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Sarah Keate #2
While the Patient Slept
On a blustery February day Sarah Keate arrives at a gloomy mansion to nurse old Adolph Federie, bedbound after a stroke. Meeting the patient sets off an alarm inside her, but fleeing the house is impossible. The redoubtable red-haired nurse is stuck there with a strange coterie and a black cat named Genevieve. Originally published in 1930, a year after her debut mystery novel The Patient in Room 18, While the Patient Slept strengthened Mignon G. Eberhart's hold on fame.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1930
7 people are currently reading
140 people want to read
About the author
Mignon G. Eberhart
143 books70 followersMignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1917 to 1920. In 1923 she married Alanson C. Eberhart, a civil engineer. After working as a freelance journalist, she decided to become a full-time writer. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. In the Forties, she and her husband divorced. She married John Hazen Perry in 1946 but two years later she divorced him and remarried her first husband. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote many short stories featuring banker/amateur sleuth James Wickwire (who could be considered a precursor to Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher) and mystery writer/amateur sleuth Susan Dare.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
May 6, 2020
Second in the Nurse Sally Keate series. Sally is a nurse at St. Ann's hospital. Here she has been asked to take on a private case. Old Mr. Federie is asleep - not sure if it is a coma but he is unconscious. So Sally packs her bags and grabs a cab. However, it is in the middle of winter in Nebraska and roads aren't in the best of conditions. Cab breaks down with a flat tire or so and she is instructed to grab her bags and hike up the road to the house. It is more than a house, a large house which never had electricity installed. This is late '20s.
Everyone keeps asking Sally to let them be the first to know when Mr. Federie can communicate. There is some dispute as to who is in charge of the house - Eustice or March, the granddaughter. March is the descendant of the eldest son so she is considered the heir. Wonder where the will is? And everyone has heard that the old man doesn't believe in banks and keeps a stashe of cash around. So everyone is looking for it.
And there is a strange little toy green elephant on the mantle in his room which the cat knocks on the fllor. Federie is attached to the elephant. Nobody knows why. Son Adolph is the first to look at it. Unfortunately, he soon becomes a corpse. Sally had dozed off and the noise of the revolver woke her up. Soon she has gotten Detective Lance O'Leary involved again.
Strange house and strange people. Everyone moving around with candles or "torches". It was fun.
Everyone keeps asking Sally to let them be the first to know when Mr. Federie can communicate. There is some dispute as to who is in charge of the house - Eustice or March, the granddaughter. March is the descendant of the eldest son so she is considered the heir. Wonder where the will is? And everyone has heard that the old man doesn't believe in banks and keeps a stashe of cash around. So everyone is looking for it.
And there is a strange little toy green elephant on the mantle in his room which the cat knocks on the fllor. Federie is attached to the elephant. Nobody knows why. Son Adolph is the first to look at it. Unfortunately, he soon becomes a corpse. Sally had dozed off and the noise of the revolver woke her up. Soon she has gotten Detective Lance O'Leary involved again.
Strange house and strange people. Everyone moving around with candles or "torches". It was fun.
March 27, 2013
1930, #2 Sarah Keate, R.N., small-town Midwest USA; extremely odd small-town VIP family in a very creepy house with murder and intrigue on the menu. Cclassic old-fashioned thriller, three-and-one-half stars.
The Federie family is a big noise in a small Midwestern town, but when Miss Sarah Keate is sent there to care for its patriarch after he has what appears to be a stroke, she discovers they aren't, exactly, high-class folks. And the servants are decidedly peculiar, not to mention the family history... When Sarah finds a body in the sickroom she comes into contact again with Detective Lance O'Leary, a very intelligent and nice man, and a good friend.
Exceedingly melodramatic, very slow-moving, and with a large timetable motif, this is nonetheless an entertaining read as long as you don't expect much more than a classic plot, stereotypical setting and (most) characters, and a 1930s ethos that may seem quite peculiar in and of itself for most modern readers.
