Nancy, Bess, and George are having a blast at the River Heights Carnival, sampling yummy snacks and trying to win prizes. Most of all, the girls can’t wait for their favorite local singing star, Isabelle Santoro, to perform. But Isabelle may cancel if she finds out that someone’s ruining all the fun with really annoying pranks. Snooty Brenda Carlton, annoying Orson Wong, and Chloe “Cruncher” Mondesky, the pie-contest queen, all make good suspects. Nancy’s clue book is filling up, and she’s got to solve this puzzle fast—so the fun, and the show, can go on!

Nancy, George, and Bess can’t believe the out-of-this-world contest McCormick’s grocery store is having—the kid who guess the number of jelly beans in the jar wins a trip to a space camp! Nancy is superexcited because she has been studying the stars and planets with her brand-new telescope, and space camp would be just the thing to test her new skills. But then the jelly-bean jar goes missing, and it looks like no one will get the chance to blast off to space camp. Who would steal a jelly-bean jar? Nancy must use her star-power detective skills to find out!

"My guiltiest pleasure is Harry Stephen Keeler. He may been the greatest bad writer America has ever produced. Or perhaps the worst great writer. I do not know. There are few faults you can accuse him of that he is not guilty of. But I love him." -- Neil Gaiman Ho hum. Another day; another corpse dredged up from the depths of Lake Michigan. This time it’s a body having the bottom half of a negro man and the top half of a Chinese woman joined together at the waist by some kind of greenish glue. But we don’t linger long at this unpleasant scene because Angus MacWhorter and his Mammoth Motorized Show are in another pickle. If Angus can’t pay back $3000 -- in $100 bills whose serial numbers must be evenly divisible by 13! -- he’ll lose the circus to the dastardly Geispitz Gmohling. But the needed bills are on the other side of Old Twistibus, the windingest road in the world, and Giff O’Dell, who has the bills, is obsessed with solving the Crazy Corpse murder. Now that is a pickle!

A little puppy is turning into a big problem! Nancy's wish has finally come true: she has a dog of her own. She's a chocolate-colored Labrador retriever, and she's fun and friendly and loves to play. But the pup's also in a sticky situation -- and its up to Nancy to save her. Hannah's fresh-baked muffins have vanished, and a food thief is loose in the neighborhood. And guess who's getting blamed? Nancy's new puppy. It's so unfair, and she's going to prove it...by finding the real thief!

The girls have joined the Mahoney Marlins junior baseball team! Nancy will pitch, Bess will catch, and George will play shortstop. The girls are excited, but Bess worries that baseball isn’t exactly her thing. However, Bess turns out to be an amazing hitter and she quickly earns the nickname “Home Run Bess.” Bess thinks her newly found talent is thanks to her lucky bat, which she calls “Magic Bill.” But one day she discovers that Magic Bill is missing! Can Nancy find Bess’s bat in time for the big game, or is Bess destined to strike out?

At Camp Treehouse, Nancy’s bunkmate Lauren is having a crummy time, because someone has stolen her camera. Nancy investigates, follows the clues, and helps her new friend.