Time of Death

October 3, 2016
In Kerr’s intriguing debut, Frankie Stapleton, an emergency room nurse at Chicago Memorial Hospital, returns home to quiet Stillwater, Ill., to help her sister, Charlie, with a difficult pregnancy. Frankie’s first visit to Stillwater General Hospital happens to coincide with the hospital dealing with multiple casualties from a bus crash. When she spots elderly Clem Jensen, who has suffered a heart attack, waiting on a bench outside the ER, Frankie treats him herself. Since Jensen later appears to be recovering, Frankie is shocked by his sudden death—and by hearing from the hospital’s vice president that Jensen’s son-in-law, Jimmy Madigan, is threatening a lawsuit because of her unauthorized actions. Frankie’s attempts to investigate what she’s sure isn’t a natural death alienate her former fiancé, Noah MacLean, now a sheriff’s deputy. Frankie identifies several suspects, including Madigan, and stirs things up enough that the killer tries to frame her for murder. An appealing heroine and well-researched medical detail make this a promising series start. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary.

October 1, 2016
A nurses visit to her hometown quickly lands her in trouble. Frankie Stapleton, an ER nurse at a busy Chicago hospital, feels only relief that shes just racked up her third broken engagement. When her brother-in-law, Matt, calls to tell her that her younger sister, Charlie, has pre-eclampsia and is panicking, Frankie heads for Stillwater, the Illinois town she departed long ago, leaving her mother and sister to run the family hardware store. Upon her arrival at the hospital, she finds handyman Clem Jensen on a bench near the entrance to the ER having a heart attack. Because the ER is crowded with people from a bus accident, Frankie has no luck getting help. So she administers some nitro and gets into a fight with the ER doctor before he finally agrees to do something. Although all seems well, Clem dies during the night. Naturally, his estranged deadbeat son-in-law threatens to sue the hospital, and a hospital administrator threatens in turn to get Frankies nursing license yanked. Charlie is counting on her help, especially when her baby girl must be delivered by C-section to save both their lives, but shes still bitter that her sister left town. One reason Frankie stayed away from Stillwater is that her feelings for her first ex-fiance, Noah MacLean, now a sheriffs deputy, are still very much alive. Certain that Clem was murdered, Frankie starts digging into his life for a possible motive. He was taking the wrong meds for his condition. And where did a handyman get the money to pay for his grandsons expensive epilepsy medications? All the nasty things Frankie dredges up about the hospital and Clems family provide a formidable list of suspects. Now all she has to do is pick the right one before shes picked off herself. An accomplished debut that combines mystery, medicine, family angst, and a touch of romance.

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December 1, 2016

Twelve years ago, Francesca Stapleton fled Stillwater, IL, to keep from dying of boredom. Now an emergency room nurse in Chicago, she has returned home to help her pregnant sister, Charlene, who is facing an emergency C-section. Frankie arrives at Stillwater General just as the emergency room is inundated with victims from a bus crash. No one is paying attention to the old man suffering cardiac arrest outside the building, so Frankie jumps into action and saves Clem Jensen's life, only to wind up squarely in the crosshairs of the hospital administration when Clem suddenly dies. Perplexed, Frankie knows Clem should not have expired. What is happening at Stillwater General? VERDICT Eileen Dreyer fans will enjoy this appealing debut mystery that mixes family drama, medicine, and a soupcon of romance.

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