Cuddy is not only a skillful P.I., but a concerned human being who has experienced loss in his own life. He still communes with his dead wife Beth at a Boston graveyard, and though he lives in a world that can turn violent, he is not a violent man.

Cuddy – Plus One puts in book form thirteen previously uncollected cases about Cuddy – including four nominees for the Shamus Award for Best Private-Eye Short story, and two stories that appeared in the annual Best American Mystery Stories. As a special bonus, the book adds a "plus one," the first short story featuring Mairead O’Clare, a female attorney just past the bar who, disenchanted with large law-firm practice in Boston, throws in with an older male attorney representing mostly criminal defendants.