The Nicole Graves Mysteries Boxed Set Books 1-3

by Nancy Boyarsky

The Swap

When Nicole Graves arranges a summer-long swap of her Los Angeles condo for a London couple’s house, she thinks it’s the perfect arrangement. She’s always dreamed of seeing the real London; she’s also hopeful the time away with her husband Brad will be good for their troubled marriage. But things don’t turn out the way Nicole expects: The Londoners fail to arrive in L.A. and appear to be missing. Then people begin following Nicole and making threats, demanding information she doesn’t have. Soon, Nicole realizes she’s in serious trouble––but she can’t get Brad or the police to believe her. When the confrontations turn deadly, Nicole must either solve the case or become the next victim.

Winner of the Eric Hoffer Award — Best Micro Press Book of the Year

The Bequest

Nicole Graves, still reeling from her London kidnapping in The Swap, is struggling to balance work at L.A.’s most prestigious law firm and a long-distance romance with her English lover. Things go sideways when she tracks down a missing colleague. The murder of the firm’s in-house investigator, his mysterious wealth, and his inexplicable bequest make Nicole a target for the police, the paparazzi, and the killer. When Nicole’s life takes an unexpected turn, she uncovers evil and corruption among the city’s most powerful people. The fast-paced mystery unravels against the backdrop of L.A. with its peculiar mix of balmy weather, the celebrity-crazed media, and a corrupt power structure hidden by the veneer of glamour and wealth.

Liar Liar

As a newly minted private investigator, Nicole Graves expects to take on legal cases for corporate clients. But when her client’s son, Brad Rexton, is killed trying to protect his wife, Ashley, from a home invasion-turned-kidnapping, the firm is hired to investigate. Nicole soon discovers that Ashley is not the person she claims to be, but her real identity remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, a long-delayed and undesired inheritance is finally deposited into Nicole’s bank account. Within a few days, someone dear to Nicole is kidnapped in the same manner as Ashley. The perpetrators demand Nicole’s full inheritance as ransom. She’s willing to hand the money over but finds it’s not so easy. The kidnappers have an uncanny ability to track her every move, and they suspect a trap. When their most terrifying threat is delivered to her door, Nicole is faced with a terrible choice: Should she count on the police or risk going it alone?

Genres: Fiction

658 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 20, 2019

About the author

The Swap, Nancy Boyarsky’s debut novel, won an Eric Hoffer gold medal for excellence in fiction. Her six four novels in the series, The Bequest, Liar Liar, The Ransom, The Entitled, and The Moscow Affair, are also available online and in bookstores.

Nancy's books have been compared to Mary Higgins Clark and are praised for contributing to the "women-driven mystery field with panache" (Foreword Reviews) as well as for their "hold-onto-the-bar roller coaster" plots (RT Book Reviews).

Nancy has been a writer and editor for her entire working career. She coauthored Backroom Politics, a New York Times notable book, with her husband Bill Boyarsky. She has written several textbooks on the justice system as well as written articles for publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Forbes, and McCall’s. She also contributed to political anthologies, including In the Running, about women’s political campaigns, and The Challenge of California by the late Eugene Lee. In addition to her writing career, she was communications director for political affairs for ARCO.
Aside from her writing career, she is producer/director of the podcast Inside Golden State Politics

Nancy is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley. She lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Witold A Ferens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nicole is a very special character. She blunders through events in the best form of Keystone Cops, with no ability to foresee potential dangers and risks, without attempting to look ahead, and somewhat blindly responding to whatever befalls her... She survives due to lucky circumstances, mercy of strangers, with a little bit of some desperate and improvised action. My main interest in her stories is to see what kind of scrapes she is going to get into, and how is she going to get out. She does not learn from experience, and her idea of personal protection is to carry a pepper spray in her purse, apparently expecting the attackers to be kind enough to wait for her to get it, before continuing with the attack.

Now she wants to be a private investigator - but does not think that it may be worthwhile to get some grounding in tactics, awareness, defensive techniques, or other things that one would think would be useful to an investigator. Can't wait to see what is she going to get into next time.

The plots of the stories are believable and somewhat realistic; the first two I found more interesting. The last story is not as good; characters are paper-thin, dialogues wooden, narration a bit mechanical. I gave the Liar, liar 3 stars because of these deficiencies - but it is OK bedtime read.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have reviewed these books separately. As a whole they were entertaining, often suspenseful, but some times just plain frustrating. Nicole seems to have a way of gettin into trouble that most folks easily and readily avoid by just doing what they are supposed to do. The characters were good and interesting. I feel like Liar, Liar was the best of the three.

[needra little · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good reading

Enjoyed each book. Had interesting characters and very good plots with action on every page. Liked the back and forth of Nicole's life