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Sarah Keate #3
The Mystery of Hunting's End
The Sand Hills of Nebraska, where Mignon G. Eberhart lived as a newlywed, inspired the setting of this 1930 chiller. Smack in the middle of the rolling desolation is Hunting’s End, a weekend lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. To that place socialite Matil Kingery invites a strange collection of guests—the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of “heart failure” exactly five years ago. She intends to find out which one of them murdered him. Posing as another guest is the dapper young detective Lance O’Leary. At his recommendation Matil has engaged Nurse Sarah Keate to care for Aunt Lucy Kingery at Hunting’s End—not a pleasant assignment, as it turns out. Gathered at the lodge, Matil’s guests are shut off from the outside by a November snowstorm. A collie named Jericho mopes around, and a stray cat seems to herald new, clearly unnatural deaths. What a trap to spring on people used to good wine and fresh-cut flowers at dinner!
Nurse Keate is the same sharp-eyed, stiletto-tongued, strong-stomached Nightingale and sleuth who was introduced in The Patient in Room 18 and While the Patient Slept (available in a Bison Books edition). She helped establish Mignon G. Eberhart as a mainstay of the golden age of detective fiction.
Nurse Keate is the same sharp-eyed, stiletto-tongued, strong-stomached Nightingale and sleuth who was introduced in The Patient in Room 18 and While the Patient Slept (available in a Bison Books edition). She helped establish Mignon G. Eberhart as a mainstay of the golden age of detective fiction.
348 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1930
About the author
Mignon G. Eberhart
149 books87 followersMignon Good (1899-1996) was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University from 1917 to 1920. In 1923 she married Alanson C. Eberhart, a civil engineer. After working as a freelance journalist, she decided to become a full-time writer. In 1929 her first crime novel was published featuring 'Sarah Keate', a nurse and 'Lance O'Leary', a police detective. This couple appeared in another four novels. In the Forties, she and her husband divorced. She married John Hazen Perry in 1946 but two years later she divorced him and remarried her first husband. Over the next forty years she wrote a novel nearly every year. In 1971 she won the Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America. She also wrote many short stories featuring banker/amateur sleuth James Wickwire (who could be considered a precursor to Emma Lathen's John Putnam Thatcher) and mystery writer/amateur sleuth Susan Dare.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
January 8, 2026
In the third entry of Mignon Eberhart’s series featuring spinster nurse Sarah Keate, her friend Detective Lance O’Leary invites her to come along to a lodge in the Sand Hills of Nebraska to investigate a five-year-old death. Twenty-two-year-old orphan Matil Kingery, a poor little rich girl, just knows that her banker father Huber Kingery was murdered. So she’s invited everyone who was at the rustic hunting lodge five years ago when her father died. Matil’s hoping that O’Leary can discover who killed her dad. O’Leary and Keate, both clever and observant, work together on the job.
I wish I could say this cozy mystery was as good as the first two in the series, The Patient in Room 18 and While the Patient Slept; sadly, for most of the book The Mystery at Hunting’s End was just OK. However, the novel took an amazing turn in the final 80 pages, culminating in an ending that I never saw coming. It was so excellent as to definitely add an extra star, raising the rating to four stars.
I wish I could say this cozy mystery was as good as the first two in the series, The Patient in Room 18 and While the Patient Slept; sadly, for most of the book The Mystery at Hunting’s End was just OK. However, the novel took an amazing turn in the final 80 pages, culminating in an ending that I never saw coming. It was so excellent as to definitely add an extra star, raising the rating to four stars.
