Wolf in Man's Clothing

Sarah Keate #6

by Mignon G. Eberhart, Carl D. Brandt (Introduction)

Another vintage Nurse Keate mystery by Mignon G. Eberhart, Wolf in Man’s Clothing takes Sarah to a gloomy mansion in the remote Berkshire Hills. She nurses a young man with fatal connections to some poisonous people stuck at the scene—privileged people who are used to getting their way and are unprepared for Sarah.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

294 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Mignon 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.

Reviews

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mignon Eberhart published five Nurse Sarah Keate novels from 1929 to 1932. All five of the books (and one story) being made into films. The Nurse Keate novels then went silent for ten years until this, the sixth episode, Wolf in Man's Clothing, was published in 1942. In the interim at least seven Sarah Keate short stories were published -- as far as I know the short stories haven't been gathered in a single volume. This novelistic return may have been inspired by the outbreak of the Second World War, as Nurse Keate gives a brief but stirring tribute to the nurses who served bravely in both World Wars, and the story has several War-related themes. One subplot is how Americans who had once been entranced by the German-American Bund gave it up and returned to be patriotic citizens at the start of the War. Unfortunately, it seems those earlier times may have come back. Once again determined and stalwart Nurse Keate is working in a large manor house for a wealthy family, and evil is afoot. There are many twists and turns and at one time or another I suspected everyone in the house before zeroing in on the correct suspect. The first five Nurse Keate novels were Eberhart's first five books. She then published over a dozen stand-alone mysteries and her greater experience as a writer improves Wolf in Man's Clothing. This is the second installment in which Detective Lance O'Leary does not appear. Although Eberhart doesn't seem to have ever been a nurse herself, she had at least two other nurse-detectives prior to Sarah Keate: Nurse Mary Eeden appearing in 1925 and Nurse Mel Standish published in 1926. Wolf in Man's Clothing was entertaining and enjoyable with some memorable characters, though the complexities of the mystery and myriad suspects resulted in a complicated conclusion. There was one more Nurse Keate novel, the seventh, Man Missing, published in 1954, which I'll be reading soon. [4★]

[Rick Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Major characters:
Nurse Sarah Keate
Nurse Drue Cable
Craig Brent, shooting victim, Drue Cable's ex
Conrad Brent, father of Craig
Alexia Senour Brent, wife of Conrad
Nicky Senour, Alexia's twin brother
Peter Huber, a house guest
Dr. Claud Chivery
Maud Chivery, his wife
Anna Haub, maid
William Beevens, the butler
Lt. Nugent of the police

Locale: The Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts

Synopsis: World War II is in progress. Nurses Drue Cable and Sarah Keate are assigned a private duty case at the Brent mansion in western Massachusetts. Upon arrival, Sarah is startled to find that Drue already knows everyone in the household - and most of them are hostile to her. They are taken to the patient, Craig Brent, recovering from a minor bullet wound to the shoulder; and Sarah is again startled to find that Craig and Drue not only know each other, but were once married.

Craig's father, Conrad Brent, insists that Drue leave immediately, but she convinces them to allow her to spend the night with their patient. The next shock is that Conrad's wife turns out to be the former Alexia Senour, who was once engaged to Craig- only to have that engagement broken when he took up with Drue. It seems Alexia was enacting her revenge by taking hold of Craig's father - and likely his vast estate.

Conrad takes ill during the night. He has a heart condition which requires digitalis, and as it cannot be readily found, Drue administers some from her supply by hypodermic. Conrad collapses and dies instantly, and it appears Drue had intentionally murdered him to remove an obstacle to her getting back together with Craig.

The backstory is they had a spontaneous marriage, and when Craig found he could not take military pilot training as a married man, got divorced so he could get the training; intended to remarry after the war.

Review:

This was written while WWII was still ramping up, and it shows. We have lots of talk of German submarines, escaped sailors, and even references to the real-life Nazi saboteurs who landed on Long Island, NY.

The romantic escapades are a bit much, with everyone involved with someone else, and the particularly nasty revenge-marriage of Alexia.

The health care system during the 1940's is some different from today. One character gets a broken arm and was admitted to the hospital for five weeks. Meanwhile, Craig Brent gets shot, never goes to the hospital, has the bullet removed in his bedroom by the local G.P. and gets two private duty nurses all the way from New York.

The wrap-up scenes in the Chivery cottage are a bit melodramatic with lots of running up and down stairs, and Nurse Keate even engaging in some gunplay.

The logistics of the Craig syringe murder are pretty clever but a stretch to believe - they reminded me of some of the weird solutions in Agatha Christie.

This book contains an actual MacGuffin: The Frederic Miller checks, which we never get a look at.

The book title contains a spoiler in itself, and gives away one of the murderers.

For additional reviews indexed by author, please visit The Mystillery Blog and try The Mystillery Reading Challenges!

[Jan Peregrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 1942 Nurse Keate mystery by Mignon Eberhart may not be my favorite of her mysteries, but she's the best I've found at creating atmosphere. Wolf in Man's Clothing ultimately has two murders and a couple murder attempts, one of the latter terrifying Nurse Keate. The book came out shortly after the US entered WWII, though Germans are already the villains and not Japan who bombed Pearl Harbor.