When this was first published in 1930 the use of a nurse as detective was fairly popular (especially Rinehart's Miss Pinkerton series) and Eberhart's writing is rather less sentimental than Rinehart's and may suit modern readers a bit better. The plot is easily followed and likely to be guessed by the reader but there are a few really nice bits surrounding it - including some plot threads that might have been commonplace at the time but now are likely to not be considered by the reader as important simply because authors tend to not use them any more! Overall, the story is pretty entertaining, the writing is smooth, and all the classic elements of a fair-play mystery are present, including the "gather the suspects" scene at the end.
The characters are the best thing about this story, even within their stereotypical behavior, as each has nice touches that makes them come alive. Yes, there are odd servants (extremely odd...) and nasty relatives, The Problem of The Will figures largely, as the patriarch lies close to death and all the relatives gather around him to get whatever they can from him, and there's a lot of nicely calibrated sniping amongst the relatives too, something I particularly enjoy.
But the center of the story is Sarah Keate, R.N., a no-nonsense, intelligent older woman who happens to be a very good nurse and has a very strong sense of purpose and ethics. Eberhart and Sarah became very popular in the 1930s and it's not surprising - there is much to admire in Sarah, including a wry sense of humor, and her tendency to be on-hand when there are dead bodies never quite becomes schtick, thankfully.
Eberhart is a good enough writer to keep the stories fresh, and even though this and her first book have similar titles (#1 in series was THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18, published 1929), their settings and plots are quite different. The constant is Sarah, who is refreshingly decent, smart, and kind. She doesn't take any guff from anybody, and it's always fun for me to see a woman in this period who stands up for herself, and continues to do so throughout a long series. And as an added plus, the romantic involvement in Eberhart's early books is negligible, even among the family members. Thankfully, IMO, since the sort of sentimentality surrounding Romantic Lead Characters in 1930s mysteries tends to get on my nerves after a while, unless the writing is extremely good (i.e., Sayers, Marsh) or played for humor (i.e., Christie, Rice).
This is still a comfortable, enjoyable thriller read, 1930s style. Smoothly written, with a reliably entertaining plot and setting. Eberhart became extremely popular, and deservedly so, even though she might not have been as big an innovator as Christie but then, who was?
The Federie family is a big noise in a small Midwestern town, but when Miss Sarah Keate is sent there to care for its patriarch after he has what appears to be a stroke, she discovers they aren't, exactly, high-class folks. And the servants are decidedly peculiar, not to mention the family history... When Sarah finds a body in the sickroom she comes into contact again with Detective Lance O'Leary, a very intelligent and nice man, and a good friend.
Exceedingly melodramatic, very slow-moving, and with a large timetable motif, this is nonetheless an entertaining read as long as you don't expect much more than a classic plot, stereotypical setting and (most) characters, and a 1930s ethos that may seem quite peculiar in and of itself for most modern readers.
When this was first published in 1930 the use of a nurse as detective was fairly popular (especially Rinehart's Miss Pinkerton series) and Eberhart's writing is rather less sentimental than Rinehart's and may suit modern readers a bit better. The plot is easily followed and likely to be guessed by the reader but there are a few really nice bits surrounding it - including some plot threads that might have been commonplace at the time but now are likely to not be considered by the reader as important simply because authors tend to not use them any more! Overall, the story is pretty entertaining, the writing is smooth, and all the classic elements of a fair-play mystery are present, including the "gather the suspects" scene at the end.
The characters are the best thing about this story, even within their stereotypical behavior, as each has nice touches that makes them come alive. Yes, there are odd servants (extremely odd...) and nasty relatives, The Problem of The Will figures largely, as the patriarch lies close to death and all the relatives gather around him to get whatever they can from him, and there's a lot of nicely calibrated sniping amongst the relatives too, something I particularly enjoy.
But the center of the story is Sarah Keate, R.N., a no-nonsense, intelligent older woman who happens to be a very good nurse and has a very strong sense of purpose and ethics. Eberhart and Sarah became very popular in the 1930s and it's not surprising - there is much to admire in Sarah, including a wry sense of humor, and her tendency to be on-hand when there are dead bodies never quite becomes schtick, thankfully.