March 25, 2025
As with the previous two outings featuring Nurse Sarah Keate, there's a cat, a mighty storm, a young couple in love, a menacing servant, and a closed-circle mystery, all very sinister. Yet it never gets old -- I love the repeating elements like old friends. When Mignon hits on a successful formula she sticks with it. In this installment we learn that Nurse Sarah has "extraordinarily acute hearing" and the handsome and dapper Detective Lance O'Leary (who seems to have gone into private practice) is also back for a third ride. The closest we have to an ethnic red herring this time around is "Signor Paggi" who has a "dark, swarthy face" and is irresistible to women. There's also a dog called Jericho and an emaciated cat rescued from a three-day bizzard. The Mystery of Hunting's End may be the only mystery located in the amazing Sandhills region of Nebraska (it has quicksand -- unfortunately not included in the book), and is set at a creepy hunting lodge (previous episodes were at a creepy old hospital and a creepy old mansion). The cover features riding stirrups and what may be meant as a fox-hunting horn, but it's not that kind of a hunting lodge -- the Sandhills mostly contain birds, deer, rabbits, and the like, though there are red fox. Five years before at the lodge a man was murdered and there was a coverup. Now his daughter invites back all the guests that were there so she can figure out what happened (hence Nurse Keate and Detective O'Leary). Isn't there a similar Poirot plot? Can't place it. There's a handy floor plan of the lodge; the first book in the series could've used one. As this is a closed circle, locked-room type puzzle, Eberhart seems to be emulating Agatha Christie, as well as her American predecessor Mary Roberts Rinehart (Rinehart and Eberhart both make frequent use of the "had I but known" trope) in the abundantly spooky atmosphere. My main problem with the book was that four of the male characters were virtually indistinguishable (Christie is much better at differentiating her characters). I gave up trying to tell them apart, except at least one of them is killed. My copy was from the 1940's, noted as being a "Wartime Book, produced in full compliance with government regulations conserving paper and other materials." A notice at the end urges readers to send this and other books to "a service man." Despite the underdeveloped and somewhat faceless four male characters, this was an enjoyable warm bath of nostalgia. Mysteries as they once were. More Nurse Sarah Keate to come (four more), as I have an unreasonable affection for the cranky old dame. [4★]
May 13, 2020
Matil Kingery wants to know who killed her father five years ago when they took a hunting trip to Hunting's End, his hunting lodge. Some confusion as to the location of the hunting lodge. The book cover refers to it being in Michigan. However, the story refers to the Sand Hills (Nebraska) where the author had once taken a vacation. Also, she typically locates her stories in Nebraska where she lived.
Matil asks Detective Lance O'Leary to help her find out the answer to the question which has made her life a misery. She has an "invalid" aunt who suddenly became paralyzed/could no longer walk after discovering her dead brother. O'Leary suggests bringing Nurse Sally Keate to "tend" to her aunt. They describe their relationship as formerly nurse and patient since she had apparently taken care of Lance when he'd had appendicitis.
Everyone else on the "hunting trip" was on the previous hunting trip. Although her father had been shot, the coroner described it as heart failure. Money can buy anything and the powerful men who were on the trip made sure that the coroner gave the proper answer. Even the dog is there, even though he is miserable. He keeps looking at the door behind which Kingery died.
No hunting is done on this trip. Shortly before Nurse Keate's arrival it begins to snow. It continues to snow and snow and snow. And they are pretty much snowed in for the next few days. Running out of food and firewood. Not long before they are freezing and starving and at each other's throats.
There is a suggestion that one of the people who are killed might have left the key in his toupee. The only place I had ever read about that happening was in Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister, but that book came along almost two decades later. Maybe he was an Eberhart reader?
I liked this one. It had just enough characters so I wasn't sure I knew who it could have been. And I was surprised at the method of murder - one I don't think I'd seen before. Here is a "locked room" mystery in a house party from which there is no escape with a 4-day blizzard going on!
Matil asks Detective Lance O'Leary to help her find out the answer to the question which has made her life a misery. She has an "invalid" aunt who suddenly became paralyzed/could no longer walk after discovering her dead brother. O'Leary suggests bringing Nurse Sally Keate to "tend" to her aunt. They describe their relationship as formerly nurse and patient since she had apparently taken care of Lance when he'd had appendicitis.
Everyone else on the "hunting trip" was on the previous hunting trip. Although her father had been shot, the coroner described it as heart failure. Money can buy anything and the powerful men who were on the trip made sure that the coroner gave the proper answer. Even the dog is there, even though he is miserable. He keeps looking at the door behind which Kingery died.
