Novelists with diverse life experience can often produce realistic, captivating works. For Roxborough's Lisa Regan, the author's debut crime novel hopes to do just that.

The writer, paralegal, former martial arts instructor, former certified nursing assistant, former bookstore manager, mother, and wife releases her first published novel Thursday when Finding Claire Fletcher—a crime story—hits the shelves.

Regan was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Roxborough, where she now lives with her husband and daughter.

Sapphire Star Publishing will release this book, with another novel, Aberration, set for print June 6, 2013. Finding Claire Fletcher parallels true events, like abducted children Elizabeth Smart or Jaycee Lee Dugard.

Below is a blurb from the book's back cover.

Newly divorced and with his career in jeopardy, Detective Connor Parks takes solace in the arms of a beautiful woman he meets at a bar. The next morning, Claire Fletcher is gone, leaving nothing behind but an address and a decade-old mystery. The address leads to the Fletcher family home where Claire’s siblings inform Connor that their fifteen-year-old sister was abducted from a city street ten years ago and is presumed dead.

During those ten years, Claire endured the cruel torture and depravity of the man who abducted her. Paralyzed by fear and too ashamed to return to her family, Claire is resigned to her life as Lynn, the identity her abductor forced upon her. Every time she attempts escape or betrays him in the smallest way, someone dies. Even now, her clandestine run-in with Connor Parks may have put his life at risk, as well as the lives of her family.

Connor is convinced that not only is Claire Fletcher alive, but that she is also the woman he met at the bar. Driven to see her again, he begins his own investigation, off the clock and without the police department's consent. He is determined to find her and unravel the mystery of her abduction and odd reemergence. But finding Claire Fletcher proves more dangerous than he anticipates. In fact, it may be deadly.

The book debuts Thursday. Regan will appear at Applebee’s in Andorra (8601 Henry Ave.) from 4 to 9 p.m. to sign paperback copies.

View the YouTube video for insight into the new novel. Visit her website for more information.