Eberhart is a good enough writer to keep the stories fresh, and even though this and her first book have similar titles (#1 in series was THE PATIENT IN ROOM 18, published 1929), their settings and plots are quite different. The constant is Sarah, who is refreshingly decent, smart, and kind. She doesn't take any guff from anybody, and it's always fun for me to see a woman in this period who stands up for herself, and continues to do so throughout a long series. And as an added plus, the romantic involvement in Eberhart's early books is negligible, even among the family members. Thankfully, IMO, since the sort of sentimentality surrounding Romantic Lead Characters in 1930s mysteries tends to get on my nerves after a while, unless the writing is extremely good (i.e., Sayers, Marsh) or played for humor (i.e., Christie, Rice).
This is still a comfortable, enjoyable thriller read, 1930s style. Smoothly written, with a reliably entertaining plot and setting. Eberhart became extremely popular, and deservedly so, even though she might not have been as big an innovator as Christie but then, who was?
February 12, 2008
This was written in 1930 by Mignon Eberhart, a Nebraskan mystery writer who was popular at the same time Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers were writing. Eberhart wrote in the drawing-room mystery genre in which all the suspects are confined to a small space and the psychological suspense ratchets up the as the case proceeds (and more people die). So this mystery takes place in a decaying gothic mansion (IN NEBRASKA, ahahaha), and features the intrepid Nurse Keate. While she looks after her charge, people in the house die and she becomes involved in solving the mystery. The chief detective, the dashing Lance O'Leary, admires Nurse Keate's know-how and common sense, but I read no sexual tension there. I cannot determine how old Nurse Keate is supposed to be. We hear that she has red hair with a gray streak, and she describes her figure as "ample," but I'm not sure exactly what that means. She frequently takes comfort in the rustling of the starched skirts of her nurse's uniform, which cracks me up. There is a male cat named Genevieve in this book, and everyone hates him, which I found horrible since to my eyes, he was clearly trying to make friends with them. But the characters insisted on being frightened of him. Very annoying. The weakest thing about this book was the plot, alas, which was unsurprising and easy to figure out. There were lots of fascinating character details, however, and lots of funny observations on the part of Nurse Keate. As I read, I was strongly reminded of 1950s soap operas (well, what I imagine them to be) with nurses in starched white uniforms going "Oh, doctor!!!" For some reason, I also thought of porn. This is my own failing, and the fault of the starched skirts, AND the scene where Nurse Keate gets trapped by her starched skirts in a deserted attic and has to remove her uniform to escape! See, it is not my fault. However, Nurse Keate would rightfully be very disgusted with me, for she is as proper and no-nonsense as they come, and perfectly unimpressed with the doctor she works for or most other male authority--except for the dreamy Lance O'Leary. I'll read more of these books, I think.
December 29, 2017
Attracted by the reprint covers and the descriptions of the mysteries, I purchased two novels by Mignon G. Eberhart at a second-hand book sale. I had no idea that she was a prolific mystery writer who is often described as an American Agatha Christie. Her first mystery was published around 1930. She wrote more than 50 works of fiction. In this book, her second mystery, she uses a stolid nurse as a narrator. The book has many elements of a Christie work--a large house location, the suspects all gathered in the house, good plotting and decent characterization. After a few mysteries with this narrator (who always worked with a handsome young detective), Eberhart moved on to stand-alone mysteries with a large romance element. It’s fun to read an American take on the Golden Age of Mysteries. A 3.7.
August 24, 2022
American mystery writer Mignon G. Eberhart is a new author for me. She wrote mysteries from the late 1930's to the late 1980's. Of her books she wrote 7 featuring intrepid nurse / detective Sarah Keate. While the Patient Slept is the 2nd book in this series.
Sarah Keate is hired to help attend to a patient at an old mansion in her unnamed (the town is called B....) town / city. She arrives at a gloomy place, overhears a conversation in the woods as she approaches which makes her suspicious; 'A Federie's hand is born to fit the curve of a revolver'. This puts the wind up her sails for sure. She encounters a strange family gathering who all seem to be waiting for the patriarch, old Mr. Federie, to wake up to tell them some long awaited secret. Before the night is out, one of them will be murdered and this will bring Detective Lance O'Leary onto the case.