No hunting is done on this trip. Shortly before Nurse Keate's arrival it begins to snow. It continues to snow and snow and snow. And they are pretty much snowed in for the next few days. Running out of food and firewood. Not long before they are freezing and starving and at each other's throats.
There is a suggestion that one of the people who are killed might have left the key in his toupee. The only place I had ever read about that happening was in Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister, but that book came along almost two decades later. Maybe he was an Eberhart reader?
I liked this one. It had just enough characters so I wasn't sure I knew who it could have been. And I was surprised at the method of murder - one I don't think I'd seen before. Here is a "locked room" mystery in a house party from which there is no escape with a 4-day blizzard going on!
March 23, 2023
Bella atmosfera, scorre bene ma ho trovato i personaggi troppo scialbi e poco caratterizzati al punto che gli uomini li ho confusi l'uno con l'altro fino alla fine. Le donne invece le riconosci perché vengono descritte costantemente ed esclusivamente come "grassa", "bassa" o "vecchia".
La soluzione della camera chiusa è come al solito troppo tecnica e in questo caso specifico non sono nemmeno riuscita a visualizzarla.
Do tre stelle perché si fa leggere in poco tempo però non sono molto invogliata a leggere altro dell'autrice.
La soluzione della camera chiusa è come al solito troppo tecnica e in questo caso specifico non sono nemmeno riuscita a visualizzarla.
Do tre stelle perché si fa leggere in poco tempo però non sono molto invogliata a leggere altro dell'autrice.
November 11, 2024
Very well-executed in the mystery component, though I found the 14 or so characters excessive and underdeveloped.
October 10, 2012
The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon Eberhart is a reread for me. I love this book. I'm not sure how many times I've read it, but it doesn't matter and it doesn't matter that I already know the secret of the locked room. If Nancy Drew was my gateway to mysteries, then Hunting's End was the book that made me fall in love with them. There are several reasons why I have such a great fondness for this book. One is that my grandma sent it to me when I was about 8 or 9. It showed up one year in a boxful of books that Grandma had decided to send to her eager reader granddaughter. I'm not certain if the books were hers or if she had just found them at a garage sale and thought of me. Either way, I was already deep enough in my bibliomania that I wasn't going to look a gift book in the covers (or some odd mangling of a proverb). Among the other books were a couple of Man From U.N.C.L.E. adaptations, the book version of the Hayley Mills film The Parent Trap, and several others that I can't recall.
By far, the favorite was Eberhart's mystery. It was a Crime Club hardback with the man with the gun logo. I reread it I don't know how many times. And then, sometime between junior high and marriage, it disappeared. It's the only book I used to own that went astray and I have no idea what happened. A few have gone missing when borrowed....but Hunting's End? That one's a real mystery. It then became my mission in life to hunt up another copy. A few years ago I got my hands on a paperback copy, but I was still on the lookout for a replacement Crime Club edition. Thanks to John from Pretty Sinister Books I was able to get my hands on a copy this past October and I promptly put it on the list to reread and fulfill various challenges that allow (or demand) rereads.
Another reason I like Hunting's End so much is that it was my first locked room mystery. I also enjoyed the atmosphere--one of Eberhart's strong suits. Set in the rolling and desolate landscape of the Sand Hills of Nebraska, where Mignon G. Eberhart lived as a newlywed, this 1930 mystery revolves around a weekend party at Hunting’s End, a lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. Matil Kingery has invited a strange collection of guests to join her on the outing—the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of “heart failure” exactly five years ago. She knows that her father was murdered and intends to find out which of the guests is the guilty party. She has to find out....she's in love with one of the young men and wants his name cleared.
Added to the guest list is the dapper young detective Lance O’Leary who is posing as an acquaintance of Matil's. At his recommendation Matil has also engaged Nurse Sarah Keate to take care of Aunt Lucy while they're at the lodge—a fairly unpleasant assignment, as it turns out. Aunt Lucy is a crotchety old woman with a tongue as sharp as Nurse Keate's and who seems to know more than is good for her. In the course of the weekend, a November snowstorm hits the area and the group is stranded. The atmosphere is not made any cheerier by a jittery collie named Jericho and a stray cat who seems to able to herald new, clearly unnatural deaths. As the storm continues, nerves get frayed,the cook starts drinking heavily, secrets start leaking out, and the death toll continues to rise.
