Sarah Keate Mysteries

This classic mystery "could rob at least one night's sleep. . . . The scene is laid in a hospital and the things that happen there are terrifying in the extreme" (The New York Times). Nothing gets past the vigilance of Sarah Keate, head nurse on the third floor of Melady Memorial Hospital, a wing devoted to the wealthiest class of patients. Except one hot July night, she is startled to discover a patient has gone missing. And not just any patient, Peter Melady, grandson of the hospital's founder and head of the Melady Drug Company. During her frantic search, Nurse Keate stumbles upon the bloodied corpse of Dr. Harrigan, who was to perform the missing patient's surgery that very night. It's a mystery as baffling as it is terrifying, made worse by the bumbling police officer on the case. Good thing the keen mind of Nurse Keate is gathering details, from the mad whispers heard moments before the murder to the antique Chinese snuff bottle Peter Melady demanded she retrieve before his disappearance. Nothing escapes Sarah's shrewd notice, not even the cold-blooded calculations of a killer.

The "timing and gothic atmosphere are second to none" in this classic mystery where "the suspense steadily builds . . . until the satisfying denouement" (Publishers Weekly). From the moment nurse Sarah Keate arrives at the gloomy mansion of Adolph Federie, she senses trouble afoot, from the mysterious occupants of the house to the penetrating stare of a black cat named Genevieve. But Mr. Federie has just suffered a stroke and needs a live-in aid and Sarah is not one to shirk her duties. When a murder occurs in the same room as her patient, Sarah starts investigating along with the help of a local police officer. But how will she sleep at night knowing she's sharing a house with a killer? "This is Mrs. Eberhart's second mystery story, and it is even better than her first." -The New York Times "A first rate thriller. Federie House, with its sombre ruggedness on an almost deserted road, with its mysterious turrets, its darkened draperies, its heavily carpeted floors, and its sinister occupants, is an almost perfect setting for a mystery story." -Saturday Review of Literature "[While the Patient Slept] places detective fiction on a higher level than ever before." -Bookman "Eerie it is, as eerie can be, and a good yarn to boot." -Outlook

High-society partygoers get snowed in with a killer at a hunting lodge in this classic by "one of America's favorite writers" (Mary Higgins Clark). 2023 Selection for One Book One Nebraska "Mignon Eberhart's name on mysteries is like sterling on silver." -The Miami News As a nurse, sharp-tongued redhead Sarah Keate goes above and beyond to help her patients. That occasionally requires her to moonlight as an amateur sleuth and solve a murder or two in a mysterious locale . . . Socialite Matil Kingery is throwing a party at her wealthy family's isolated hunting lodge in the desolate wilderness. The guest list is an eccentric bunch who all have one thing in common: they were at the lodge five years ago when Matil's father allegedly died of heart failure. But Matil knows differently. One of them murdered her father, and she is determined to find out who . . . There are also two new faces in the group. Detective Lance O'Leary is undercover as a guest and former patient of his friend, Nurse Sarah Keate, who has been hired to care for Matil's elderly spitfire aunt. Lance and Sarah are no strangers to puzzling crimes, but they have their work cut out for them as the well-to-do guests begin arriving at the lodge. Soon a November snowstorm shuts the party off from the outside world, trapping them inside with a killer. It's up to Sarah and Lance to quickly unmask them before they can strike again . . . "Mignon Eberhart is one of the great ladies of twentieth-century mystery fiction." -John Jakes Originally published in 1930.

In this classic military mystery-featuring a nurse who moonlights as a sleuth-"the whirlwind finale is as breathless . . . as any ending in some time" (The New York Times). While visiting her lifelong friend on a navy base in California, nurse Sarah Keate voluntarily fills in at the hospital, taking on the night shift. One of the patients in her care is Lieutenant Parly, a handsome, troublemaking, young sailor. Hospitalized after a car crash, he's recovering from a concussion and some broken ribs. Nothing serious-until his throat is cut . . . The isolated base has vast stores of ammunition and is a well-guarded outpost, surrounded by miles of desert and mountain ranges. The comings and goings of its staff and their families are closely monitored, leading to the conclusion that the killer must be one of their own. As gossip and rumors swirl around the base, Sarah digs deep into witness accounts and her own memories of that tragic night to root out the truth about one woman's murky past, and the killer who has crawled out of it . . . "Exceptionally good." -San Francisco Chronicle "A perfect puzzler." -The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Three classic mystery novels full of eerie atmosphere, suspense, surprises and exciting clues, collected by "one of America's favorite writers" (Mary Higgins Clark). A Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, Mignon G. Eberhart made her career debut in 1929 with The Patient in Room 18, starring Sarah Keate, a no-nonsense, redheaded nurse, who goes above and beyond to help her patients, which often means placing her life on the line to catch a killer . . . The Patient in Room 18: Strange and frightening things begin to occur during nurse Sarah Keate's night shift at St. Ann's Hospital. Soon she is drawn into the harrowing case as Detective Lance O'Leary investigates who murdered the wealthy patient in room 18 and who stole a fortune in radium. With a hospital full of secrets and suspects, the two must find the killer before they strike again . . . "The communal nature of the hospital and its doctors makes for a particularly suspenseful and unsettling reveal." -Time While the Patient Slept: When Sarah heads to the mansion of Adolph Federie to care for the man after he suffers a stroke, she senses trouble is afoot. The place is eerie with its mysterious occupants and a peculiar black cat, but she can't shirk her duties. However, when a murder occurs in the same room as her patient, Sarah will need the help of a local police officer to determine if she's sharing the house with a killer . . . "[While the Patient Slept] places detective fiction on a higher level than ever before." -Bookman Murder by an Aristocrat: The Thatchers are as close to aristocracy as an American family gets, and one of them requires Nurse Keate's care for a suspicious bullet wound-a relative insists it was self-inflicted. Kate isn't so sure after the convalescing man dies under even stranger circumstances. It looks like murder, and the killer must reside in the Thatcher mansion. But as Kate searches for the truth, the family closes rank and struggles to keep its darkest secrets buried . . . This omnibus was originally published in 1932.