Category Archives: Gates, Nancy Gotter

Nancy Gotter Gates. Life Studies. Detroit: Five Star, 2011.

Liz Raynor, widowed at 55, is struggling to find any joy in her life in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her husband, Peter, lost his battle to cancer only two months previously, and nothing catches her interest until someone comes to her door who feels Peter’s loss as deeply as she does. Samantha, a homeless young woman of twenty, is looking for Peter Raynor, although she won’t say why. She is visibly distraught when Liz tells her the news of his death, and disappears from town shortly after. But Liz can’t stop thinking about her.

Soon, retired Liz decides to take a fine arts course –  it was her favorite subject while in school, and painting is an activity she still enjoys occasionally. She doesn’t expect Jay, a local artist and the course instructor, to be so attractive … or to share her feelings. Liz is surprised to find that she wants another intimate relationship so soon after losing Peter, but Jay is good for her and the two become very close. When Samantha reappears, Liz decides to take her in and help her while she attends the local community college. But the young woman has an unexpected secret linking her to Liz, one that will change the older woman’s life forever if she chooses to accept its consequences.

Life is difficult, and Jay, Samantha, and Liz will all experience more trials, but the loving relationships they build with each other them help them to survive.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog. 

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Filed under 2010-2019, 2011, Gates, Nancy Gotter, Guilford, Piedmont, Romance/Relationship

Nancy Gotter Gates. When Push Comes to Death. Kernersville, NC: Alabaster Book Publishing, 2007.

Tommi Poag has been rebuilding her life after her husband left her for a younger woman, another lawyer in his firm.  Tommi has bought a condo and gotten a job as an office assistant at a small insurance agency.  The pay isn’t good, but she has met some nice people.  One of them is Nina Sellars, a woman who has just moved back to Greensboro after years in Hollywood.  Nina and Tommi are distantly related through Tommi’s ex-husband, and the women enjoy each others company.

Tommi is looking forward to meeting Nina’s husband, Cap, but before that can happen he dies in an accident.  Only the police don’t think it was an accident, and they arrest Nina for her husband’s death.  Nina’s lawyer is Tommi’s ex-husband, who rebuffs Tommi’s offer to help investigate the death.

Nina’s family is more appreciate of Tommi’s help, but as she questions the eyewitness to the accident and pokes around in Cap’s business and his personal behavior, more bad things happen–there is a suspicious fire at Tommi’s condo and several people are poisoned.   As Tommi and Nina’s father work together they feel a mutual attraction, but before their relationship can develop they have to face some ugly family secrets.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2007, Gates, Nancy Gotter, Guilford, Mystery, Novels in Series, Piedmont

Nancy Gotter Gates. The Tommi Poag Mysteries.

Tommi Poag is a cheerful fifty-something woman who is trying the make it on her own after her husband leaves her for a younger woman.  After decades as homemaker, she now works for a small insurance agency and lives in a little condo in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Because Tommi has a big heart and curious nature, she quickly gets involved in the troubles of others.  It turns out that Tommi is a good, if unorthodox, investigator. Her investigations cause her to bump into her ex, but Tommi is making new friends as she solves crimes large and small.

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Filed under 2000-2009, Gates, Nancy Gotter, Guilford, Mystery, Piedmont, Series

Nancy Gotter Gates. Death at Play: Murder at the Reenactment. Kernersville, NC: Alabaster Books, 2008.

Tommi Poag is a fifty-plus lady with an ordinary office job, trying to make a new life for herself after a divorce.  It all sounds very sedate, but Tommi somehow manages to get herself involved in controversies and crimes.

In Death at Play Tommi joins the board of her condo association just as it is being sued after the death of one condo owner’s show dog.  Tommi and her friend Constance are unwitting participants in an attempt to blackmail the dog’s owner.  When the dog’s owner is later murdered at a reenactment of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, Tommi thinks it is time to look into the dead man’s past and his connections to others in the neighborhood. With her ex-husband, Bernard, serving as the main suspect’s lawyer, things get complicated, especially when Frank, Bernard’s cousin and Tommi’s new romantic interest, comes back to Greensboro.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2009, Gates, Nancy Gotter, Guilford, Mystery, Novels in Series, Piedmont

Nancy Gotter Gates. Death on Disaster Day. Kernersville, NC: Alabaster Books, 2008.

Tommi Poag is trying to move on with her life after an unexpected midlife divorce. New activities and new friendships help with that, and one of Tommi’s new friends is her divorce lawyer, Evan McCandless.  It’s Evan who talks Tommi into playing a victim at a disaster preparedness program at a Girl Scout camp outside Greensboro, North Carolina. However, nothing could prepare Tommi for Evan’s murder, or the case that the police build against Tommi’s ex-husband, Bernard. Yielding to the pleadings of Bernard’s new wife, Tommi begins to investigate Evan’s death, turning up shady dealings that put Tommi and those close to her in danger.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

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Filed under 2000-2009, 2008, Gates, Nancy Gotter, Guilford, Mystery, Novels in Series, Piedmont