Book description
The trouble at St. Edmunds Hospital has not actually begun when Miss
Enid Hallet, retired ex-Sister Hallet, is admitted there to Hunter Ward.
But it starts soon after the lift door closes behind her, in the baleful
face of Joe Wells, the militant hall porter. For Hunter Ward, at the top
of the building, is an amenity ward including four pay beds, and the lay
staff, striking against supposed privilege, are determined to ensure
that all essential services to the top floor come to a halt.
The nursing staff do their best in the ensuing chaos, as the dirty
linen piles up in the corridors and relief catering is smuggled in via
the fire-escape. Then ex-sister Hallet dies, a death unlamented for
several good reasons by various people, but a death for which it is very
difficult to offer any satisfactory explanation. And that was only the
trouble in Hunter Ward. Josephine Bell was born Doris Bell Collier in
Manchester, England. Between 1910 and 1916 she studied at Godolphin
School, then trained at Newnham College, Cambridge until 1919. At the
University College Hospital in London she was granted M. R.C. S. and L.
R.C. P. in 1922, and a M. B. B. S. in 1924.
Bell was a prolific author, writing forty-three novels and numerous
uncollected short stories during a forty-five year period.
Many of her short stories appeared in the London Evening Standard
. Using her pen name she wrote numerous detective novels beginning in
1936, and she was well-known for her medical mysteries. Her early books
featured the fictional character Dr. David Wintringham who worked at
Research Hospital in London as a junior assistant physician. She helped
found the Crime Writers' Association in 1953 and served as chair during
1959-60.
