Cat DeLuca

Caterina DeLuca, burned by her run-around now ex-husband, Johnnie Ricco, took the skills she mastered during marriage and opened her own private-eye agency. Now she’s armed with a camera, ready to print the evidence to 8×10 glossies for use in divorce court. The men in her big, whacko family, all Chicago cops and one a crook, aren’t sure what to make of Cat’s career choice.

What does a woman do when she discovers her husband is an incurable cheater? If she’s Cat DeLuca, she launches the Pants on Fire Detective Agency. Now Cat does what two years of unholy matrimony taught her to do: she catches cheaters. When a client, Cleo Jones, shoots her cheating husband’s bum full of buckshot, he disappears, taking her money, dog, and sister with him. Private Investigator Cat DeLuca promises to retrieve the dog and money if her client stops shooting at Walter.

PI Cat DeLuca is in a Bridgeport pub getting the photos she needs to tie up another case when a man dressed as Santa Claus walks into the bar and disappears behind doors designated for employees only. Minutes later there’s a commotion and Santa charges out. Santa’s eyes meet Cat’s and flash with recognition. The man in the Santa suit is Bill Bonham, class clown from Cat’s days at Bridgeport High, who is working a case for a former bartender who abruptly left her job - and town - after witnessing a murder.

Cat is out running in a neighborhood park when she crashes over the faceless body of Bernie Love. Bernie was the finance guy for the scary Provenza family and a friend to Cat's shady uncle Joey, a Ferrari-wheeling cop. As she hauls out her phone, Cat is assaulted by someone with a Rolex, a stun gun, and a wheelbarrow. When the cops show up, the killer is gone—and so is the body.

Life is looking up these days for Chicago PI Cat DeLuca. Her Pants on Fire Detective Agency is booming, and FBI boyfriend Chance Savino still curls her toes. She both adores and dodges her outrageous Italian family. Mama's latest scheme to marry her off involves a romantic cruise, insane amounts of champagne, and a hijacked priest to tie the knot. But Cat's near-perfect world is thrown into a tailspin when Captain Bob's dog is kidnapped and a ghost from the past threatens to expose a terrible secret.