It's a bit of a convoluted case, with many twists and turns and all of the family and guests suspected as suspects. Nurse Keate is a somewhat fractious character but strong willed and determined. She has a knack for coming across clues and finding evidence that nobody else can find, especially a small jade elephant that seems to be very important and keeps disappearing. Detective O'Leary is a cool customer and there is a frisson of romance or something between he and Nurse Keate. They obviously met in the first book, The Patient in Room 18 (One I've been unable to find so far or at least at a reasonable price.. lol)
It's not my favorite mystery of the time but I can see where the popularity of Eberhart's mysteries came from. Interesting mystery, good tension, many suspects and a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I've got The Mystery of Hunting's End, the 3rd book in this series on my bookshelf and look forward to seeing if Ms. Eberhart can draw me in even more to her stories. This book was turned into a movie in 1935. (3.5 stars)
Sarah Keate is hired to help attend to a patient at an old mansion in her unnamed (the town is called B....) town / city. She arrives at a gloomy place, overhears a conversation in the woods as she approaches which makes her suspicious; 'A Federie's hand is born to fit the curve of a revolver'. This puts the wind up her sails for sure. She encounters a strange family gathering who all seem to be waiting for the patriarch, old Mr. Federie, to wake up to tell them some long awaited secret. Before the night is out, one of them will be murdered and this will bring Detective Lance O'Leary onto the case.
It's a bit of a convoluted case, with many twists and turns and all of the family and guests suspected as suspects. Nurse Keate is a somewhat fractious character but strong willed and determined. She has a knack for coming across clues and finding evidence that nobody else can find, especially a small jade elephant that seems to be very important and keeps disappearing. Detective O'Leary is a cool customer and there is a frisson of romance or something between he and Nurse Keate. They obviously met in the first book, The Patient in Room 18 (One I've been unable to find so far or at least at a reasonable price.. lol)
It's not my favorite mystery of the time but I can see where the popularity of Eberhart's mysteries came from. Interesting mystery, good tension, many suspects and a reasonably satisfying conclusion. I've got The Mystery of Hunting's End, the 3rd book in this series on my bookshelf and look forward to seeing if Ms. Eberhart can draw me in even more to her stories. This book was turned into a movie in 1935. (3.5 stars)
March 19, 2025
This second volume in the seven-book Nurse Keate series takes place "several years" after the first book (in book time, though just a year IRL). Sarah Keate now has a streak of gray in her luxuriant red hair and is serving as a home care nurse, perhaps on leave from St. Ann's Hospital. This time the intrigue occurs in the requisite creepy old mansion (in which electricity has not been installed though they do have a telephone), and per the code of gothic mystery writers there's stormy weather. Repeating the first installment this is a (semi)-closed-circle puzzle as Lance O'Leary is assigned to the case. Eberhart indulges in the same elements as the first, though perhaps they weren't such hardened cliches then: a young couple in love, an ethnic person as red herring, some misdirection, a cat, the semi-hysterical comic diverson, and of course our heroes Sarah and Lance. This time Sarah has a little more oomph, for although she describes herself as "a respectable and respected spinster" she also notes one male character's "quick eyes missing not a curve of my rather ample figure." Along with a dangerous dog and an unpopular cat. This one went on too long (a la Mary Roberts Rinehart) as Eberhart piled on too much of the forboding atmosphere, a problem characteristic of Gothic suspense where the reader ends up wading through more and more description of stormy weather, gloomy trees and bushes, sinister everything. Better to focus more on the plot get things moving. Not quite as good as The Patient in Room 18, as this is too sprawling and obvious, but still entertaining and enjoyable if only for the delightfully difficult Nurse Keate. After the first two it seemed all the Sarah Keate novels were going to have "patient" in the title, but they didn't. Looking forward to the third, The Mystery of Hunting's End (1930). [3★]
October 3, 2018
in Italian, of course. I prefer The room n.18
June 26, 2019
COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime
BOOK 148 (of 250)
Hook=4 stars: On the publication information page, the following note appears (Aeonian Press, 1975 edition of this 1930 novel): "It is our pleasure to keep available uncommon fiction and to this end, at the time of publication, we have used the best available sources. To aid catalogers and collectors, this title is printed in an edition limited to 300 copies." If that isn't enough to grab one's interest, we turn to the first page and find a private nurse on her way to a massive, gloomy, fog shrouded mansion. I'm there!
