plus d'informations)

The Burden of Truth
By: Lois Lewandowski

Reviewed by Susan Pettrone

Gillian Jones enjoys her job as a probation officer, despite the fact that Dot, “the self appointed matriarch of the courthouse” is determined to use her office as a produce stand, she’s constantly being urged by her mother to have a child and her co-workers sometimes get on her nerves. But life is good for Gillian and truth be known, she and husband Clint realize all too well, that with Gillian at 34, her childbearing years are passing her by. Adoption seems like the path to take, and Gillian knows the perfect child she wants to adopt. But there are complications to her adopting this child.

Client, Jessica is on probation because she is believed to apparently have left her newborn son, Logan under a bridge but having second thoughts, went back to get him. Despite her change of heart, the fact that she was only charged with neglect and the fact that Jessica is proving to be a good mother, much of the town still considers her a "baby killer" and wants some sort of other charge to be levied against her.

But Gillian knows differently. She knows there is more to the story than Jessica will tell. But try as she might, she cannot get to the bottom of the real story of the night of Logan's birth. Jessica is a devoted mother, and feels comfortable with Gillian but evades questions that might answer some serious questions and restore her reputation.

About this time, a friend and fellow Bend Brook resident, Bob Johanson asks Gillian for help. He is suffering from cancer and as he has little time left, he needs some hard answers to questions regarding his daughter JoJo's attempted rape over twenty years ago. Gillian is beside herself, wanting to help a friend who needs closure but considering the situation one which time has buried its secrets. JoJo (whose real name is Rebecca but was called JoJo from childhood until college when she was then called Becky.) Bob needs answers as he not only is dying of cancer but is also mourning the loss of JoJo who died in 1994 in a car accident without revealing more about the attempted rape.

Gillian is reluctant to work on the case, but feels she needs to help a friend. At first things seem to be simple enough, until she begins to ask questions of JoJo's family and friends, and anyone else she can think about. When the county attorney is suddenly and brutally murdered during all of this, Gillian is more determined than ever to get to the bottom of the attempted rape. As she searches, she is surprised to discover what seems to be a pattern of similar rapes, leading her to believe that the rapist has struck more than once and knew his victims or at least did his homework to get to know them. The fact that despite the fact that when the attempted rape occurred, JoJo was known only on campus as Becky, the rapist called her JoJo, tells Gillian that Bend Brook may be harboring its own rapist and doesn't even realize it. During this time, the district attorney is found dead, a victim of murder.
What does his murder have to do whith all that is happening in town and who would want to murder him? The list of questions grow.

Meanwhile, as in all small towns, a church musical, run by Pastor Jim, is being prepped with Gillian's niece in the starring role. The reader cannot help but feel a bit uncomfortable when it comes to Pastor Jim and in fact Gillian finds him a bit odd herself with his green trimmed shoes which he claims he wears to "get closer to the kids." Something is off here but Gillian puts it down to the fact that the musical "Annie get your Commandments" has most of the cast in a dither not to mention the possibilities of what the production might entail given the title.

As the story progresses, Gillian becomes obsessed of sorts with the case of JoJo/Becky and enlists the help of retired LPD Sergeant Sidney Weissman who worked years ago on several unsolved rape cases. Craving something to do other than have his wife watch his every move and coffee intake, Sid agrees to call in some favors and see what he can do to help Gillian to solve this case. What Sid finds also leads him to believe that helping Gillian could very well close six cases he left open when he retired. He is soon as involved within the mystery of the rapist as Gillian is.

As Sid discovers a number of rapes which fit the profile of Becky, Gillian begins to suspect herself that the rapist is from Bend Brook. But who could it be? The list of suspects is long. though each seems to have an alibi or reason to cross them from the list. Feeling confounded by all the brick walls she keeps running into, Gillian tries another attempt to find the would be rapist.

Gillian finds Lark, Becky's old college roommate, who is presently working in a topless bar just as she had during college. Lark verifies that that night she came home early finding the rapist with a knife at Becky’s throat. Egging the attacker on, Lark and Becky get the upper hand with the rapist fleeing the scene. Becky told Lark after all was said and done, that she knew the person but couldn't put her finger on who it was. The would be rapist, Lark said, ran when the two girls fought back and Becky continually repeated she KNEW who he was, that she had “heard that voice before.”

As Gillian and Lark continue chatting, Gillian learns that Lark put Becky’s belongings in a storage unit in Lincoln she had previously rented . Giving her the key, Lark tells Gillian that it was basically intact, that she had not had the heart to throw anything out

Working in tandem with Sid with a suspicion of Pastor Jim, they decide to ‘bait’ Pastor Jim. Sid will watch Pastor Jim while he’s visiting the penitentiary on his regular visit, and give Gillian the heads up when he leaves, following him to see if he heads for the storage unit. They figure that if Pastor Jim appears, he must have a vested interest in the situation. Following the plan, Gillian stops at the church to tell him that she and Clint were headed to Lincoln to a foster parents class and would be checking out Becky’s storage unit while there.

