Fracktown Gumshoe Series

Think your husband is unfaithful?  Call Fitz. Niccolo 'Fitz' Fitzhugh is the retired cop who runs Fitzhugh Investigations, whose business revolves around digging up dirt for local divorce lawyers. He knows, maybe better than anyone, how an unfaithful male thinks. After all, his police career came to an abrupt end when he slept with the police chief's slinky wife—and he's sleeping on his office couch because his own wife, cellist and college professor Dr. Grace Darcy, believes he hasn't changed his ways. But getting a suspected murderer off? That's not in his usual wheelhouse. When a local attorney, Jim Ambrosi hires him to prove his client Michael Atwater isn't the killer of hooker Gina Cantolini, Fitz must get to the bottom of a tangled web of small town politics and a dark, dark tale of family secrets and revenge. But at what cost?

The women in the life of private investigator Niccolo Fitzhugh aren’t making things easy for him at all. His mother has told Father O’Malley, the priest at St. Rita, he would investigate—for free—the case of Aileen O’Connor, who lost $50,000 to con man Benedict St. Giles and who believes she’s part of a rebirth of the Catholic Church.  Then Fitz’s beloved wife Gracie leaves him for two weeks to fend for himself to take a group of students to Vienna,—and Father O’Malley ends up dead.  The case brings another problem—FBI Special Agent Fiona Rafferty who has been on St. Giles’ tail since another priest was found dead. Even worse: the history she has with Fitz since she was a new police officer in Fawcettville, could explode in ways that put his life —and his marriage—in danger. Can Fitz resist the temptation that Rafferty poses? And can he rescue O’Connor before the worst happens? 

What's scarier for Rust Belt PI Niccolo Fitzhugh? A dead body in the trunk of burning car or waking up in bed with prosecutor Alicia Linnerman after a blistering drunk?  Fitz's life has been turned upside down since the death of his beloved wife Gracie. Outside of work, he's holed up at home alone, drowning in his grief. But sex with Alicia has him thinking she believes there might be something more than being friends with benefits—something Fitz needs to shut down and shut down fast. When a stripper from one of Fawcettville's topless joints turns down witness protection for testifying against a murderer and then comes up missing, it's an easy conclusion the body in the trunk is hers.  Or is it? Fracking has come to Fawcettville, and with it a boom-town rise in crime. One man's search for his daughter may look like the act of a caring father, but Fitz has his doubts about the case—and where his relationship with Alicia could go.

WINNER OF THE 2018 SILVER FALCHION AWARD FOR BEST SUSPENSE! A Saturday of ballistic therapy at the Fawcettville gun range turns bloody for PI Niccolo 'Fitz' Fitzhugh when local social worker and community theater star Anna Maria Ippolito is found murdered in her home. It's personal too—he's been casually dating Anna Maria following his disastrous break up with prosecutor Alicia Linnerman. The discovery of a strange coded journal at Anna Maria's home makes Fitz and Anna Maria's sister Carlotta wonder if she's living some sort of double life, one Carlotta wants to know about before the police get wind of it. A box of clothing and other strange items raises more concern, even as the mayor's wife wants Fitz to investigate her husband's suspected infidelity. When Fitz cracks the journal's code, the two cases converge in a way no one could in this Rust Belt Ohio town could imagine. This is the fourth in the Niccolo Fitzhugh detective series.

When a young university student Phillipa Huddleston sits down in the office of Fitzhugh investigation, she wants Fitz to find her mother, Barbara Huddleston. The problem? She's been gone for four years and the police were never notified. Why wouldn't her father report his wife missing? Had he killed her? Or why didn't Pippa's wealthy grandparents do the same?   The case takes Fitz out of the familiar environs of his hometown, Fawcettville, to New Tunstall, a small town on the Ohio River filled with secrets. Once the center of the country's pottery business, New Tunstall now struggles with unemployment, opioids and poverty. With no familiar sources, Fitz must turn to two unlikely allies to help him solve his case.   This is the seventh in Debra Gaskill's award-winning Fracktown Gumshoe series.

Unhappy clients and a marriage on the brink of implosion mean tough times for Fitz.   When Alicia is kidnapped from her hotel room while prosecuting a high-profile murder trial, the search for her uncovers an ugly subculture of hate that Fitz needs to infiltrate in order to save his wife. What he learns along the way could also save his marriage.   This is the sixth in Debra Gaskill's award-winning Fracktown Gumshoe mystery series.   

TOXIC FITZ IS A FINALIST FOR THE 2019 SILVER FALCHION AWARD FOR BEST SUSPENSE  Hometown star Nora Solomon was poised for fame when she was found dead in her barn. It's a sad end to a long acting career that was ready to explode with the upcoming release of two movies. Then Nora's nephew contacts Rustbelt PI Niccolo 'Fitz' Fitzhugh to claim Nora was murdered, even though there's nothing to suggest that she died from anything other than a heart attack. The actress certainly surrounded herself with some questionable characters. Her farm help did time for killing a man, her fan club president can't be found and her abusive boyfriend is a former cop under investigation for use of excessive force. Even her nephew has a shady past with drugs and sex work—if that's who he truly is. Any of them could be suspects in her murder. But are hey? The search sends Fitz down a rabbit hole of twisted relationships and explosive secrets that will tear one family apart. This is the fifth in Debra Gaskill's award-winning Niccolo Fitzhugh series. 

A vengeful defendant in a domestic violence case has put Fitz's PI license on the line. When the one witness who can back up Fitz's side of the story doesn't show at his hearing, his license is temporarily suspended. Financially strapped, Fitz turns to bounty hunting and discovers a mysterious network dedicated to helping domestic violence victims disappear. Is his witness within that network now or is she, as Fitz fears, already dead? This is the eighth book in Debra Gaskill's Fracktown Gumshoe series.