Nick and Nora Mysteries

Writing for a local online magazine, Nora investigates the curious death of socialite Lola Grainger. Though it was deemed an accident, Nora suspects foul play. And it seems that her cat does too. Apparently, Nick used to belong to a P.I. who disappeared while investigating Lola Grainger's death. The coincidence is spooky, but not as spooky as the clues Nick spells out for her with Scrabble letters - clues that lead her down an increasingly dangerous path.

Since inheriting her mother's sandwich shop, Nora Charles is more about hot grilled paninis than cold-blooded murder - until her sister, Lacey, is arrested. The victim, an esteemed art collector and Lacey's bullying professor, was stabbed in the heart. Apparently, all over a lousy grade. Off campus, things were just as dicey. The prof had an ex with secrets, a trophy wife set to inherit a fortune in masterworks, and a scorned student mistress.

While catering a gala for the Cruz Museum, Nora Charles agrees to look into the disappearance of director Violet Crenshaw's niece, a case previously undertaken by her frisky feline friend Nick's former owner, a private eye whose whereabouts are also currently unknown. As Nora and her curious cat Nick pull at the string of clues, they begin to unravel a twisted tale of coded messages, theft, false identities, murder, and international espionage.

Never one to turn away from a challenge - even when it goes against her better judgment - Nora Charles can hardly say no when an old friend of her mother's comes to town seeking her help. The author of steamy romances has learned that her writing partner is severing their relationship and threatening to reveal dark and dirty secrets in a tell-all, and she pleads with Nora to intervene. Reluctantly agreeing to help, Nora pays a visit to the writing partner, ready to make her case - right up until the moment she discovers the woman's lifeless body.

When a local PI's untimely death is ruled a suicide by the police, budding sleuth Nora Charles has no intention of letting sleeping dogs lie—or sleeping cats, for that matter. Certain it was a case of foul play, Nora rouses her trusty sidekick Nick and launches an investigation of her own. Then a second PI is murdered. Nora soon uncovers a plot that involves a local politician, missing campaign funds, and what could be a bogus real estate deal. But when hints of treason surface, what started as small-time thievery soon balloons into a matter of national security.

When a nighttime soap opera comes to town to film an episode, no one's more excited than Nora Charles, who's landed the contract for catering the shoot. But if she thought the show's plotlines were full of drama and intrigue, that's nothing compared to what she witnesses among the cast and crew. With half of them sneaking off for secret liaisons one minute and at each other's throats the next, it's all a titillating behind-the-scenes look for Nora—until she stumbles across the body of the show's slain director.

Waincroft Manor has long been tied to rumors of witchcraft and fatal curses, and to Nora Charles, that makes it the perfect place for a Halloween fundraiser. But her first trip to the deserted old mansion turns out to be truly ghoulish when she discovers a dead body. What's more, the corpse is laid out in a coffin—with two bite marks on its neck. Then the autopsy comes back showing that the body was drained of blood, and there's no stopping the local gossips from whispering the word vampire to anyone who will listen.

Six years ago, Mariah Blackthorne was found lying on the floor of her home, unconscious, holding the murder weapon that had killed her husband. Swearing she had no memory of the tragic event but insisting she was innocent, she nonetheless agreed to a plea deal and went to prison for the crime. Now, out on parole and desperate to know the truth, she enlists the help of local sleuth Nora Charles to find out what really happened that day—even if it means discovering she was the guilty party after all.