A Stitch in Time

John Putnam Thatcher #7

by Emma Lathen

Hospitals are for dying. At least, that was the case with Pemberton Freebody. The Long Island hospital surgeon testified that Freebody died of a self-inflicted wound. The insurance company was happy not to pay up on his $100,000 policy. But the Sloan Guaranty Trust and John Putnam Thatcher ordered their own autopsy—with damning results. When unnatural death struck again, it was clear that someone was prescribing murder as the best antidote to hospital scandal.

(Publisher’s description)

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Aka R.B. Dominic

Emma Lathen is the pen name of two American businesswomen: an attorney Mary Jane Latsis (July 12, 1927 -October 29, 1997) and an economic analyst Martha Henissart (b. 1929),who received her B.A. in physics from Mount Holyoke College in 1950.

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/31/boo...

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Stitch in Time (1968) by Emma Lathen is the seventh mystery featuring John Putnam Thatcher, Wall Street Banker and amateur sleuth. The book opens in court with the Freebody vs. Altantic Mutual case. Pemberton Freebody, a wealthy elderly man had been diagnosed with cancer. Rather than face such a dreadful death, he decides to go to the woods with a shotgun and end it all in his own way. A good Samaritan happens to find him and takes him to the Southport Memorial Hospital where Dr. Wendell Martin operates on Freebody and it looks like he'll survive. But four days later, Freebody dies and now the insurance company is balking at a pay-out of the beneficiary's $100,000 claim. Atlantic Mutual cites the suicide clause (which invalidates the claim) but it's just not that simple. An autopsy reveals that Martin left seven hemostatic clips in Freebody and the lawyers for the claimant submit that the old gentleman didn't die from the gunshot wound but from a botched operation.

Thatcher's bank, the Sloan Guaranty Trust, is the trustee for the beneficiary and Thatcher is interested in the case. The more he sees in court, the more sure he is that the hospital staff are covering up. And when Martin is murdered after a few unwise comments to the press Thatcher is even more sure. But is malpractice the only thing Southport Memorial is trying to sweep under the carpet? The next big reveal is that there is money missing from Martin's estate...and money, after all, is what Thatcher does. His search for the missing money will dig up all the secrets those doctors at Southport Memorial hope to keep buried.

This was my first Emma Lathen mystery. Lathen is the pen name for two American businesswomen, Mary Jane Latsis and Martha Henissart. And it's apparent even from my small sampling of their work that these ladies knew their way around the business world. Financial interactions ring true and Thatcher's character is well-developed and grounded--and likeable. I particularly enjoyed his interactions with Benjamin Edes, an older banker in the Southport area who enjoys tracking down financial skulduggery for Thatcher and who gives us a different view of the "stuffy old banker in the three-piece suit."

Lathen plays fair with the reader. There are plenty of pointers to the culprit and opportunities for the reader to sort out what is really going on behind the scenes at the hospital. A good solid introduction to Thatcher's world and it did not seem to matter that I started well into the series. I enjoyed meeting Thatcher and characters whom I am certain are recurring. I look forward to hunting down further adventures.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Stitch in Time is a murder mystery and much more set in a small town hospital outside New York City in the 1960s. As one patient dies and insurance companies fight over the coverage of that person and settlement of his estate, a trial and a murder result. Small town community pride over their local hospital protects doctors from investigation until other irregular medical problems pile up.

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wall Street banker and enthusiastic amateur sleuth John Putnam Thatcher is one of my favorite characters and this book, like all the previous ones I have read, was very entertaining.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

When is an attempted suicide not the cause of death? When the person attempting suicide fails to kill himself outright, is rescued and taken to hospital, only to die four days after surgery in which seven hemostats are left in his body.

That's the situation John Putnam Thatcher of the Sloan Guaranty Trust finds out in this mystery by Emma Lathen.

Pemberton Freebody was sure of one thing: with cancer, he would soon be dying anyway. So he settled his affairs — including leaving his estate to the Institute for Cancer Research and naming Sloan Guaranty as executor — drives himself into the woods and shoots himself. Then a good samaritan takes him to a Long Island hospital where his death is delayed by four days.

But when it came up to an insurance payment to the estate by Atlantic Mutual Insurance ... Suicide is not covered and a lawsuit occurs. And its on the witness stand where Dr. Wendell Martin of Southport Memorial Hospital said more than perhaps he should have — and continued to do so. Before he knows it, someone found a way to permanently shut him up.

Emma Latham has created a wonderful cast of characters, and a challenging mystery for a winning combination. Who would know so much could happen when it came to settling an estate ... or visiting a hospital?

[Teri-K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hospitals can kill you. Pemberton Freebody found this out, and his death lead to a string of troubles for Southport Hospital, including a very public trial with lots of attendant scandal. I really like this particular book, there's a complicated mystery, several likable characters, and some of Lathen's trademark humor, too. And unlike some of the earlier books you really get a chance to know the people involved so they're not just names you have to keep straight.

This book also contains a great scene where Thatcher is buying a birthday gift for one of his grandsons. It's really memorable. I suspect that some of the shenanigans going on at Southport couldn't happen in today's medical world, but it all makes a good story.

