A Valerie Urniak Mystery Series

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 was a natural death. One was 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, much to the displeasure of the detectie 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. The complete Valerie Urniak Mystery series consists of: Permanent Damage, Book 1 Contrive to Kill, Book 2 Variants of Deja Vu, Book 3 A Ring of Truth, Book 4 Too Soon, Book 5 Dangerous Undercurrents, Book 5 Zugzwang, Book 6 Alternate Lives, Book 8 Partings, Book 9

Things aren't always what they seem to be. Psychologist turned hairdresser Valerie Urniak learns that lesson when tragedy strikes in her building. What at first appears 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 promises to share 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...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. Other books in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series are: Permanent Damage, Book 1 Variants of Deja Vu, Book 3 A Ring of Truth, Book 4 Too Soon, Book 5 Dangerous Undercurrents, Book 6 Zugzwang, Book 7 Alternate Lives, Book 8

When Valerie Urniak happens upon some cold case files she had tucked away after her husband's murder, she finds her investigative skills haven't tarnished in the intervening years. While Valerie is seeking the truth about what happened in the case of an heiress who disappeared, someone from her past is stalking her... someone whose resentment could cost Valerie her family and her life. A Ring of Truth is the fourth book in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series. It is set in Chicago an starts in 1974, shortly after Book 3, Variants of Deja Vu, ends. Books in the Valerie Uriak Mystery series are: Permanent Damage, Book 1 Contrive to Kill, Book 2 Variants of Deja Vu, Book 3 A Ring of Truth, Book 4 Too Soon, Book 5 Dangerous Undecurrents, Book 6 Zugzwang, Book 7 Alternate Lives, Book 8

When private detective Vince Cardonza, asks Valerie Urniak Harris to consult on a case, Valerie refuses to consider it without her husband Jacob's approval. After almost twenty-five of marriage, Jacob had enough of his wife putting her life in danger. But Valerie was certain that her compassionate husband will withdraw his edict once he learns a missing teenage girl is involved. Valerie also can't refuse helping her former sister-in-law in her attempt to find her birth parents. There could be no danger in doing that. On the eve of the new millennium, Valerie finds a document that threatens to turn the last twenty-five years of her life into one long lie... Valerie can't believe things could get worse... until they do. Too Soon is the fith book in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series. This book is set in Chicago, and  is set in 1999. Books in this series: Permanent Damage, Book 1 Contrive to Kill, Book 2 Variants of Deja Vu, Book 3 A Ring of Truth, Book 4 Too Soon, Book 5 Dangerous Undercurrents, Book 6 Zugzwang, Book 7 Alternate Lives, Book 8

The past seems to be repeating itself, only with a slightly different twist this time. Some things in hairdresser Valerie Urniak's life are new and good -- like her happy marriage to Detective John Wilson, and the success of her new shop. But some things are echoing the past in ways she could live without. Valerie's mettle had been tested as a teenager when she lived through adversity and tragedy. It made her a strong, self-reliant woman, but this time that might not be enough to help her overcome the worst instance of a twisted deja vu. Variants of Deja Vu is Book 3 in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series, picking up three months after Contrive to Kill, Book 2, ended. Other books in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series are: Permanent Damage, Book 1 Contrive to Kill, Book 2 A Ring of Truth, Book 4 Too Soon, Book 5 Dangerous Undercurrents, Book 6 Zugzwang, Book 7 Alternate Lives, Book 8 Partings, Book 9, final book in the series

When Valerie Urniak Cardonza suffers a head injury that leaves her first in a coma, then with amnesia, she's not certain which will come back first -- her memory or the person who wants her dead. Valerie has no memory of her real life. All she knows of her life comes from the dreams she had while in a coma. None of those dreams were what her life was actually like. What she's learning of her past while she waits for her memory to return is anything but favorable. What kind of a woman was she, with a teenage pregnancy and multiple marriages? Valerie has to reconcile her coma-dream life with her real life while trying to determine who hated her enough to try to kill her. Alternate Lives  is Book 8 in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series. It is set in Chicago in 2004. Other books in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series are: Permanent Damage, Book 1 Contrive to Kill, Book 2 Variants of Deja Vu, Book 3 A Ring of Truth, Book 4 Too Soon, Book 4 Dangerous Undercurrents, Book 6 Zugzwang, Book 7

Does a life insurance policy mean a death sentence? That's what Valerie Urniak Harris thinks when she discovers her best friend has taken out a hefty insurance policy on herself with her newly found birth mother as its beneficiary. Valerie is sure that the birth mother is not the person she seems to be, and had thought she was protecting her friend by not telling her of the less-than-savory things she's found out about the woman. Has Valerie instead put her friend in mortal danger? Valerie is willing to do anything or go anywhere to safeguard her friend's life. The Dangerous Undercurrents she faces are real...and deadly. Dangerous Undercurrents is Book 6 in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series. The  books in this series are: Permanent Damage, Book 1 Contrive to Kill, Book 2 Variants of Deja Vu, Book 3 A Ring of Truth, Book 4 Too Soon, Book 5 Dangerous Undercurrents, Book 6 Zugzwang, Book 7 Alternate Lives, Book 8

Valerie Urniak Cardonza never thought of herself as someone with a nemesis, but now she has two: one who is a threat to her marriage, and another who is a threat to her family. It is Valerie, not her chess-savant son Bobby, who finds herself in a zugzwang, a chess term that means any move will only makes things worse. In Valerie's case, whatever she does may turn out deadly -- but for her, or for Bobby? ZUGZWANG is Book 7 in the Valerie Urniak Mystery series. Other books in this series are: PERMANENT DAMAGE, Book 1 CONTRIVE TO KILL, Book 2 VARIANTS OF DEJA VU, Book 3 A RING OF TRUTH, Book 4 TOO SOON, Book 5 DANGEROUS UNDERCURRENTS, Book 6 ALTERNATE LIVES, Book 8

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 is gone? Worse, while it has 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 CONTRIVE TO KILL, Book 2 VARIANTS OF DEJA 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