Books by Nancy Nau Sullivan

It's 2003, nearly 30 years after the Vietnam War...Blanche "e;Bang"e; Murninghan is sitting on the dock of the Peel ‘n Eat Pier on Santa Maria Island, sipping an excellent draft and wiggling her fishing pole after an elusive sheepshead. It's hot out and the sun is shining. She doesn't see the woman eyeing her from the fishing hut-not until she appears at Blanche's side and forever disrupts Blanche's peaceful idyll in this quiet Gulf coast town.The woman is Jean McMahon and she needs Blanche's help-her amateur sleuthing skills have become local legend after she helped solve the murder of a friend and dodge some drug-dealing land developers. Jean needs a good dose of that Blanche determination and doggedness. It's not a simple favor Jean asks. Will Blanche go to Vietnam with her and look for Jean's mother?It's as if Jean has ripped a new hole in Blanche's heart. Her father was killed in Vietnam, and she's never gotten much history from her beloved grandmother and mother on the subject. Jean's request grows on her. Blanche wants the truth...Blanche and Jean don't stop once they land in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, and ex-pat "e;Stick"e; Dahlkamp makes sure of that. They pick up the search together. The three cross the rice paddies on Stick's Honda Dream to Ben Tre and My Tho, old stomping grounds for Stick, a former Ninth Infantry Division Riverine and now bar owner of the popular, The Follies. He's got friends in jungle towns who might help, and indeed they do. And don't. Blanche begins to wonder if he's running them off the road.They trace Jean's mother's steps around South Vietnam, to where she met Hank McMahon, an infantry scout with the old Americal division. They meet more than one shady character who thinks it better to let things lie, deep and peaceful, just the way that they were after the horror of war passed. But Blanche's stubbornness beats down the door. She is looking for Jean's mother, and following her father's trail. He left without a trace.

When Blanche "Bang" Murninghan visits an exhibit of ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico City, she sees that all is not ancient. One of the mummies has a pink hair clip embedded in its hay-like do, and the texture of the skin is not quite right. Blanche, a part-time journalist, starts to dig for some answers and gets tangled in the mystery of the mummy at the Palacio Nacional. Her cousin and traveling companion, Haasi Hakla, aids and abets-and puts the reins on Blanche. All the while, the two eat and drink their way across the city, following one hunch after another with a cast of colorful characters that include a prescient elderly chilanga, an amiable overworked detective, and a stunning doctor of shady deeds. The cousins are willing to risk kidnapping and attempted murder to get at the truth-but first, Blanche stops for another excellent beer and Haasi delights in one more taco al pastor.

Blanche "Bang" Murninghan is a part-time journalist with writer's block and a penchant for walking the beach on her beloved Santa Maria Island. When land-grabbing tycoons arrive from Chicago and threaten to buy up Tuna Street, including her beachfront cottage, her seemingly idyllic life begins to unravel. Blanche finds herself in a tailspin, flabbergasted that so many things can go so wrong, so fast.When her dear friend is found murdered in the parking lot of the marina, Blanche begins digging into his death. With her friends Liza and Hassi by her side, she stumbles into a pit of greed, murder, drug running, and kidnapping. Blanche has survived her fair share of storms on Santa Maria Island, but this one might just be her last.