Nurse Keate is the same eagle-eyed, sharp-tongued, strong-stomached angel of mercy and sleuth who was introduced to mystery lovers in The Patient in Room 18. Her popularity helped establish Mignon G. Eberhart as a mainstay of the golden age of detective fiction. The Mystery of Hunting's End, her third novel, received the $5000 Scotland Yard Prize in 1931 and by the end of the 1930s, Eberhart was one of the leading American detective novelists.
This reread was like greeting an old friend. I found myself nodding over familiar passages and anticipating others I remembered. No matter how many other Eberhart books I've read since my first acquaintance with her, Hunting's End has remained my favorite. The Patient in Room 18 is on deck for this year....it will be interesting to see how it measures up. Four and a half stars.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks!
By far, the favorite was Eberhart's mystery. It was a Crime Club hardback with the man with the gun logo. I reread it I don't know how many times. And then, sometime between junior high and marriage, it disappeared. It's the only book I used to own that went astray and I have no idea what happened. A few have gone missing when borrowed....but Hunting's End? That one's a real mystery. It then became my mission in life to hunt up another copy. A few years ago I got my hands on a paperback copy, but I was still on the lookout for a replacement Crime Club edition. Thanks to John from Pretty Sinister Books I was able to get my hands on a copy this past October and I promptly put it on the list to reread and fulfill various challenges that allow (or demand) rereads.
Another reason I like Hunting's End so much is that it was my first locked room mystery. I also enjoyed the atmosphere--one of Eberhart's strong suits. Set in the rolling and desolate landscape of the Sand Hills of Nebraska, where Mignon G. Eberhart lived as a newlywed, this 1930 mystery revolves around a weekend party at Hunting’s End, a lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. Matil Kingery has invited a strange collection of guests to join her on the outing—the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of “heart failure” exactly five years ago. She knows that her father was murdered and intends to find out which of the guests is the guilty party. She has to find out....she's in love with one of the young men and wants his name cleared.
Added to the guest list is the dapper young detective Lance O’Leary who is posing as an acquaintance of Matil's. At his recommendation Matil has also engaged Nurse Sarah Keate to take care of Aunt Lucy while they're at the lodge—a fairly unpleasant assignment, as it turns out. Aunt Lucy is a crotchety old woman with a tongue as sharp as Nurse Keate's and who seems to know more than is good for her. In the course of the weekend, a November snowstorm hits the area and the group is stranded. The atmosphere is not made any cheerier by a jittery collie named Jericho and a stray cat who seems to able to herald new, clearly unnatural deaths. As the storm continues, nerves get frayed,the cook starts drinking heavily, secrets start leaking out, and the death toll continues to rise.
Nurse Keate is the same eagle-eyed, sharp-tongued, strong-stomached angel of mercy and sleuth who was introduced to mystery lovers in The Patient in Room 18. Her popularity helped establish Mignon G. Eberhart as a mainstay of the golden age of detective fiction. The Mystery of Hunting's End, her third novel, received the $5000 Scotland Yard Prize in 1931 and by the end of the 1930s, Eberhart was one of the leading American detective novelists.
This reread was like greeting an old friend. I found myself nodding over familiar passages and anticipating others I remembered. No matter how many other Eberhart books I've read since my first acquaintance with her, Hunting's End has remained my favorite. The Patient in Room 18 is on deck for this year....it will be interesting to see how it measures up. Four and a half stars.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks!
April 26, 2023
Published in 1930, this book did not age well. Too much emphasis on clothing, hair, and makeup for the female characters. The character descriptions did not do much to distinguish them. I read ~50 pages right away, picked up the book a couple of days later and could not really recall the characters or tell them apart.
I wanted to like this book by the Agatha Christie on this side of the pond but couldn't.
I wanted to like this book by the Agatha Christie on this side of the pond but couldn't.