Pace=4: A storm and an immediate murder puts us on a fast path.
Plot=2: Too much information is placed late in the book and that's a major criticism of the 'murder mystery' genre: if you've seen the play/film "Murder By Death" you might remember Truman Capote's hilarious indictment of authors who don't write 'fair.' Here, Eberhart does not play fair with readers, imo.
Characters=2: An eccentric Grandpa Jonas Federie has 4 sons: 1) James (passed away) has a son named March, who is adopted by 2) Adolph and his wife Isobel and 3) Charles has disappeared and 4) Eustace, who appears to be dead but there is a Mr. Eustace then a Eustace who is a cousin of March...I tried to diagram the family tree and gave up. It all made sense with the final reading of the will, though. Nurse Sarah Keate is oddly somewhere between the age of 25 and 50 and conveniently wore boots to stumble through the fog to the house in the opening scene. Then there is the sinister-named butler, Grondol. And Elihu Dimuck, a lawyer with a name I couldn't even pronounce in my head. Some authors, like Agatha Christie, provide us with a 'Cast of Characters' along with a short description of each person and that was certainly needed here. 2 stars because I was confused during much of the book as to who was who. And for good reason because a couple of characters may not be who you think they are. Still, messy.
Atmosphere=4: Tapestries everywhere, a hidden staircase or two, hanging out in this house amidst the fog and storms was 'Christie-Manor House Murder' entertaining.
Summary: Heavy on atmosphere with an immediate hook and a face past led me to a 3.2 rating. I recommend this to readers who specifically enjoy Agatha Christie, as I do. And, I found this second in the series to be an improvement over the first.
BOOK 148 (of 250)
Hook=4 stars: On the publication information page, the following note appears (Aeonian Press, 1975 edition of this 1930 novel): "It is our pleasure to keep available uncommon fiction and to this end, at the time of publication, we have used the best available sources. To aid catalogers and collectors, this title is printed in an edition limited to 300 copies." If that isn't enough to grab one's interest, we turn to the first page and find a private nurse on her way to a massive, gloomy, fog shrouded mansion. I'm there!
Pace=4: A storm and an immediate murder puts us on a fast path.
Plot=2: Too much information is placed late in the book and that's a major criticism of the 'murder mystery' genre: if you've seen the play/film "Murder By Death" you might remember Truman Capote's hilarious indictment of authors who don't write 'fair.' Here, Eberhart does not play fair with readers, imo.
Characters=2: An eccentric Grandpa Jonas Federie has 4 sons: 1) James (passed away) has a son named March, who is adopted by 2) Adolph and his wife Isobel and 3) Charles has disappeared and 4) Eustace, who appears to be dead but there is a Mr. Eustace then a Eustace who is a cousin of March...I tried to diagram the family tree and gave up. It all made sense with the final reading of the will, though. Nurse Sarah Keate is oddly somewhere between the age of 25 and 50 and conveniently wore boots to stumble through the fog to the house in the opening scene. Then there is the sinister-named butler, Grondol. And Elihu Dimuck, a lawyer with a name I couldn't even pronounce in my head. Some authors, like Agatha Christie, provide us with a 'Cast of Characters' along with a short description of each person and that was certainly needed here. 2 stars because I was confused during much of the book as to who was who. And for good reason because a couple of characters may not be who you think they are. Still, messy.
Atmosphere=4: Tapestries everywhere, a hidden staircase or two, hanging out in this house amidst the fog and storms was 'Christie-Manor House Murder' entertaining.
Summary: Heavy on atmosphere with an immediate hook and a face past led me to a 3.2 rating. I recommend this to readers who specifically enjoy Agatha Christie, as I do. And, I found this second in the series to be an improvement over the first.
February 14, 2018
I enjoyed While the Patient Slept by Mignon G. Eberhart (Triangle Books!). Picked it up at an Andersonville antique store along with The Listening House, and the back of that book has a nice little ad for this one. Cute.
