Nikki Hunter Mystery Books In Order

Publication Order of Nikki Hunter Books

The Nikki Hunter Mystery book series is a wonderful series of cozy mystery and fiction novels. It is written by an award-winning American writer named Nancy Skopin. The series is comprised of a total of 9 books published between 2015 and 2019. Nancy Skopin has created the chief protagonist for this series in the role of Nicoli Hunter. She is commonly referred to as ‘Nikki’ by her near and dear ones. Nikki Hunter is depicted as working as a private investigator and residing in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Throughout the series, it is seen that Nikki Hunter gets involved in murder mysteries one after the other. She uses all her investigative skills and strives to get to the bottom of each of the mysteries she comes across.

Nikki makes it her life’s mission to catch the culprits and bring justice to the victims by making the culprit pay a heavy price for their heinous crimes. She gets help in her investigations from Bill Anderson, a homicide detective from the Bay Area, who later befriends her. Nikki is depicted to be in her mid-thirties. She is smart, beautiful, brainy, gun-toting, tenacious, and has all the abilities that make up a good detective. Nikki often spends time on a 46-ft sailboat, which she considers her home, and operates from her office located on the ground floor of a nearby marina complex in the Redwood City, California. Some of the other essential characters mentioned by Nancy Skopin in the books include Laura Howard, Elizabeth Gaultier, Jack McGuire, Paul Marks, Stanley Godard, Nina Jezek, Clifford Montogomery, Abetha Mimbo, etc.

The debut book of the Nikki Hunter series written by author Nancy Skopin is entitled ‘Murder on the Menu’. It was released in 2015 as a Kindle edition. In this book, Nancy has introduced the character of Nikki Hunter as a private detective living in Redmond City, California. The other important characters shown in the novel include Homicide Detective and Nikki’s friend Bill Anderson, Elizabeth Gaultier, Laura Howard, and some others. Initially, Nikki Hunter is seen as a 35-year old smart, witty, beautiful, tenacious, and hardworking lady dwelling on a boat in Redmond City’s marina complex. She is the only child of an ex-nun and a Cossack. As not many cases of private investigation and mysteries come her way, Nikki starts taking up surveys of restaurants and bars. This area of work helps to pay her bills and keeps her up & running in the matters of her personal expenditures. However, Nikki doesn’t see any challenge in the surveying work and eventually, she begins to lose enthusiasm.

Soon after, Nikki Hunter gets to about the murder case of a socialite and a stripper named Laura Howard. To her surprise, she gets chosen to investigate the brutal murder, making her feel that she has finally come across a case that matches her talent and skills. Before approaching Nikki Hunter, Laura’s mother had contacted the police authorities to investigate her daughter’s murder and catch the killer. But, when she didn’t see any outcome coming from them, she decided to ask for Nikki’s help. In the initial investigation, Nikki Hunter learns that Laura Howard was about to get a few million dollars and she suspects that this huge inheritance might be the cause of Laura’s murder. Nikki starts looking into the past life of Laura and comes up with several suspects.

The investigation gets her acquainted with Detective Bill Anderson and the two become good friends. Bill informs Nikki that 3 recent murder cases have similarities to that of Laura’s. With the help of a fellow boat dweller and her best friend Elizabeth Gaultier, Nikki begins to interview suspects and people close of Laura Howard. Elizabeth and Nikki realize that their activities are being monitored by another private investigator, most probably hired by the killer. Later, all the people Nikki has interviewed begin to turn up dead. Nikki feels she has landed herself in great danger as the killer might try to kill her too. She informs Bill Anderson all her discoveries and findings related to the case and hopes that he will save her from becoming the murderer’s next target. The two form a team and decided to deal with the culprit once and for all.

The second installment of the cozy mystery series is entitled ‘Murder Over Cocktails’. It was released by Createspace in 2015. This book features the lead characters in the form of Bill Anderson, Jack McGuire, and Nikki Hunter. The story opens by depicting that Nikki Hunter has managed to recover from the nightmare of a deadly encounter with a gruesome murderer. She seems happy to be getting back to her regular restaurant & bar surveillance jobs. However, she has no idea that she is going to get involved in another murder mystery that will test her patience as well as her skills as a private investigator. While Nikki is sitting in a bar posing as a helpless victim to catch a bartender involved in multiple cases of sexual harassment, she gets approached by Jack McGuire. Jack, who is better known as The Cat, tells Nikki a story that goes on to alter the course of Cheoy Lee sailboat dweller’s life. Jack McGuire introduces himself as a professional burglar. He informs Nikki Hunter that during his recent burglary, he ended up robbing a killer’s house. During the robbery, he came across videotapes of 5 brutal murders.

Jack asks Nikki to go through the videotapes and try to provide justice to the innocent victims by catching the killer. Nikki Hunter starts investigating each of the five murders while continuing with her normal surveillance work. As Jack cannot approach the police on his own because of being a burglar, he requests Nikki to take the matter seriously and try to stop the killer. He is worried that more innocent lives might be lost as the predator is still roaming freely. So, he asks Nikki to hurry up the investigation. Nikki asks Jack to revisit the killer’s home and collect as many evidences as he can. She thinks of bringing the matter to the notice of Bill Anderson, but doesn’t go ahead with this idea because she knows Bill has the habit of going by the book and doesn’t like to break any rules. Nikki decides to put her life on the line by posing as a decoy/victim one more time, but this time she does not have Bill Anderson by her side to protect her. She hopes to make the sadistic killer fall for her plot and with the aid of Jack McGuire, put him behind bars.