Private Investigator Nicoli "Nikki" Hunter can't seem to stay out of trouble in her sixth mystery, A Side Order Of Murder. A thirty-six-year-old beauty, Nikki lives on the California coast aboard a 46-foot sailboat, and rents an office in the marina complex where her boat is docked. Though she normally specializes in covert restaurant and bar employee surveillance, she seems to have developed a perilous sideline investigating homicides. In A Side Order Of Murder Nikki is hired by a wealthy, if socially stunted, young man named Clifford Montgomery, who is convinced that someone is trying to drive him insane. Because he was referred by Nikki's friend, Jack "The Cat" McGuire, she agrees to look into Cliff's case. Nikki quickly discovers that his assumptions are correct. Someone is, indeed, tampering with his sanity.