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* DeathFakedForYou: At the end of "The Theft of Turquoise Telephone", Nick discovers that a Japanese general wanted for war crimes who was believed to have committed suicide at the end of the war had actually retreated to a Buddhist monastery and been living as monk for 30 years. The man who committed suicide was actually the general's brother and had been mistakenly identified as the general.
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* IHaveYourWife: In "The Theft of the Child's Drawing", the people desperate to retrieve the eponymous drawing abduct Nick's girlfriend Gloria and demand the drawing in exchange for Gloria's return.
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* PerformerGuise:
** In "The Theft of Twenty-Nine Minutes", Nick gets a job as a StageMagician on a riverboat in order to pull off the theft.
** In "The Theft of Leopold's Badge", Sandra Paris knocks out a dancer and [[MuggedForDisguise steals her costume]] - leaving the dancer BoundAndGagged in a maintenance closet - to give her access to a gallery where she plans to steal a Van Gogh. This becomes a case of CollidingCriminalConspiracies as [[spoiler:the dancer she knocked out and impersonated was also a thief]].
** In "The Theft of Twenty-Nine Minutes", Nick gets a job as a StageMagician on a riverboat in order to pull off the theft.
** In "The Theft of Leopold's Badge", Sandra Paris knocks out a dancer and [[MuggedForDisguise steals her costume]] - leaving the dancer BoundAndGagged in a maintenance closet - to give her access to a gallery where she plans to steal a Van Gogh. This becomes a case of CollidingCriminalConspiracies as [[spoiler:the dancer she knocked out and impersonated was also a thief]].
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* BigBlackout: "The Theft of Gloria's Greatcoat" tells the story of how Nick and Gloria met. He was burgling her apartment to steal the eponymous coat when she walked in on him unexpectedly. The date was Tuesday, November 9, 1965: the night of the northeast blackout of 1965 which plunged all of New York. Nick ended up spending the entire in her apartment.
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* BigBlackout: "The Theft of Gloria's Greatcoat" tells the story of how Nick and Gloria met. He was burgling her apartment to steal the eponymous coat when she walked in on him unexpectedly. The date was Tuesday, November 9, 1965: the night of the northeast blackout of 1965 which plunged all of New York. Nick ended up spending the entire night in her apartment.
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* CuffsOffRubWrists: Nick does this after he released from being [[ChainedToABed handcuffed to a bed]] in "The Theft of Nick Velvet".
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* DangerTakesABackSeat: In "The Theft of the Campaign Poster", Nick gets threatened by a thug hiding in the back of his car who puts him in a choke hold and then knocks him out.
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* DangerTakesABackSeat: DangerTakesABackSeat:
** In "The Theft of the Fireman's Helmet", Nick meets the two thugs who hired him to steal the helmet. Getting in the front seat of the car to talk to the brains of the outfit, Nick realizes too late that the second one was hiding in the back seat. He jabs a gun against the back of Nick's neck in case Nick is planning any funny stuff.
** In "The Theft of the Campaign Poster", Nick gets threatened by a thug hiding in the back of his car who puts him in a choke hold and then knocks him out.
** In "The Theft of the Fireman's Helmet", Nick meets the two thugs who hired him to steal the helmet. Getting in the front seat of the car to talk to the brains of the outfit, Nick realizes too late that the second one was hiding in the back seat. He jabs a gun against the back of Nick's neck in case Nick is planning any funny stuff.
** In "The Theft of the Campaign Poster", Nick gets threatened by a thug hiding in the back of his car who puts him in a choke hold and then knocks him out.
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* FakeKidnapping: In [[spoiler:"The Theft of the Family Portrait"]], Nick realises that the kidnapping of [[spoiler:the diamond merchant]] was actually a fake, to allow the supposed 'victim' to claim the insurance, and the theft he had been hired to commit was merely a smokescreen to give the fake kidnapping an air of authenticity.
