Nero Blanc Books in Order

A crossword editor's death is dismissed as an accident, but his mother hires detective Rosco Polycrates to investigate. Fellow puzzle maker Belle Graham helps decipher crosswords left behind, uncovering clues to blackmail and possible murder.

Two women disappear during a boating trip near Nantucket, leaving a burned hull and unanswered questions. Hired to investigate, Rosco Polycrates works with Belle Graham as cryptic crosswords begin offering clues to the missing women's fate.

While preparing for their wedding, Belle and Rosco become entangled in a homeless man's murder and a missing dog investigation. When another death occurs and Rosco vanishes, Belle must follow crossword clues through an increasingly dangerous mystery.

Belle travels to Florida after her estranged anthropologist father's apparent heart attack aboard a train. Sorting through his belongings reveals unsettling secrets, and another body draws her and Rosco into questions about his hidden life.

Five Christmas mysteries take Belle and Rosco from Vermont to the Cotswolds, with suspicious recipes, mob connections, and forged antiques among the puzzles. Each story includes a crossword that invites readers to examine the clues themselves.

Five holiday mysteries mix travel, buried treasure, family secrets, and suspicious deaths with Belle and Rosco's investigations. From a Caribbean getaway to a snowbound sewing gathering, each case gives readers a crossword to solve alongside the detectives.

A woman's skeleton discovered in a garden draws Rosco and Belle into a close-knit community's concealed history. Their investigation connects the remains with older crimes, including arson and a double homicide that still demand answers.

Belle heads to Hollywood to create crosswords for an interactive television movie based on an earlier case. Altered puzzles, suspicious accidents, and murder turn the production dangerous, bringing Rosco into an investigation behind the cameras.

Belle's Christmas crossword contest coincides with Rosco's efforts to collect toys for children. Confusion involving escaped convicts disguised as Santas draws their police friends and dogs into a holiday mystery, with four puzzles for readers to solve.

A holiday decorating competition leads Belle to discover dessert recipes hidden in crosswords. When a copy of a Longfellow poem disappears, Rosco investigates the theft, while four puzzles and accompanying recipes invite readers into the festivities.

Belle's acquaintance at a dog park seeks help after her dentist husband disappears and a ransom demand arrives. Ordered to avoid the police, Belle and Rosco follow nursery rhyme crosswords as the kidnapping becomes a murder investigation.

A stable fire leaves a barn manager in a coma at a wealthy family's horse farm. Rosco investigates possible arson amid bitter family disputes, while Belle's crossword clues draw them toward a mystery involving murder.