Miss Pinkerton, The Hilda Adams Mysteries

A locked-room murder keeps a nurse-turned-sleuth on guard—and will “keep the reader . . . shivering and guessing” in this Golden Age mystery (The New York Times).

If the dissolute nephew of elderly Juliet Mitchell committed suicide, then why has the Homicide Squad enlisted the help of nurse Hilda Adams at the Mitchell mansion? Because Inspector Patton has his doubts about Herbert’s death—even though he died by gunshot in his locked bedroom. The services of the bureau’s indispensable sleuth, “Miss Pinkerton,” are twofold: to care for the traumatized and bedridden Juliet, and to find out who really pulled the trigger. But Hilda’s about to discover that the Mitchell family’s secrets are as dark as the shadows in the creaking old house, and that there’s a good reason why the servants seem gripped by an inexplicable fear. Now it’s up to Miss Pinkerton to solve the case, if she can survive the night.

Hailed by Carolyn Hart as a major influence, she salutes Rinehart as “the first author to write a humorous mystery with a female protagonist . . . a staple of crime fiction from then to now.” This witty whodunit by the Mystery Writers of America Special Award winner was the basis for the 1932 film starring Joan Blondell.