December 26, 2019
see review other copy
April 28, 2023
It's not often you read a book by a Nebraska author with the plot based in the Sandhills. This is a good mystery and it's not easy to figure out "whodunit".
October 28, 2012
1930, #3 Sarah Keate, R.N., mid-western USA wilderness of a millionaire's hunting lodge; murder and deceit amongst socialites who display some very bad manners
What might have, in the hands of someone less talented, been simply a fluffy Golden Age Murder Mystery, is here worked into a not-so-typical look at stock manipulation, a five-year-old murder investigation (that was covered up, ahhh, the power of money!) and the convoluted histories of twelve assorted - but supposedly friendly - people gathered at a rural hunting lodge by a very determined young woman. Nurse Keate's narration/descriptions are clear, concise without becoming dry (she has a wonderful sense of quiet humor) and, um, "spirited" without being cute. Eberhart's touch is sure, the plot is strong, and the pacing very good.
But the star of this story is, pretty much, the setting and how the various personalities react to it - trapped in a remote building with people they either dislike, owe "something" to, and/or fear, pretty much all of them react badly, and that becomes very interesting as a huge snowstorm sets in and traps them there for several days. Yes, it's stereotypical (Christie used this sort of thing particularly well) but Eberhart's "take" on it is crisp, entertaining, and very well-done.
The denouement has several rather fantastical bits to it that modern readers might roll their eyes at, but those don't disrupt a very strong story, and a very good time-table sort of plot, although not a particularly precise one, so you don't have to bother much about that sort of thing (i.e. Sayers' Herrings... sigggh - drove me MAD, that one did!! sorry. I get carried away a bit sometimes).
Eberhart's writing is somewhat dark too, something that many so-called Golden Age writers show to a strong degree, unlike many modern "cosy" authors that are, far too often, considered similar in tone (wrongly!!). The use of plain description of disagreeable things isn't shirked at, although some of the emotion around such things might seem a bit too easily squeamish when compared with today's blunt, bloody tendencies towards "show all!!" in mysteries. Life wasn't always easy in those days, even among the rich - many things that we now consider very basic are often difficult to come by (this was particularly obvious in the two earlier books in this series as they were set in hospitals and the differences in treatments and things generally available was amazing).
Here the lack of a telephone or snowmobile or even a radio (let alone tv or internet!) sets up an even more frightening scenario - these folks are set up as if they were on a desert island, trapped with a murderer who doesn't hesitate to strike again and again. Eberhart's touch with psychology is rather good, if light, as she doesn't get into medical jargon, just "personalities" - this is an important part of the puzzle and IMO the only really weak thing about the story is the actual true motive as shown at the end - it seems rather bland after the buildup, but that might just be my own taste, I was hoping for something a bit more melodramatic... And I was not fond of the putative heroine, Matil - she seemed terribly stereotypical (sweet, beautiful, rich, every male within sight adores her, etc.), but her participation was limited, thankfully.
Overall, this is a very good read, a true classic from the period Between The Wars, and beautifully written, well-paced, strongly plotted. Eberhart's press after she died hasn't been as good as Christie's, but she was as popular during their lifetimes as Christie, and deservedly so IMO. Not as much of an innovator as AC but her work is still hugely enjoyable and of high-quality. Recommended, especially the Sarah Keate stories - she's quite a Personality, that one. (note - I haven't read the Susan Dare stories yet - those are considered to be her masterworks; look forward to them, though).
What might have, in the hands of someone less talented, been simply a fluffy Golden Age Murder Mystery, is here worked into a not-so-typical look at stock manipulation, a five-year-old murder investigation (that was covered up, ahhh, the power of money!) and the convoluted histories of twelve assorted - but supposedly friendly - people gathered at a rural hunting lodge by a very determined young woman. Nurse Keate's narration/descriptions are clear, concise without becoming dry (she has a wonderful sense of quiet humor) and, um, "spirited" without being cute. Eberhart's touch is sure, the plot is strong, and the pacing very good.
