0:00

Every great romance story has a

0:02

happily ever after. Two people meet,

0:05

fall in love, and end

0:07

up together for the rest of their days.

0:10

Nancy and Dan Brophy were one of

0:12

those couples. Dan was a

0:14

chef who taught at a Portland

0:17

culinary school. Nancy was a romance

0:19

writer who filled her novels with

0:21

sexy fantasies, betrayals, and murder. When

0:24

Dan ends up dead, details of his

0:26

murder that could have been ripped from

0:28

the pages of Nancy's novels become

0:31

clues, and Nancy becomes a

0:34

main suspect. So this

0:36

isn't a romance story. It starts

0:38

with a happily ever after, but

0:40

it doesn't end with one. I

0:43

was a member of Nancy's writing

0:45

group, and this case had us

0:47

all asking the same question. Was

0:49

Nancy just researching her next novel,

0:51

or was she planning a murder?

0:53

This is a story about what

0:55

happens when the line blurs between

0:57

fiction and reality. I'm about to

0:59

play a clip from Happily Never

1:01

After, Dan and Nancy. Follow Happily

1:03

Never After, Dan and Nancy, on

1:06

the Wondery app or wherever you

1:08

get your podcasts. Wonder.

1:22

Nicole Herman was lounging on a

1:24

beach in Croatia with

1:26

a perfect view of the ocean. It

1:30

looks a lot like Oregon, with the exception

1:32

that the water is like turquoise. It

1:35

was nice and sunny, exactly

1:37

how Nicole pictured her honeymoon.

1:41

Nicole's new husband got up to take a

1:43

swim, but she didn't join

1:45

him. She was in the middle

1:47

of a novel. The man on the

1:49

book cover had a square

1:51

jaw and a come-hither stare. All

1:54

day, Nicole had just been waiting

1:57

to get back to him. On

2:03

the floor should have at home

2:05

is one. Issue.

2:08

However, you can work on

2:10

loading and unloading. Japan's are

2:12

you should we be this

2:14

thing I can tell my

2:16

husband throttle still flowing. Choosing

2:18

each word with care. Maybe

2:20

beginning he met some damn.

2:23

Now you're just another this and. He

2:26

will know a hundred ways to kill you. Make

2:29

it look like an accident. Suppressor

2:31

for has against and close her

2:34

eyes and will meet in like

2:36

you. Rather, you were

2:38

a knuckle dragging me and. A

2:42

lesson day. He

2:44

misses and. Easy.

2:50

To an entirely.

2:56

Scandalous. That

2:58

was probably rating anywhere from one hundred and fifty

3:00

it as three and are paid as a diet.

3:03

Nicole had been laid out on

3:06

the beach for hours reading. She

3:08

was already on book number two.

3:10

Enough wrong. Never felt so right.

3:13

Serious. And she was determined

3:15

to get through all five books by

3:17

the end of her trap. Every book

3:19

was more or less the same. Burly

3:22

former Navy seal comes. To

3:24

the rescue Us beautiful young woman on

3:26

the run from. Her dangerous husband.

3:29

It was an odd choice of

3:31

reading for our honeymoon put away

3:33

from the beaches of Croatia back

3:36

home in Portland, Oregon. The call

3:38

was a Deputy District Attorney. Those

3:41

are. Things. As a prosecutor that you

3:43

sometimes want to. Get ahead as and

3:45

and front as And for months she

3:47

and her team had been trying to

3:50

solve. A murder. By

3:53

progress had been slow, To

3:55

evidence kept alluding them. As

3:58

the pressure mounted. Who and

4:00

her team had turned to an

4:02

unlikely lead: a series of romance

4:05

novels written by the Dead Man's

4:07

Weiss. It was a little bit

4:09

mad, and terms of what we

4:11

were dealing with, her books were

4:13

packed with details borrowed from their

4:15

own. Lives as a local Portland

4:17

chef and a romance novelist.

4:19

Details that the Da's had

4:21

no other way to. Get

4:23

their hands on it. So now

4:26

Nicole was doing homework on her

4:28

honeymoon. I wasn't so

4:30

sure there would truly be anything but

4:32

it was sort of the the back

4:34

of my mind. What if something similar

4:36

to that has played out. And. One of

4:39

her novels and it's over and right

4:41

there for us to find more. Search

4:43

for going to be on buttons? More

4:45

dresses? We're going to get zips. And

4:48

every new chapter is new

4:51

seemed. Could potentially be

4:53

the one to crack the murder

4:55

case that was waiting for her

4:57

back home. Since.

5:03

All episodes of Happily Never

5:05

After Diana, Nancy early and ads

5:07

free on Wonder He plus.

5:10

Two I wonder a plus in the

5:12

wonder Iap or on Apple podcasts.