Rita’s Case Files #1:

The Sabotaged Stove

May, 1931

Rita Nenning is a private detective’s secretary, and she thought she’d spend the week sorting mail and answering the phone while her boss is out of town. Instead, she lands her first solo case when her friend Nancy Carson calls in panic: someone has damaged her café’s new stove and stolen her recipe box just hours before the grand opening. With help from her retired friend Jane, Rita takes the case.

The small-town mystery deepens when Rita discovers that the damage wasn’t random. Someone with access, motive, and nerve wanted the café to fail. As Rita digs through a tangle of recipes, rivalries, employees, and contractors, she realizes the culprit may still be close enough to strike again. If Rita can’t figure out who wanted Nancy’s dream to fail, the café could be ruined before it even opens.

With the town’s most powerful women set to judge the café at its grand opening, Rita has less than a day to reveal the truth. If she fails, Nancy loses everything. If she succeeds, she may catch a saboteur willing to do far worse than ruin a stove.

THIS IS A COMPLETE ~5,800-WORD SHORT STORY.
It is a side story adjacent to the main series.

It follows Book 16: The Second Course, when Nancy buys the restaurant building.

It takes place during Book 21: The Unicorn Voyage, when Lowan and Marx are on their way to England.

Then