Murder by an Aristocrat

Red-headed, middle-aged nurse Sarah Keate has earned quite a reputation for herself, one that she isn't at all happy about:

"...I am a nurse. I am not a detective, and I don't want to be a detective. Nursing is my profession. And - there's no getting around it - there seems to have been a certain fate, a regrettable proximity, involving me and murders, and no one wants a murder in his immediate vicinity. Especially a patient.

I admit that, on occasion, I have felt it my duty to do what I could do in the course of justice. But I do not relish the growing custom of the doctors to ask for me when the case is what they blandly call 'extraordinary.'"

In this case, Sarah is once again called in when Dr. Boligny wants a nurse who can handle an "extraordinary" case "with discretion." The aristocratic Thatchers live in a comfortable home:

"It was an old house of mellowed brick with clean white trimmings, sprawling contentedly there, amid its trees; a house of undecided architecture with a turret here, a bay window there, an unexpected wing somewhere else; a house that, once neat and compact, had been added onto during several generations. It was now a rambling mixture of many modes of architecture, but the effect, somehow, was still gracious and possessed a mellow and charming dignity."

Hardly a house where you would expect a murder, but that is exactly what happens.

Sarah's patient is Bayard Thatcher, a cousin of the family living in the home. She quickly realizes there is a lot that the Thatchers aren't telling her. For one thing, Bayard has been shot - by a member of the household. However, he will not say who did it. Bayard is an unpleasant character, and Sarah soon learns why he has stirred up so much animosity against him. However, he is her patient and she is determined to protect him no matter what.

MIgnon E. Eberhart (MEG) does an excellent job in creating the setting and characters. The mood becomes increasingly tense as Sarah begins to fear for her own safety and becomes increasingly isolated. She does not know whom to trust. She knows, though, that she has to find the killer before they strike again - possibly at her. I've found that in general MEG's Sarah Keate mysteries are better overall than her standalone gothics, which vary in quality.