Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of The Pain Nurse by Jon Talton. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.
The Pain Nurse by Jon Talton
A Will Borders Mystery
Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-624-7 (1590586247)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-624-2 (9781590586242)
Publication Date: April 2009
List Price: $24.95
Review: Jon Talton, author of the David Mapstone mysteries, introduces a new series with ex-homicide detective Will Borders investigating a murder in the hospital where he's recuperating from back surgery in The Pain Nurse.
Borders is confined to a wheel chair and fears he may never walk again. Cheryl Beth Wilson is a pain management nurse, the only one of her kind at the hospital, working with him. Both are in the basement in the oldest part of the hospital at just about the same time, Cheryl Beth having been summoned by Dr. Christine Lustig who was in the process of working on a new program to put all the hospital records on computers, and Borders for an MRI, when Wilson finds Dr. Lustig naked on the floor, multiple stab wounds all over her body, her ring finger cut off. As Borders, who is being wheeled back to his room, passes the murder victim's open door, now a crime scene, he sees the body and her mutilated hand. This brings to mind his former investigation of the Mt. Adams strangler who, with the same MO, had killed at least three women years before. He wasn't convinced the arrested man was guilty, but the evidence against him was compelling. Was it possible the wrong man convicted of, and later executed for, the crime?
But Cheryl Beth Wilson is a "person of interest" for the murder, and Borders' ex-partner is investigating. She had recently ended an affair with the victim's ex-husband that started when they were still married. Borders, working through his pain with the help of Cheryl Beth, becomes convinced his former colleagues aren't looking in the right place, and sets out to prove his pain nurse's innocence and find the true killer.
Set in Cincinnati, The Pain Nurse is a well-crafted, well-paced mystery. Readers who have spent any time in a hospital, especially following major surgery, will appreciate the realism and detail depicted here. Even better are the characters of Will Borders and Cheryl Beth Wilson whose relationship, though based on mutual need, seems genuine and sincere. The Pain Nurse is a captivating story and a terrific introduction to this series; it is highly recommended.
(Reviewer's personal note: Cincinnati is my home town, and Jon Talton has captured the city beautifully. I lived in Price Hill and still have family in Oakley. It was a thrill to go back to the neighborhoods of my youth and see them again through the eyes of this author and his characters.)
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of The Pain Nurse and to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2009 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
If you are interested in purchasing The Pain Nurse from Amazon.com, please click the button to the right.
Synopsis (from the publisher): Cheryl Beth Wilson is an elite nurse at Cincinnati Memorial Hospital who finds a doctor brutally murdered in a secluded office. Wilson had been having an affair with the doctor’s husband, a surgeon, and this makes her a “person of interest” to the police, if not at outright suspect. But someone other than the cops is watching Cheryl Beth.
The killing comes as former homicide detective Will Borders is just hours out of surgery. But as his stretcher is wheeled past the crime scene, he knows this is no random act of violence. Instead, it has all the marks of a serial killer case he supposedly solved years before.
Rebuked by his former partner and unable even to walk, Borders starts to investigate. He teams up with Cheryl Beth, who is desperate to clear her name. But as the city teeters on the edge of violence and a killer grows closer, the two are running out of time to unlock the secrets of the murder and the brooding, old hospital.
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