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* FakeKidnapping: FakedKidnapping: In [[spoiler:"The Theft of the Family Portrait"]], Nick realises that the kidnapping of [[spoiler:the diamond merchant]] was actually a fake, to allow the supposed 'victim' to claim the insurance, and the theft he had been hired to commit was merely a smokescreen to give the fake kidnapping an air of authenticity.
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* TrojanAmbulance: In "The Theft of the Family Portrait", a fake ambulance is used to snatch a diamond merchant of the street and hold him for ransom.
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* FakeKidnapping: In [[spoiler:"The Theft of the Family Portrait"]], Nick realises that the kidnapping of [[spoiler:the diamond merchant]] was actually a fake, to allow the supposed 'victim' to claim the insurance, and the theft he had been hired to commit was merely a smokescreen to give the fake kidnapping an air of authenticity.
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* SurpriseInspectionRuse: In "The Theft of the Faded Flag", Nick enters a foreign consulate through the kitchen entrance while claiming to be an inspector from the Health Department. He really sells it by telling the shirtless kitchen hand having a cigarette outside the door to put a shirt on before he writes them up for a violation as he enters.
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* SweetPollyOliver: In "The Theft of the Birthday Candles", Sandra Paris disguises her herself as a young man to take the place of the co-pilot on a flight she is planning to hijack. Her disguise is good enough that none of the men around notice, and it takes even Nick a while to figure who she is.
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* HillBillyMoonshiner: The target of Nick's theft in "The Theft of the Bald Man's Comb" is assumed to be this: a recluse living in an abandoned mill with his two brothers deep in the hill country of the DeepSouth. During the theft, Nick realises that he is deliberately cultivating this impression to cover up his actual criminal activities: manufacturing counterfeit heart medication.
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* DeadAnimalWarning: Sandra Paris encounters this when scoping out a target in the SavageSouth in "The Theft of the Bald Man's Comb":
-->''All I got for my trouble was a couple of rifle shots that were so close that I could feel the breeze. Back in town someone let the air of my tires, and the next morning I found a dead dog in the back seat of my car. That was enough for me!''
-->''All I got for my trouble was a couple of rifle shots that were so close that I could feel the breeze. Back in town someone let the air of my tires, and the next morning I found a dead dog in the back seat of my car. That was enough for me!''
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* DynamiteCandle: In "The Theft of the Birthday Candles", Nick is hired to steal the candles off of a birthday cake. The reason for the theft turns out to be to allow the client to replace the candles with a set of explosive ones that are intended to go of as the birthday celebrant is blowing them out.
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* DressingAsTheEnemy: In "The Theft of the Cardboard Castle", Sandra Paris breaks Nick out of jail. she is dressedas a jail matron, and gives Nick a guard's uniform to put on.
* DressingAsTheEnemy: In "The Theft of the Cardboard Castle", Sandra Paris breaks Nick out of jail. She is dressed as a jail matron, and gives Nick a guard's uniform to put on.
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* FakinMacGuffin: In "The Theft of the Crystal Crown", Nick deduces that the glass crown he has stolen is a fake when he realizes that he was hired to steal the crown as a publicity stunt and his employer would never endanger the real crown that way.
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* FakinMacGuffin: FakinMacGuffin:
** In "The Theft of the Crystal Crown", Nick deduces that the glass crown he has stolen is a fake when he realizes that he was hired to steal the crown as a publicity stunt and his employer would never endanger the real crown thatway.way.
** In "The Theft of Overdue Library Book", Nick's client is not happy to learn that Nick had used the book as the stake in a bet with Sandra Paris (in order to learn where a kidnapper was holding the client). Nick tells him that he had slipped the book's dust jacket over the hotel, so even if Sandra had won, she wouldn't have gotten the book.
** In "The Theft of the Crystal Crown", Nick deduces that the glass crown he has stolen is a fake when he realizes that he was hired to steal the crown as a publicity stunt and his employer would never endanger the real crown that
** In "The Theft of Overdue Library Book", Nick's client is not happy to learn that Nick had used the book as the stake in a bet with Sandra Paris (in order to learn where a kidnapper was holding the client). Nick tells him that he had slipped the book's dust jacket over the hotel, so even if Sandra had won, she wouldn't have gotten the book.