Heading to Lincoln, Gillian knows that what they have planned is chancy but she and Sid had agreed that something important might be in that storage unit and she needs to check it out. Going to the storage unit, all seems well until Gillian gets the feeling that someone is watching her. Calling Sid she asks where Pastor Jim is, only to find he is enjoying an ice cream after his visit to the penitentiary. The person watching Gillian, just outside the storage unit is not Pastor Jim after all and she begins to panic. Deciding she’d be safer in her car, Gillian rushes to her car, leaving the light on and the door open in her haste. As she approaches the car to unlock the drivers door, a ski-masked man suddenly looks through her passenger window at her.

Running back into the storage shed, she closes the door as quickly as possible knocking a rug standing by the door, into the only light, leaving her in total darkness. Silence is for but a moment, then she hears a key in the lock. She’d dropped her keys as she was running away and her assailant has them! The door unlocks and a hand reaches inside. Acting quickly, Gillian manages to close the door slamming her assailants hand in the process. But her safety is short lived as the door is again pulled away from her and opened.

Shaking with fear, she scrambles away, pulling down storage containers and trying to avoid her attacker as she navigates the dark storage unit. Suddenly her leg is grabbed and she is being pulled backwards towards her attacker. Then as suddenly as she was grabbed, she is released and she hears feet fleeing on the gravel outside. Soon Sid is at her side, police appear and Gillian is safe. Police announce after careful inspection, that her car had also been booby trapped. Gillian and Sid were on the right track with the assumption that the storage shed had something of value in it. The trouble is, they have no idea who the assailant was and why he followed Gillian to the unit.

Another twist to the tale comes with the discovery of the body of Lark, Becky’s ex-roommate. Apparently Lark had been called to meet someone and she was ready to “light some fireworks that should have gone off a long time ago.” Those fireworks got her killed as the assailant was vehement in keeping the secret of his identity intact.

Meanwhile, Gillian tries to figure out how Jessica hid her pregnancy for 9 months without her friends, or foster parents Mitch and Kay Banners noticing. Something doesn’t add up for Gillian and then suddenly things begin to come together and make sense. Jessica confides who Logan’s father is, why she kept silent and what really happened that night. Gillian realizes then why things have become so complicated and why so many events were misconstrued because a young girl was wrongfully accused of child neglect and why she lied about Logan’s birth and his discovery under the bridge.

As time is famous for, nothing is going to stop the show and the church musical goes on as planned but as events unfurl, it all becomes clear who tried to harm Gillian at the storage unit and most likely, who was behind all the events that had happened during her search for the truth. Suddenly it all comes to her, the attempted rape, the series of rapes Sid discovered, the murder of Lark as well as the district attorney. She sees literally before her eyes, the person who tried to harm her and as their eyes meet, she realizes as does he, his time is short.

Gillian makes a hard call to Bob to tell him what she has discovered in regards to Becky’s attempted rapist. Bob is naturally hurt that Becky didn’t tell anyone what she knew but resigns himself to finally knowing who the attacker is. With a heavy heart, he thanks Gillian and ends the conversation. Meeting later by chance, Bob gives Gillian an envelope and tells her he is due at the church that he can’t stop to chat, but to read the note and all will be made clear.

Instinctively Gillian knows something is wrong and she heads for the church, calling Sid along the way to fill him in on what is happening. She arrives at the church only to find Bob with the man who perpetrated all the events, along with the man who killed two people. Drawn there by a ruse, Bob said he offered him money in appreciation for all he’d done for the church and now with the two of them helpless, bullets whizzing around them and Bob shot, they know the would be rapist wouldn’t let them leave alive.

Smelling gasoline, they realize the man intends to set the church on fire in the hopes of killing both of them and getting away in the process. Gillian remembers that her gun in under the seat of her car, and cautiously she grabs the gun and aiming carefully, shoots the gas can before the man can light a match and catch the church on catch fire.

What transpires after this is a bittersweet ending to an excellent book. Although Becky’s would be rapist is found and a series of rapes tied to him as well, and Bob finds answers to his question, not all is said and done. The price that is paid to find the answer may cause the reader to ask if it was too high a price to pay for a 20 year old crime. And if all that transpired was worth the hurt left behind.

There is one bright spot though at the end of the book. Clint and Gillian are made foster parents of not just one, but two children whom the reader must read the book to discover their identities. To give their identities away would be as much a crime to the reader as Gillian faced within the book as she worked to find the rapist. You’ll just have to read “The Burden of Truth” to find out that despite all the heartache, death and bloodshed, there was a silver lining after all.

Much went on between the pages of this book that cannot be described here and to retell every instance would rob the reader of an experience into the human mind and hearts of a great number of interesting people and the intricacies of a small town and the people within it.

This book is one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Once I sorted out all the characters and put them in their places, learned their personalities and how they fit into the whole scheme of things, the book took a life of its own and I felt myself drawn into the hectic, yet heroic world of Gillian Jones.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to all who enjoy a bit of a mystery, some scandal on the side and a cast of well fleshed out characters. It is well worth the read and well worth the price. Trust me and delve into the world of Gillian Jones, I promise you won’t be sorry, surprised by what you may discover, but certainly not sorry.… (plus d'informations)