First Sighting of "No Pun Intended" in a Novel

I am reading through a series of novels by J.R. Rain called Vampire for Hire on my Amazon Kindle. Those of you who know me are thinking "Vampire? What?" But, I'm enjoying the stories, because the main character was attacked by a vampire six years before the start of the first book, and therefore was a normal human being for thirty-one years. She is a mom who loves her kids, who works for justice, and who as the books progress, is figuring out but hasn't yet figured out just what the whole vampire thing is about. A metaphor for the changes many of us go through, but obviously on a much scarier, deeper level.

Anyway, I believe for the first time in a novel, I have run into the phrase "no pun intended" (twice no less) in American Vampire (Vampire for Hire #3) . I'm wondering if the author accidentally made the puns, then upon realizing it decided to let them stand, or intended them from the beginning. Either way, by noting that he had made the puns, I think the author wanted to make sure that we the readers noticed the puns. That is, he liked the word play, and didn't want us to miss them. More discussion below.

Click here for the book's Amazon Kindle page.

(read by me) June 2, 2011
American Vampire, Location 1910, by J.R. Rain: The narrator is the vampire, and one of her love interests is a werewolf (I'm not sure if that's what the pun is "not" intended to be.) “Private investigators seem to hold a certain allure for many people. I get that. TV has certainly made the work appear glamorous; after all, there's something exciting about being a lone wolf (no pun intended), working when you want...”

(read by me) June 2, 2011
American Vampire, Location 2075, by J.R. Rain: The narrator is explaining that she agrees that her current client correctly hired her, as well as others, to work the case. “When a customer found a human finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili, Wendy's hired over ten private eyes to break the case, which one of them finally did. The finger belonged to one of the customer's friends, a finger he had lost in an industrial accident. The friends then cooked up a scheme, no pun intended, and it might have worked if not for the tenacity of one detective, and the foresight of Wendy's to hire a slew of them.”

These aren't especially clever or deep puns, and compared to others we've quoted here at the pun forum, they'd probably be overlooked. But I note them because of the author's use of the phrase "no pun intended." I think he may have put that in there as much because the narrator is kind of a tough talker (though at times due to circumstances, we are shown a tender and soft mom/vampire), so although there is a lot of humor, maybe the author doesn't want us to think that she would think that puns are part of her humor repertoire.

I also think it's another layer of word association, as this or any author plays with words, and tries to phrase his or her thoughts in the most appropriate way for the context, that puns are going to happen, as they do in everyday conversation.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention--another reason I like these books is that I'm a sucker for stories in which the hero/ine shows a gentle/weak side, which allows the reader to relate, and learn to cope with life along with him/her. But I almost didn't mention it, since "sucker" and "vampire" practically falls out of one's mouth as a word combination, and barely qualifies as an unintended pun. But what kind of a blogger about unintended puns would I be if I didn't mention it?