# Listen Now: Happily Never After: Dan & Nancy

An episode of [Morbidology](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1463979546), 13 May 2024, 5:10.

Audio: https://prefix.up.audio/s/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/s.gum.fm/s-610c47a4222ada0024acb2d8/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/tracking.swap.fm/track/2IMk17EdnEqyRhJTIpIU/claritaspod.com/measure/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/59942000/morbidology_feed_drop_happily_never_after_13_april_24.mp3

"Nancy Brophy fills her novels with romantic betrayals and murder. It’s a far cry from her quiet life in the suburbs, where she and her chef husband, Dan, are living out their golden years. But when Dan is shot dead, Nancy finds herself at the center of a murder case that could be ripped from the pages of her novels. From Wondery, this is a story about what happens when the line blurs between fiction and reality. Listen to Happily Never After: Dan & Nancy early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts: https://wondery.app.link/HNADN_MORB Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/morbidology--3527306/support.

## Transcript

[0:00] Doan and Nancy live in the peaceful suburbs just outside of Portland, where they're
[0:04] living out their golden years. And though they met later on in life,
[0:07] their marriage spans over two decades and is seen as a pillar of the community.
[0:13] It's a love story pulled right off the shelf. Nancy is a struggling
[0:16] romance novelist. She likes to write about betrayals, sex, and even murder.
[0:22] Dan is a chef and culinary instructor. He enjoys foraging through the woods
[0:27] for fresh mushrooms and growing edible flowers. But when Dan is shockingly found dead
[0:33] in his classroom, Nancy's one simple life is turned upside down because as the
[0:38] investigation unfolds, Nancy finds herself at the center of a murder case that could
[0:44] be ripped from the pages of her novels. Listen to Happily Never After Dan
[0:49] and Nancy, a story about what happens when the lime blurs between fiction and
[0:53] reality. Early and ad free on Wondery Plus. I'm about to play a
[0:58] clip from Happily Never After, Don and Nancy. Follow hobby never After Don
[1:03] and Nancy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Nicole Herman
[1:19] was lounging on a beach in Croatia with a perfect view of the ocean.
[1:26] It looks a lot like Oregon, with the exception that the water is like
[1:29] turquoise. It was nice and sunny, exactly how Nicole pictured her honeymoon.
[1:37] Nicole's new husband got up to take a swim, but she didn't join him.
[1:42] She was in the middle of a novel. The man on the book
[1:46] cover had a square jaw and a come hitherstare. All day, Nicole had
[1:52] just been waiting to get back to him. He sat on the floor and
[2:00] gestured for her to sit between his legs. He showed her how every gun
[2:05] worked, then loaded and unloaded each of them. Are you showing me this
[2:09] so I can kill my husband? Travis spoke, slowly, choosing each word
[2:15] with care. Maybe in the beginning you meant something to him, but now
[2:20] you're just another loose end. You will know a hundred ways to kill you
[2:24] and make it look like an accident. She pressed her forehead against his and
[2:30] closed her eyes. Don't like you. I'd rather you were a knuckle dragging
[2:36] me under the hole unless I'm dead. When this is over, leaving,
[2:44] but I do and use your body until I leave scandalous. I was probably
[2:54] reading anywhere from one hundred and fifty to three hundred pages a day. Nicole
[3:00] had been laid out on the beach for hours reading. She was already on
[3:05] book number two in the Wrong Never Felt So Right series, and she was
[3:10] determined to get through all five books by the end of her trip. Every
[3:15] book was more or less the same burly former navy seal comes to the rescue
[3:21] a beautiful young woman on the run from her dangerous husband. It was an
[3:25] odd choice of reading for a honeymoon, but away from the beaches of Croatia.
[3:31] Back home in Portland, Oregon, Nicole was a deputy district attorney.
[3:37] Those are things as a prosecutor that you sometimes want to get ahead of and
[3:40] in front of. And for months she and her team had been trying to
[3:46] solve a murder, but progress had been slow. Direct evidence kept eluding them.
[3:53] As the pressure mounted, Nicole and her team had turned to an unlikely
[3:59] lead, a series of romance novels written by the dead man's wife. It
[4:04] was a little bit meta in terms of what we were dealing with. Her
[4:09] books were packed with details borrowed from their own lives as a local Portland chef
[4:14] and a romance novelist, details that the Das had no other way to get
[4:19] their hands on. So now Nicole was doing homework on her honeymoon. I
[4:26] wasn't so sure there would truly be anything, but it was sort of in
[4:30] the back of my mind, what if something similar to this has played out
[4:33] in one of her novels and it's all written right there for us to find.
[4:38] More shirts were going to be unbuttoned, more dresses were going to get
[4:43] unzipped, and every new chapter, every new scene, could potentially be the
[4:49] one to crack the murder case that was waiting for her back home. Listen
[5:00] to Happily Never After, Dan, Nancy Early, and Adfrey on Wondry Plus.
[5:04] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

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