  The 135 classical novae that we have discovered in M87 with two
$\textit{Hubble Space Telescope}$ imaging surveys appear to be strongly
concentrated along that galaxy's jet. Detailed simulations show that the
likelihood that this distribution occurred by chance is of order $0.3\%$. The
novae near the jet display outburst characteristics (peak luminosities, colors
and decline rates) that are indistinguishable from novae far from the jet. We
explore whether the remarkable nova distribution could be caused by the jet's
irradiation of the hydrogen-rich donors in M87's cataclysmic binaries. This
explanation, and others extant in the literature which rely on increased binary
mass transfer rates, fail by orders of magnitude in explaining the enhanced
nova rate near the jet. An alternate explanation is the presence of a genuine
surplus of nova binary systems near the jet, perhaps due to jet-induced star
formation. This explanation fails to explain the lack of nova enhancement along
M87's counterjet. The enhanced rate of novae along M87's jet is now firmly
established, and unexplained.