But the star of this story is, pretty much, the setting and how the various personalities react to it - trapped in a remote building with people they either dislike, owe "something" to, and/or fear, pretty much all of them react badly, and that becomes very interesting as a huge snowstorm sets in and traps them there for several days. Yes, it's stereotypical (Christie used this sort of thing particularly well) but Eberhart's "take" on it is crisp, entertaining, and very well-done.
The denouement has several rather fantastical bits to it that modern readers might roll their eyes at, but those don't disrupt a very strong story, and a very good time-table sort of plot, although not a particularly precise one, so you don't have to bother much about that sort of thing (i.e. Sayers' Herrings... sigggh - drove me MAD, that one did!! sorry. I get carried away a bit sometimes).
Eberhart's writing is somewhat dark too, something that many so-called Golden Age writers show to a strong degree, unlike many modern "cosy" authors that are, far too often, considered similar in tone (wrongly!!). The use of plain description of disagreeable things isn't shirked at, although some of the emotion around such things might seem a bit too easily squeamish when compared with today's blunt, bloody tendencies towards "show all!!" in mysteries. Life wasn't always easy in those days, even among the rich - many things that we now consider very basic are often difficult to come by (this was particularly obvious in the two earlier books in this series as they were set in hospitals and the differences in treatments and things generally available was amazing).
Here the lack of a telephone or snowmobile or even a radio (let alone tv or internet!) sets up an even more frightening scenario - these folks are set up as if they were on a desert island, trapped with a murderer who doesn't hesitate to strike again and again. Eberhart's touch with psychology is rather good, if light, as she doesn't get into medical jargon, just "personalities" - this is an important part of the puzzle and IMO the only really weak thing about the story is the actual true motive as shown at the end - it seems rather bland after the buildup, but that might just be my own taste, I was hoping for something a bit more melodramatic... And I was not fond of the putative heroine, Matil - she seemed terribly stereotypical (sweet, beautiful, rich, every male within sight adores her, etc.), but her participation was limited, thankfully.
Overall, this is a very good read, a true classic from the period Between The Wars, and beautifully written, well-paced, strongly plotted. Eberhart's press after she died hasn't been as good as Christie's, but she was as popular during their lifetimes as Christie, and deservedly so IMO. Not as much of an innovator as AC but her work is still hugely enjoyable and of high-quality. Recommended, especially the Sarah Keate stories - she's quite a Personality, that one. (note - I haven't read the Susan Dare stories yet - those are considered to be her masterworks; look forward to them, though).
March 27, 2016
What I like about this author is the character of Sarah Keate herself; practical, efficient, plain. Somehow garnering the admiration of the most eligible man in the room nonetheless (Lance O'Leary) and why not. If I was writing a series with a handsome young man in it, I'd keep him too.
However! There is always the constant, beloved of Golden Age writers, of the young couple in love. Ellis Peters, GK Chesteron, Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie (often, but not always), Ngaio Marsh... Dorothy Sayers, not so much, but she doesn't strike me as the sentimental type, and of course she made it all up with Harriet Vane. Georgette Heyer, yes, but of course she wrote many more romances than murder mysteries. Gladys Mitchell, also not so much, and sentimental about things other than young love.
Anyway. Eberhart is devoted to the womanly woman - with a core of steel, in this particular book, and rather preferable to the fluff-for-brains idiot that you sometimes get instead, according to the needs of the plot - and the manly man. Sometimes I don't mind it or I even like it. In this one, well, I got very tired of the fascinating little catch in the heroine's voice. I mean. What IS that? Is she gulping? Is her voice actually breaking?
Eh.
Nurse Keate was slightly flighty in this one too.
What I DO like is the language itself, the story telling, and the constant sketches of what the characters are wearing; it casts the characters vividly in my mind eye. Rex Stout does it as well. I appreciate it when an author inserts something that they actually know something about into their storytelling; theater, in the case of Marsh; theology, in the case of Sayers; teaching, in the case of Mitchell; food AND fashion, in the case of Stout. It gives the stories a further grounding in reality.
I do like Eberhart. I'm just not crazy about this one.