A nurse is taking care of an invalid, there’s a murder, a mysterious jade trinket, and some mysterious business going on around the house.
Nurse Sarah Keate, on the cover, looks like she’s maybe 25. In the story they made it sound like she was an aging lady. I think they just prettied her up for the cover. I know she must’ve been older in the story because there was no awkward romance subplot shoved in for her (which was nice).
The actual mystery wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t exactly thrilling, either. The murderer could’ve been anyone in the house, true, but when it’s revealed who it was, there’s no compelling reason why it had to be them – or anyone else for that matter. Still though, not bad, not bad at all.
A nurse is taking care of an invalid, there’s a murder, a mysterious jade trinket, and some mysterious business going on around the house.
Nurse Sarah Keate, on the cover, looks like she’s maybe 25. In the story they made it sound like she was an aging lady. I think they just prettied her up for the cover. I know she must’ve been older in the story because there was no awkward romance subplot shoved in for her (which was nice).
The actual mystery wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t a bad book, but it wasn’t exactly thrilling, either. The murderer could’ve been anyone in the house, true, but when it’s revealed who it was, there’s no compelling reason why it had to be them – or anyone else for that matter. Still though, not bad, not bad at all.
July 16, 2014
I really enjoyed this old-fashioned murder mystery. Of course it was written in 1930, so it seemed quite old-fashioned to me. Creepy old house, candles and oil lamps, heavy velvet drapes, an unconscious old patriarch who may be on death's door...one murder, then another...everyone looking sideways at everyone else, wondering WHO is the murderer...
my only issue is...why was everyone so MEAN to the cat?
my only issue is...why was everyone so MEAN to the cat?
October 23, 2015
I can't believe that some how Mignon G. Eberhart, a Grand Dame of Mysteries, stayed under my radar all these years. This is my first book of hers and it won't be my last. Unfortunately the library only has about 6 of them so I will have to dig to find them. She did an excellent job setting the scene at a large, rambling, old house and gave good descriptions of all the individuals which allowed you to not only follow them but also imagine what they looked like. Very entertaining.
April 24, 2025
What am I missing here?
I knew the name Mignon Eberhart from working in a library as a teen. Frankly, I was under the impression that her books were considered second-rate, compared to Christie, Marsh, Allingham, and Sayers. However, I'm a huge fan of Mary Roberts Rinehart's Miss Pinkerton mysteries and I found this one on sale and took a chance.
It was Eberhart's second mystery and continued the series featuring Sarah Keate, RN and amateur detective. The introduction claims that it was an instant hit and was awarded "the $5,000 Scotland Yard prize." The first problem is that I can find no references to Scotland Yard ever giving out prizes for mystery books or to any organization giving out prizes with that name. The second problem is that it's one of the weakest, silliest mysteries I've ever read.
Eberhart was a literate writer and Sarah Keate SHOULD be an appealing character. She's tough and independent and feisty, very much in the tradition of the gutsy 1930's broads in books and movies. But she's not much of a nurse. Miss Pinkerton ALWAYS put her patients first. She would never have left an unconscious patient unattended as Miss Keate does repeatedly in this book.
OK, the old boy was in a coma and wasn't going anywhere, but if he'd stopped breathing or started choking it would have been nice if SOMEONE had been there to do something for him. Not to mention the fact that the sickroom is in an old mansion with no electricity. Lighting and heating with candles and open fires means constant danger of fire and this patient couldn't have saved himself.
Those who like this series praise it as being suspenseful and Eberhart surely pulls out all the stops in that direction. It starts with Miss Keate taking a taxi ride late at night through a spooky woods. Naturally, she makes sure the taxi wrecks,forcing her to walk to through the spooky woods. In doing so, she overhears a mysterious conversation that leads her to believe that someone in the house is planning something REALLY BAD.
In addition to the aforementioned lack of electricity, there no doors in the sickroom. This adds to the drama since curtains hung over a door are almost guaranteed to sway back and forth, indicating that something or someone is creeping around.
The old man's family are the standard-issue needy, greedy relatives beloved of traditional mystery writers. All are fighting for the lion's share of the old man's money. If he had any money, why was the house in such awful condition? And why are there only two servants? Admittedly, those two are weird enough for a troop of maids and butlers, but there's still only two of them. How do they manage to feed and clean up after a houseful of people?
