R.E. Merrill

In Books 4 through 6, Gertrude tears all over Maine trying to find crimes to solve. She adds another "assistant" to her team, competes in poetry slams, tries to use a pistol, tracks down an ex-spook, and hunts down a ghost.

You know that eccentric great-aunt no one wants to sit beside at family functions? Or that neighbor who’s just a little too strange to get to know? Or the pushy woman at the thrift store? Maybe you know Gertrude.

Gertrude never set out to be a sleuth. But when one of her many cats goes missing, she goes out searching and learns that one of her neighbors has also disappeared. And when she starts poking around, Gertrude finds out she's got quite a knack for snooping.

Twenty years ago a teenager drowned in Clearwater Lake. Now her ghost is haunting its shores. Gertrude knows there's no such thing as ghosts, and she's going to prove it—even if it means spending some time in the water herself.

Gertrude's never been so busy. There's been a murder at a Wild West theme park, and Gertrude is on the scene. But she can't stay long, because there's been another murder in Mattawooptock.

Gertrude is still feeling confident after her first gumshoe victory. So when she finds a murder victim at her local thrift store, she is excited to tell the Sheriff's Department everything she's learned at the scene of the crime.

There just isn't enough crime in Mattawooptock, so Gertrude has to convince Calvin to go to the big city—Portland, where she will go undercover as the newest slam poet on the scene.

A young woman is missing, and her boyfriend is desperate to find her. Desperate enough to hire Gertrude, Gumshoe. Thrilled to have her first real client, Gertrude gets right to work. But is she ready for a real case? Can she catch a kidnapper without getting snatched up herself?

Gertrude thinks she's got a knack for proving that ghosts don't exist, but this time she's taking on a celebrity phantom: Seth Bullock. She and Calvin pack the cats into the camper and head to Deadwood, where she will attempt to prove herself right once again.