This is the sixth and last mystery that Nurse Keate narrated. I can understand why she wouldn't want to get involved in murders again.

I didn't know who to suspect. There's a lot of suspicious characters in the wealthy mansion Nurse Keate and a nurse friend go to where a young man has been shot at and he didn't have enemies. I finally thought about the title and thought it must be a man. It's more frustrating when you don't know everything the police know and you assume with Nurse Keate that she and her friend are prime suspects. Well, her friend is for a while.

The murderer used yellow gloves, which seems ridiculous. Did they even make fancy yellow gloves back then? I can understand why there were murders in the end, but not yellow gloves. It seems like the nurse's friend could've been less mysterious with Nurse Keate in the final chapters too.

Mignon Eberhart grew up in Nebraska, living in Lincoln when she started writing in either the late 1920s or early 1930s. For many years she was more popular for good reason than Agatha Christie.

Highly recommended, but her earlier books are even better.

[American Maid · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book among my childhood belongings with four others of hers. I remember receiving them as Christmas presents and enjoying them at the time (mid-80s).

It's interesting to revisit this book as an adult. It took me a while to get into her cadence -- the language feels especially old fashioned to me now, although I'm not sure it made the same impression on me as a pre-teen. Once I was in it, it felt fun to be experiencing a different era with such authenticity. I saw a little bit of it coming, but I wonder if my brain remembered who the killer was somewhere in my subconscious. I did remember a scene where she hides behind a curtain as I was reading it, so it must have made an impression on me the first time around. Overall, somewhat entertaining, but probably not enough for me to revisit the others at this time.

I will say, as someone approaching 50, these mass market paperbacks from the 80s with their tiny print do not make for easy reading! If I do decide to read another one, I may give a more modern printing a try.

[Shirley Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining

I enjoyed this book . it was written in a simpler, more innocent and optimistic time. That time is familiar to me. I was a child and my parents were young. That accounts for part of my liking, I'm sure. But the author has created a believable story and interesting characters. I'll comeback for more.

[Adele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was book 6 in the Sarah Keate nurse series. I have really enjoyed these books. This author writes well with a good balance of description and dialogue. The stories are interesting and suspenseful.

[dmayr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too heavy-handed with the plot.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of Mignon Eberhart until her name came up on the Mystery Board of the Barnes & Noble Book Forums. I know I'm blindly unaware of most of the American Golden Age mystery writers, but it seems rather pathetic that there are so many prolific authors out there, I never heard of. It's one of the many reason I'm so glad that Becke, who moderates the board, decided to feature a classic American mystery author every month.

Now I'm not sure where Wolf in Man's Clothing fits into the Sarah Keate series, but I don't really think I missed out on anything having read it out of order. What I'm finding rather fascinating though is this notion that nurses make great amateur detectives. Just in this year alone, Nurse Keate is the third such character I've come across. First there was Hilda Adams, the Miss Pinkerton of the Mary Roberts Rinehart books, then there was Bess Crawford, the creation of Charles Todd. I haven't done the research on it, but I bet I could find a ton more examples. I don't know if it's the idea that a home nurse is able to see, do, and hear things that a more traditional detective would not be able to, but it's an interesting notion. It seems to make the case a bit more personal when you have someone in the home doing the sleuthing.

No unlike Bess Crawford, who seems to get her hands a bit dirtier, Sarah Keate reminds me more of Hilda Adams. They both tend to keep their eyes open and their ears working overtime, taking in everything around them. Most of the detective work is left up to the professionals, but if it wasn't for them, those professionals would probably never be able to put everything to together. Now, Hilda Adams is a bit more hands on that Nurse Keate, getting herself into tighter pickles at times, but Sarah Keate is no wallflower. She has no problem poking her nose in, saying what's on her mind, or prying into the secrets that the Brent family are trying to hide.

As far as the mystery goes, I found it to be interesting, if not compelling. It held my interest, and contained enough twists and turns to make my head spin once or twice, which is a good thing in my book. The side stories did tend to mislead me a few times, but overall I think they were an interesting touch that allowed the head spinning I love so much. I have one more of her books to read, and if I like it as much as I did this one, I'm sure that Mignon Eberhart will quickly become a new favorite.

[Allyson Dyar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third Sarah Keate mystery I’ve read by Mignon Eberhart and I seriously enjoyed it.

The murder takes place during World War II in a creaky old manor house where Sarah and another nurse are hired to take care of a wealthy man’s son.

I give you fair warning, the prose is rather gothic at times, but then, it fits perfectly with the mood and tempo of the story. Don’t expect a fast read, Mignon takes her time to describe people and situations and I felt myself shiver along with the characters as the icy rain fell.

As opposed to the book, Mrs. Roosevelt's Confidante, this felt like a book taking place in the 40s.

This series isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoy Agatha Christie, you will totally enjoy Mignon.

Four and a half big paws!