Cardboard characters and an unbelievable setting are fine in a movie. A clever director keeps the emphasis on the build-up of suspense and fear. A book needs well-rounded characters behaving in believable ways. A dash of humor helps, too.
This is the sort of absurb melodrama that Jane Austen spoofed two hundred years ago in "Northanger Abbey." But the heroine of that book was an impressionable, sheltered seventeen-year-old. Sarah Keate is a middle-aged professional who should know better.
All I can say is that I read the whole thing, thinking surely I'd come to the good parts sooner or later. When the good parts never arrived, I set it aside. To be honest, I was reluctant to pan a book that was singled out as a Great Mystery (by Scotland Yard, no less!) After a few weeks, I went back and started reading it again. Got to the 40% mark and gave up.
I've read rave reviews of Eberhart's books by reviewers whose opinions I value. To me, it's a pretty lousy book. Sorry, Mignon, honey. I tried.
I knew the name Mignon Eberhart from working in a library as a teen. Frankly, I was under the impression that her books were considered second-rate, compared to Christie, Marsh, Allingham, and Sayers. However, I'm a huge fan of Mary Roberts Rinehart's Miss Pinkerton mysteries and I found this one on sale and took a chance.
It was Eberhart's second mystery and continued the series featuring Sarah Keate, RN and amateur detective. The introduction claims that it was an instant hit and was awarded "the $5,000 Scotland Yard prize." The first problem is that I can find no references to Scotland Yard ever giving out prizes for mystery books or to any organization giving out prizes with that name. The second problem is that it's one of the weakest, silliest mysteries I've ever read.
Eberhart was a literate writer and Sarah Keate SHOULD be an appealing character. She's tough and independent and feisty, very much in the tradition of the gutsy 1930's broads in books and movies. But she's not much of a nurse. Miss Pinkerton ALWAYS put her patients first. She would never have left an unconscious patient unattended as Miss Keate does repeatedly in this book.
OK, the old boy was in a coma and wasn't going anywhere, but if he'd stopped breathing or started choking it would have been nice if SOMEONE had been there to do something for him. Not to mention the fact that the sickroom is in an old mansion with no electricity. Lighting and heating with candles and open fires means constant danger of fire and this patient couldn't have saved himself.
Those who like this series praise it as being suspenseful and Eberhart surely pulls out all the stops in that direction. It starts with Miss Keate taking a taxi ride late at night through a spooky woods. Naturally, she makes sure the taxi wrecks,forcing her to walk to through the spooky woods. In doing so, she overhears a mysterious conversation that leads her to believe that someone in the house is planning something REALLY BAD.
In addition to the aforementioned lack of electricity, there no doors in the sickroom. This adds to the drama since curtains hung over a door are almost guaranteed to sway back and forth, indicating that something or someone is creeping around.
The old man's family are the standard-issue needy, greedy relatives beloved of traditional mystery writers. All are fighting for the lion's share of the old man's money. If he had any money, why was the house in such awful condition? And why are there only two servants? Admittedly, those two are weird enough for a troop of maids and butlers, but there's still only two of them. How do they manage to feed and clean up after a houseful of people?
Cardboard characters and an unbelievable setting are fine in a movie. A clever director keeps the emphasis on the build-up of suspense and fear. A book needs well-rounded characters behaving in believable ways. A dash of humor helps, too.
This is the sort of absurb melodrama that Jane Austen spoofed two hundred years ago in "Northanger Abbey." But the heroine of that book was an impressionable, sheltered seventeen-year-old. Sarah Keate is a middle-aged professional who should know better.
All I can say is that I read the whole thing, thinking surely I'd come to the good parts sooner or later. When the good parts never arrived, I set it aside. To be honest, I was reluctant to pan a book that was singled out as a Great Mystery (by Scotland Yard, no less!) After a few weeks, I went back and started reading it again. Got to the 40% mark and gave up.
I've read rave reviews of Eberhart's books by reviewers whose opinions I value. To me, it's a pretty lousy book. Sorry, Mignon, honey. I tried.