However! There is always the constant, beloved of Golden Age writers, of the young couple in love. Ellis Peters, GK Chesteron, Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie (often, but not always), Ngaio Marsh... Dorothy Sayers, not so much, but she doesn't strike me as the sentimental type, and of course she made it all up with Harriet Vane. Georgette Heyer, yes, but of course she wrote many more romances than murder mysteries. Gladys Mitchell, also not so much, and sentimental about things other than young love.
Anyway. Eberhart is devoted to the womanly woman - with a core of steel, in this particular book, and rather preferable to the fluff-for-brains idiot that you sometimes get instead, according to the needs of the plot - and the manly man. Sometimes I don't mind it or I even like it. In this one, well, I got very tired of the fascinating little catch in the heroine's voice. I mean. What IS that? Is she gulping? Is her voice actually breaking?
Eh.
Nurse Keate was slightly flighty in this one too.
What I DO like is the language itself, the story telling, and the constant sketches of what the characters are wearing; it casts the characters vividly in my mind eye. Rex Stout does it as well. I appreciate it when an author inserts something that they actually know something about into their storytelling; theater, in the case of Marsh; theology, in the case of Sayers; teaching, in the case of Mitchell; food AND fashion, in the case of Stout. It gives the stories a further grounding in reality.
I do like Eberhart. I'm just not crazy about this one.
April 1, 2015
I was reluctant to start this but it was the first book on my night stand when I couldn't sleep one night as it is my book club read this month. I was hooked within the first chapter. Written in 1920's by a Nebraska author with the unfortunate name of Mignon, its about a Nurse who is an amateur sleuth working with the detective the dapper Lance O'Leary to solve a 5 year old murder that took place in a hunting lodge. I loved the old "timmeyness" of it what with Miss Keate's starched white uniform with cap, smelling salts, cold compresses, and leaving a window open in the frigid air to keep the "circulation going." Loved all the traditions of dressing for dinner and all the characters hiding behind the veneer of politeness. The author broke away from this barrier though as needed and showed them in their "dressing gowns' and eating with the help in the kitchen and the like, unlike Agatha Christie, who is maddeningly pompous for me to read, and so I wholeheartedly got behind the characters. GRANNY I LIKED THIS BOOK!
February 25, 2023
Didn’t like it. Hard to follow. Too weird. I didn’t become connected to any of the characters. I read for book club. Would not have chosen to read. Seem amateuristic.
June 4, 2023
Major characters:
Huber Kingery, murdered five years prior to story
Matil Kingery, the hostess
Aunt Lucy Kingery, the patient
Miss Sarah Keate, nurse
The guests:
Juilian Barre
Gerald Frawley
Lawrence "Lil" Killian
Newell Morse
Signor José Paggi, opera singer
Signora Helene Paggi, his wife
Terice, Baroness Von Tircum
Lance O'Leary, detective undercover
The staff:
Annette, the cook
Brunker, the manservant
Locale: The Sand Hills, Nebraska
Synopsis: Wealthy socialite Matil Kingery is hosting a strange house party in her "hunting lodge" in desolate Nebraska. Five years ago, the lodge was full and someone shot and killed her father, and the killer never identified. She takes it upon herself to restage the event in the hopes of finding out which one of the guests was the killer, inviting the same assortment of guests and placing them all in the same rooms.
This time there are two new faces. Nurse Sarah Keate, hired to nurse her now-elderly aunt Lucy Kingery; and Detective Lance O'Leary in an undercover role posing as Sarah's friend.
Once everyone is settled in - with one change, Gerald Frawley taking the late Huber Kingery's room, a days-long snowstorm bears in and isolates the party.
Everyone views each other with suspicion - knowing this is really a plot to reveal a killer. Then Gerald Frawley is shot to death - in the same room Huber met his end five years ago. The killer is still among them.
O'Leary and Keate partially solve (method but not the killer's identity) the first set of murders (Huber and Frawley), and it looks like a wrap is imminent, but wait - another murder occurs and we still don't have the answers.