[✨]

Found at a library free book section and thought it sounded interesting from reading the back cover. I read the first chapter and it felt like reading in a language in which I know all the words but the placement is awkward. The writing style (to me) is so chunky that I could chew on it. It's not that the author is using large words that I don't understand, it's that the placement and flow is awkward and clunky to me.

This may be because of both the language gap (I'm not a native English speaker) and the age gap between me and the publish date. [Book: 1969 (pyramid)/ Me: 1992 (Germany) ]

I may come back through and read it again later when I find the time or run out of things on my TBR list.

[Silvia Verona]

JP Thatcher is thrust into an unexpected mystery again. I found the insurance fraud scheme slightly complex, but others will enjoy it. There is a lovely, lovely description of the hospital at night towards the end, as things get tense. Otherwise, the usual round of cocktails, 1950s housewives, class difference, and scheming people whose evil is revealed by breathtaking money grabs. Reading these is like watching moneyball. You learn so much about humans. In this case, about insurance, the organization of hospitals, the way health care can be a focus of crime, and how thick people can be about relationships... yikes!

[Carol Mello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nefarious doings at a small hospital

Something is not right at Southport Memorial Hospital. When Dr. Wendell Martin, Chief of Surgery, becomes a belligerent witness in a lawsuit involving the death of a hospital patient and a life insurance company, John Putnam Thatcher, Senior VP of the dead patient's bank, becomes involved. His interest is piqued when Dr. Martin ends up murdered. Nothing stops Mr. Thatcher when he is on the scent of crime, not even Miss Corsa. Junior staff member of the bank Ken Nichols is sent on fact finding missions by his boss Thatcher.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Southport Memorial Hospital claims that Pemberton Freebody died as a delayed effect of suicide. The evidence shows medical malpractice. And that's just the start. John Thatcher of Sloan Guaranty Trust finds himself involved with the hospital cover-up and others of the hospital's victims. Readers become involved with the tangled plots and likeable community members. It's notable that some laws related to the medical world were quite different in 1968 when A STITCH IN TIME was written.

Read 2 times

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. I was really struggling to keep track of the insurance company's theories and discussions. Between the insurance and medical terminology, I was a bit lost! Unfortunately, the mystery or writing themselves couldn't make up for my confusion. Not sure if I'll try another by this author even if the book cover does claim she's America's Agatha Christie!

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is chock full of quick and entertaining reads. I loved this one and was especially amused to see the cost of prescription drugs take center stage. The more things change...

[Katherine Spivey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clear, very logical, very well written -- and I didn't guess the murderer AT ALL.

[Emmanuel Gustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rather biting wit of the duo of writers behind Emma Lathen is applied to a small American hospital, and the result is one of the harshest indictments of the medical profession that have seen daylight. Probably it has not aged well, because the regulation and culture of healthcare has somewhat changed since the late 1960s, and we can certainly hope it is for the better! The books in this series always make an impression of being well researched, and if any hospitals in the US were ever like this (it is a credible story) then one can only pity the unfortunately communities that had to rely on them.

But this story of a group of excessively greedy (and none too competent) doctors digging themselves in a ever-deepening hole remains entertaining.

[Allyson Dyar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a big fan of author Emma Lathan and her John Putnam Thatcher series. I'm pretty sure I'd previously read this book but even in re-reading the tome, I couldn't remember if I had read it before or not.

It's an OK book by Emma's standards and certainly not the best in the series (I thought it lacked some of the humor in other books), but it's still a solid read centering around a hospital and the murder of one of its doctors.

While I am giving this book five solid stars, as I said, it's not one of her best though I will say here that my favorite book of hers is "Death Shall Overcome." I might just glom onto a copy and re-read it for a fourth or fifth time (it's that good).

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An older book, but still extremely topical. A friend of Thatcher's is appearing in court on the Freebody vs. Atlantic Mutual case. Freebody was a rich old man who was diagnosed with cancer. After some thought, he decided to take the easier way out and attempted suicide. But he was found and brought to the hospital, where he died a few days later. The insurance company (Atlantic Mutual) is stalling on paying his life insurance, ruling his death a suicide. But it's not that simple. The hospital bungled treatment rather badly, and now they're trying a coverup. The more Thatcher looks into the case, the worse it gets. And it ends in murder.

[Vicki Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like about Lathen's mysteries is that you're always learning something new about different businesses - in this case a hospital. When a wealthy man dies in hospital four days after being operated on for a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Thatcher becomes involved because the insurance company won't pay if he died by suicide, but will pay if the death was the hospital's fault, and Thatcher's bank is the trustee for the beneficiary. Things become really interesting when the surgeon who operated on the deceased is himself murdered.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book. Lathen must have a background in the world of business and insurance etc... what incredible detail. This mystery is a must read for anyone familiar with the world of lawsuits, insurance companies and doctors. She made understanding the intricacies of this world fascinating and compelling.

[Kaija · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was somewhat hard to get through, and none of the characters had an overly developed, but it was still a good old murder mystery.