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Nancy Star Books In Order

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Publication Order of Calendar Club Mysteries Books

The Case of the Missing Pumpkins (2004)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Case of the Thanksgiving Thief (2004)Description / Buy at Amazon
Mystery Of The Snow Day Bigfoot (2005)Description / Buy at Amazon
Case of the Kidnapped Cupid (2005)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Case of the Sneaky Strangers (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Case Of The April Fool's Frogs (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Case Of The New Year's Eve Nightmare (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Case of the Back-to-School Burglar (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of May Morrison Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Buried Lives (1993)Description / Buy at Amazon
Carpool Diem (2004)Description / Buy at Amazon
Sisters One, Two, Three (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
Rules for Moving (2020)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

International Guide to Tipping (1988)Description / Buy at Amazon

Nancy Star is an urban fantasy and literary fiction author from Queens, New York. She wrote her first full-length novel while she was a high school student. Much of the story was penned onto paper towels and then gifted to her best friend. When her friend later came around and informed her that she had lost the manuscript, she vowed that she would be publishing her future works in a more enduring form. Star had always been a voracious reader from her childhood and read a lot of psychological horrors such as Stephen King’s “Carrie” and “Rosemary’s Baby” by Ira Levin. Nonetheless, she also loved fiction works that combined the serious with the funny and she has continued to read such right up to adulthood. She also loved “Mad Magazine” and Kurt Vonnegut’s unique voice. Her 2020 novel “Rules for Moving” has a lot of the things she loved about fiction growing up as a teenager as it combines a strong narrative voice, psychological depth, humor, and surprise.

As a young adult, she was always writing something, and hence it was not surprising that she became an author. However, her first job was in New York City where she worked in the movie business. She was charged with looking for stories, plays, and novels that could be made into films and then assist in adapting the story from one form into something suitable for film. Before working with the Goldwyn film company, she had a job at The Ladd Company, where she worked with acclaimed novelists and playwrights on films such as “The Right Stuff,” “Blade Runner,” “Body Heat,” and “Chariots of Fire.” For more than a decade, she read a ton of plays, books, screenplays, newspapers, and magazines. Star also attended theaters a few days of the week to see if he could find great independent films that needed a distributor. From her time working in the movies, she developed a deep appreciation for how much responsibility an author has to their audience. She thus crafts novels to entertain and inform her readers, especially in these times when the attention span of audiences is the lowest it has ever been.

After being in the movie business for years, she found that she had too much in common with the writers she was working with and realized that it was time she became an author herself. However, she continued working for the Goldwyn Company and wrote in the early morning hours before leaving fro work. Her first published work was the 1988 published “The International Guide to Tipping.” She wrote the nonfiction work as a guide on who and how to tip while traveling across the world since she often had problems knowing the appropriate thing to do on her frequent travels abroad. It took quite a while before she left the movie business but in 1993, she made her debut as a fiction author with the publishing of “Buried Lives” a psychological thriller. She followed that up with the publishing of the “May Morrison” mystery series of novels that debuted with “Up Next” first published in 1998. She was inspired to write the series after she was invited to the “Oprah Show” to give her views on tipping when their regular expert was unavailable. Invited and disinvited within the space of a few hours, the seeds of her novel grew into a mystery about a producer that turned detective and tried to track down the man killing talk show producers deemed obnoxious.

With her mystery series attaining much success, her publisher invited her to write a mystery series for young audiences. Since she had loved mysteries growing up, she agreed and soon after published the first novel of “The Calendar Club Series,” “The Case of the Missing Pumpkins” in 2004. Nancy then wrote six more titles in the series before going back to writing single standing novels such as “Carpool Diem” in 2008 which was a satirical novel about a consultant that was fired from her job and now finds herself in the cut-throat world of parenting and sports. Another of her very popular novels was “Sisters One, Two” that is a humorous yet heartbreaking tale of the Tangle family that is shadowed by secrets and broken by tragedy yet remains resilient right to the very end. Her novels have been featured selections on Mystery guild, the Literary Guild, been optioned for television, and translated into four languages. Her writing has been featured in Diversion Magazine, the Washington Post, Family Circle, and Publishers Weekly. She is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Women’s Media Group, and Authors Guild. When she was a film executive, she was also part of the London Groucho Club.

Nancy Star’s “The Case of the Missing Pumpkins” is set a few days before Halloween. Dotti’s pumpkin has just gone missing from her front yard and she has engaged the services of the Calendar Club to try to trace them. After all, it would be no Halloween if she had no pumpkin. It is good writing with some quirky characters and a great mystery that is easy to follow along. The lead protagonists are not any different from any other kids though they have peculiar interests such as collecting rocks that look like the maps of the states of the US. The children use their hobbies to find answers to the mystery of the stolen pumpkins. The story has several red herrings though they are not meant to frustrate the reader given that they are simple misdirections. The only objective of the story was to find the person that took off with Dotti’s pumpkin so that they can make Halloween a success.

“The Case of the Back-to-School Burglar” by Nancy Star is set at a time when the school carnival is just about to start. The Calendar Club has been working hard to make ready the Fruitvale Elementary School. Casey, Leon, and Dotty are charged with sorting the different prizes for the winners of the various games. But she soon learns that some of the prizes have disappeared including some lollipops, beanbag dogs, and magnifying glasses. The school is yet to start but the Calendar Club needs to work hard to resolve the mystery. Will they be able to prevent a disaster at the carnival and track down the person that had stolen from the school. The novel is an engaging mystery with excellent illustration throughout its pages. It also comes with an easy and simple plot and introduces characters only when they are pertinent to the story.

Nancy Star’s “The Case of the April Fools’ Frogs” is set a few days before April Fools Day. For Fruitvale, this is going to be its debut April Fool’s Day Festival. But there is more to the day that April Fools pranks as several people in town have discovered frogs in hats, shoes, and the Help Box at the Calendar Club. And then the Calendar Club is told of a missing gowk and they do not even know what it is. It is up to Leon, Casey, and Dottie to use their Detective skills combined with some fun to try to track down the missing item. Will they be successful or will it be just one huge April Fool’s Day joke?

Book Series In Order » Authors » Nancy Star

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