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* DressingAsTheEnemy: In "The Theft of the Cardboard Castle", Sandra Paris breaks Nick out of jail. she is dressedas a jail matron, and gives Nick a guard's uniform to put on.
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* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: All of the the ''Nick Velvet'' stories are told in the third person except "The Theft of Gloria's Greatcoat" which is narrated in the first by Gloria, telling the story of how she and Nick met.
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* PhoneyCall: In "The Theft of the Overdue Library Book", Nick breaks into the library and accesses the computer system to discover the location of the eponymous book. He is confronted by a security guard and tries to bluff his way out by claiming to be a technician testing the system. He takes advantage of a prearranged phone call from Gloria to claim it is from Miss Fritz, the secretary of the library supervisor. He answers the phone, uses his opening words to clue Gloria in to what is happening, and then hands the phone to the guard and Gloria is able to finish selling the bluff.
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* BigBlackout: "The Theft of Gloria's Greatcoat" tells the story of how Nick and Gloria met. He was burgling her apartment to steal the eponymous coat when she walked in on him unexpectedly. The date was Tuesday, November 9, 1965: the night of the northeast blackout of 1965 which plunged all of New York. Nick ended up spending the entire in her apartment.
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* HookingTheKeys: In "The Theft of Cinderella's Slipper", Nick gets locked in coat closet by the killer. He unwinds a wire coat hanger and is eventually able to use it to hook the latch on the outside of the door and unlatch it. However, because he has to use the wire to chip a hole in the door first in order to do so, this takes him hours rather than the usual minutes.
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* SkeletonKeyCard: After being locked in a closet in "The Theft of Cinderella's Slipper", Nick attempts to use a credit card to shim the lock, but the door is too well-fitted and he can't slide the card in. He is instead reduced to a laborious process of HookingTheKeys.
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* FixingTheGame: In "The Theft of the Lucky Cigar", Nick is hired to steal the cigar that a high roller keeps, unlit, in his mouth during a regular high stakes poker game. The client is convinced that the gambler is cheating and that the cigar is part of it. After stealing the cigar, Nick discovers a small vibrator in the mouthpiece. The gambler has a spotter placed on the opposite side of the room, who transmits the opponents hands via code through the mouthpiece with the gambler sensing the vibrations through his teeth.
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* FixingTheGame: FixingTheGame:
** In "The Theft of the Lucky Cigar", Nick is hired to steal the cigar that a high roller keeps, unlit, in his mouth during a regular high stakes poker game. The client is convinced that the gambler is cheating and that the cigar is part of it. After stealing the cigar, Nick discovers a small vibrator in the mouthpiece. The gambler has a spotter placed on the opposite side of the room, who transmits the opponents hands via code through the mouthpiece with the gambler sensing the vibrations through histeeth.teeth.
** In "The Theft of Nothing of All", Nick gets caught up in a scheme to rig the drawing of the state lottery.
** In "The Theft of the Lucky Cigar", Nick is hired to steal the cigar that a high roller keeps, unlit, in his mouth during a regular high stakes poker game. The client is convinced that the gambler is cheating and that the cigar is part of it. After stealing the cigar, Nick discovers a small vibrator in the mouthpiece. The gambler has a spotter placed on the opposite side of the room, who transmits the opponents hands via code through the mouthpiece with the gambler sensing the vibrations through his
** In "The Theft of Nothing of All", Nick gets caught up in a scheme to rig the drawing of the state lottery.
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* SeriousBusiness: In the "The Theft of the Sherlockian Slipper", two murders occur over possession of the ultimate piece of Lietrature/SherlockHolmes memorabilia: [[spoiler:the key to Watson's dispatch box in Cox & Co. bank]].
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* SeriousBusiness: In the "The Theft of the Sherlockian Slipper", two murders occur over possession of the ultimate piece of Lietrature/SherlockHolmes Literature/SherlockHolmes memorabilia: [[spoiler:the key to Watson's dispatch box in Cox & Co. bank]].