September 4, 2019
Confident no nonsense nurse Sarah Keate is sent as a private nurse to an isolated rambling mansion to care for an unconscious family patriarch recovering from a stroke, the family and others have gathered after hearing of his condition. When a murder occurs, detective Lance O'Leary arrives to work the case with Nurse Keate. Full of atmospheric descriptions of the unusual mansion (no electricity and lots of velvet curtains), and a great cast of suspicious characters (family, friends, servants, and a male cat named Genevieve) brought this slow moving mystery to life as the clues appear and disappear. I was a bit disappointed in the big reveal as many of the other characters seemed to have as much motive for murder as the actual perpetrator but overall enjoyed this mystery.
September 26, 2019
Delightfully atmospheric, 20th century gothic mystery. Not sure how I hadn’t heard of Eberhart, “the leading female crime novelist in the United States... one of the highest-paid female crime novelists in the world, next to Agatha Christie.” But now I’m tracking down her other work. I’ve become so used to pastiche historical mysteries that it’s a pleasure to hear the voice of a real 1930s heroine.
February 23, 2020
This book involves a nurse who is sent to care for a stroke ridden bed patient - a murder takes place in the bedroom and family members are confined to the house for several days. The ending was even surprising!
March 20, 2025
A historic piece of mystery that does seem very dated in many ways but is still enjoyable. A hidden visitor in the house? Ah, but not the villain of the piece. A woman "detective" working with the police? Ahead of her time. A bit racist? Definitely of the time written.
December 31, 2020
rilettura, sempre piacevole.
January 29, 2022
Great who done it. Written in 1930, its a reflection of its time. As an older lady myself, I identified with the dowdy, cranky, clever nurse.
June 27, 2023
Very atmospheric and a good mystery. One of the early nurse detectives.
August 18, 2023
This was a pretty good old fashioned mystery.
January 8, 2025
Good little mystery book, had me guessing!
March 10, 2025
Sarah Keate is a nurse who does private nursing. Her current assignment is to watch over a comatose patriarch who may or may not regain consciousness.
He never believed in updating his very gothic home with electricity and heat is provided in each room by a fireplace. However, nothing will keep Miss Keate from finishing her assignment -- except, perhaps murder and there are two of them for her to contend with.
Another excellent book in the series. These books are on the atmospheric side and tend to move rather slowly. But I really enjoyed reading it and if this is your jam, you'll enjoy it as well.
He never believed in updating his very gothic home with electricity and heat is provided in each room by a fireplace. However, nothing will keep Miss Keate from finishing her assignment -- except, perhaps murder and there are two of them for her to contend with.
Another excellent book in the series. These books are on the atmospheric side and tend to move rather slowly. But I really enjoyed reading it and if this is your jam, you'll enjoy it as well.
November 26, 2012
So I read this book for book club. It was our pick for a Nebraska author. The style is dated - reminding me very much of Agatha Christie. The book was set in the 30's and so interesting to read something about the thirties written by someone who actually lived then. So much more authentic than someone today imagining what it was like to function in that time period. I was struck by the amount of description. The first two chapters hardly had any dialogue at all. I wasn't sure that I would be able to finish it - and then Lance O'Leary arrives on the scene and everything changes. Lance O'Leary is not the main character, but we are all more engaged when Lance O'Leary is around. (He is always called by both names. I love that.) The main character is fine, the story is fine, but Lance O'Leary - HE is FINE.
October 30, 2008
A trip to the Gothic 30's, when a private nurse, Sarah Keate, is sent to a spooky old house to watch a wealthy, elderly stroke patient, Mr. Federie, whose contentious family and some secretive family friends are waiting for him to recover--or not. But when a body is found, it's Adolph Federie, the patient's dissolute son.
December 12, 2007
Quite colorful for a British mystery...not as stuffy as I expected.
April 1, 2012
Just arrived from USA through BM.
A dying man and a jade elephant were the keys to a fatal secret...
A dying man and a jade elephant were the keys to a fatal secret...
November 9, 2012
Atmosphere and description are the best things in this book- the plot is complex, maybe too complex, but Eberhart knew how to use words and describe effectively.
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