Marty Fenton is not your average gumshoe. Neither a tough guy nor blessed with natural brilliance, Fenton is a bit of a nerd; a plodder who relies on patience and dogged persistence with an occasional flash of creative insight to unravel mysteries and catch the culprits.
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Unable to hold a steady job, he enrolls in the Ablemann Correspondence School of Private Investigation, a distance learning program that predated the current online education craze. Once he received his PI license, he launched a solo practice, which lasted almost a year before he is forced to shut it down due to a lack of clients. At the age of 40, Marty decides to pursue a PhD in social psychology. He is accepted into the doctoral program at Syracuse University. When Professor Singletary, his advisor, discovers that Marty has worked as a licensed private investigator, he persuades his student to take on a series of cases including solving a cold case murder of a civil rights activist in the 1960s, figuring out why the assistant of a convicted Ponzi schemer is being threatened, and finding a member of the SU women's basketball team who has gone missing. Not wanting to disappoint his advisor, Marty agrees to take on these investigations. To the delight of his clients and Professor Singletary, he succeeds in resolve these mysteries. Unfortunately for Marty, all of his PI work has been pro bono.

Keeping a job is not the only area in which Marty has had problems. Much to the despair of his overbearing mother, Ruth, Marty has had difficulty forming and sustaining a long term relationship with a woman.

After five years of arduous study and a busy schedule of PI moonlighting, Marty is finally receiving his doctoral degree and getting ready to begin his career as a social psychologist. He has accepted a faculty position at Virginia Commonwealth in Richmond Virginia. He has also overcome his reluctance to commit to a relationship and is scheduled to be married to Faith Pasternak, an attorney he met while working on a case his advisor convinced him to take on.

Marty planned to put his PI work on hiatus while beginning his new career. However, Yolanda Seawright, a faculty member in the same department, tells him her niece has been receiving anonymous threats and asks for his help. When Seawright, who had served on professional committees with Marty's former advisor, spoke to Singletary about his former student, she discovered that her new colleague was a PI. Despite his vow to limit his involvement, Marty agrees to help his colleague and her niece.

In Tiffany's Misfortune, the 6th book in the Marty Fenton Mystery Novel series, Marty follows a twisted trail to discover who is taunting Tiffany and why they are threatening to harm her. Along the way, he learns about the unorthodox drug trafficking operation in Richmond and the covert activities of a secret group of influential Richmonders. Along with his sleuthing, Marty has his hands full adjusting to his new roles his new role as college professor married man. He mostly enjoys his new life, but struggles to reconcile Faith's fear that for his safety and insistence that he give up his PI work with his commitment to help Tiffany..