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* PistolWhipping: In "The Theft of the Sherlockian Slipper", Nick is being held at gunpoint by a young woman. He makes a lung for the gun, assuming she won't actually shoot him, only to discover that the gun actually shoots mace as he cops a faceful of it. While he is blinded, she smacks him on the head with the gun, knocking him out.
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* PistolWhipping: In "The Theft of the Sherlockian Slipper", Nick is being held at gunpoint by a young woman. He makes a lung lunge for the gun, assuming she won't actually shoot him, only to discover that the gun actually shoots mace as he cops a faceful of it. While he is blinded, she smacks him on the head with the gun, knocking him out.
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* SeriousBusiness: In the "The Theft of the Sherlockian Slipper", two murders occur over possession of the ultimate piece of Lietrature/SherlockHolmes memorabilia: [[spoiler:the key to Watson's dispatch box in Cox & Co. bank]].
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* PistolWhipping: In "The Theft of the Sherlockian Slipper", Nick is being held at gunpoint by a young woman. He makes a lung for the gun, assuming she won't actually shoot him, only to discover that the gun actually shoots mace as he cops a faceful of it. While he is blinded, she smacks him on the head with the gun, knocking him out.
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* DecoyLeader: In "The Theft of the Bermudan Penny", Nick eventually figures out the solution to the current mystery when he realises that the man claiming to the millionaire's personal companion is actually the millionaire, and the supposed millionaire is actually the personal companion; having swapped roles to allow the millionaire to study Nick and work out what his motivations are.
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* BewareOfHitchhikingGhosts: At the start of "The Theft of the Bermudan Penny", Gloria reads Nick an article about several young people reporting picking up a mysterious hitchhiker dressed in white on a particular stretch of highway who spoke to them about god before vanishing from the vehicle. Later, when the target of Nick's latest theft seemingly vanishes from a moving vehicle, Nick contacts the source of the article to see if there could be any connection (or explanation).
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The Nick Velvet caper stories generally combine a near-impossible theft with the mystery of why someone would pay $20,000 to have an apparently valueless item stolen. Although Nick often appears as devoid of curiosity as his targets are of value, circumstances usually force him to identify his clients' true motives, making him as much of a detective as Hoch's more conventional characters. Most of the Nick Velvet stories have a light and humorous tone reminiscent of Leslie Charteris' early stories of Literature/TheSaint. The fundamental immorality of Nick's chosen profession is frequently offset by the larger justice resulting from his detective work.
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The Nick Velvet caper stories generally combine a near-impossible theft with the mystery of why someone would pay $20,000 $20,000+ to have an apparently valueless item stolen. Although Nick often appears as devoid of curiosity as his targets are of value, circumstances usually force him to identify his clients' true motives, making him as much of a detective as Hoch's more conventional characters. Most of the Nick Velvet stories have a light and humorous tone reminiscent of Leslie Charteris' early stories of Literature/TheSaint. The fundamental immorality of Nick's chosen profession is frequently offset by the larger justice resulting from his detective work.
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* TheGamblingAddict: In "The Theft of the Bermudan Penny", the owner of the eponymous coin is an inveterate gambler who will bet on anything; even down to which of two sugar cubes will be the first one to have a fly land on it.
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** In "The Theft of the Bermudan Penny", the owner of the eponymous coin vanishes from the backseat of the car Nick is driving at high speed along a freeway.
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* ResolvedNoodleIncident: In the first Nick Velvet story ("The Theft of the Clouded Tiger"), a baseball team is mentioned in a list of unusual things Nick has stolen. Hoch later told the story of this theft in "The Theft of the Meager Beavers".
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* SidenoteFullStory: In the first Nick Velvet story ("The Theft of the Clouded Tiger"), a baseball team is mentioned in a list of unusual things Nick has stolen. Hoch later told the story of this theft in "The Theft of the Meager Beavers".