Review: I always enjoy a snowbound house party with a killer on the loose. This story has many similarities to another of my favorites, Deep Lay the Dead by Frederick C. Davis (1942) even including a snowstorm, no electricity or phone, a couple of dead bodies, and a famous musician as one of the guests.
I began to be suspicious when Frawley dies in the same room as Huber, even winding up in the same position. Then Frawley's body disappears, which was a plot twist I was not expecting. Usually when the body disappears, the victim is not really dead - but that was not the case.
The setup is excellent, down to the detailed map. Pairs of rooms, all separated by baths. Much is made of the lock arrangement, which is integral to the plot. Please note the terms 'gallery' and 'balcony' are used interchangeably.
The Paggis are an enjoyable couple, as are bejewelled Terice, and the servants: crusty Brunker from Central Casting and lush Annette the cook. Barre, Killian, and Morse seemed rather two-dimensional throughout; but then again they are investment bankers.
An enjoyable read when a snowstorm is imminent.
See also this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.
Huber Kingery, murdered five years prior to story
Matil Kingery, the hostess
Aunt Lucy Kingery, the patient
Miss Sarah Keate, nurse
The guests:
Juilian Barre
Gerald Frawley
Lawrence "Lil" Killian
Newell Morse
Signor José Paggi, opera singer
Signora Helene Paggi, his wife
Terice, Baroness Von Tircum
Lance O'Leary, detective undercover
The staff:
Annette, the cook
Brunker, the manservant
Locale: The Sand Hills, Nebraska
Synopsis: Wealthy socialite Matil Kingery is hosting a strange house party in her "hunting lodge" in desolate Nebraska. Five years ago, the lodge was full and someone shot and killed her father, and the killer never identified. She takes it upon herself to restage the event in the hopes of finding out which one of the guests was the killer, inviting the same assortment of guests and placing them all in the same rooms.
This time there are two new faces. Nurse Sarah Keate, hired to nurse her now-elderly aunt Lucy Kingery; and Detective Lance O'Leary in an undercover role posing as Sarah's friend.
Once everyone is settled in - with one change, Gerald Frawley taking the late Huber Kingery's room, a days-long snowstorm bears in and isolates the party.
Everyone views each other with suspicion - knowing this is really a plot to reveal a killer. Then Gerald Frawley is shot to death - in the same room Huber met his end five years ago. The killer is still among them.
O'Leary and Keate partially solve (method but not the killer's identity) the first set of murders (Huber and Frawley), and it looks like a wrap is imminent, but wait - another murder occurs and we still don't have the answers.
Review: I always enjoy a snowbound house party with a killer on the loose. This story has many similarities to another of my favorites, Deep Lay the Dead by Frederick C. Davis (1942) even including a snowstorm, no electricity or phone, a couple of dead bodies, and a famous musician as one of the guests.
I began to be suspicious when Frawley dies in the same room as Huber, even winding up in the same position. Then Frawley's body disappears, which was a plot twist I was not expecting. Usually when the body disappears, the victim is not really dead - but that was not the case.
The setup is excellent, down to the detailed map. Pairs of rooms, all separated by baths. Much is made of the lock arrangement, which is integral to the plot. Please note the terms 'gallery' and 'balcony' are used interchangeably.
The Paggis are an enjoyable couple, as are bejewelled Terice, and the servants: crusty Brunker from Central Casting and lush Annette the cook. Barre, Killian, and Morse seemed rather two-dimensional throughout; but then again they are investment bankers.
An enjoyable read when a snowstorm is imminent.
See also this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.
April 12, 2020
This week's featured book takes me back again to my early days of vintage reading. The Mystery of Hunting's End by Mignon Eberhart showed up in a boxful of books that my Grandma had decided to send to her eager reader granddaughter. I'm not certain if the books were hers or if she had just found them at a garage sale and thought of me. Either way, I was already deep enough in my bibliomania that I wasn't going to look a gift book in the covers (or some odd mangling of a proverb). Among the other books were a couple of Man From U.N.C.L.E. adaptations, the book version of the Hayley Mills film The Parent Trap, and several others that I can't recall.
By far, the favorite was the mystery. It was a Crime Club hardback with the man with the gun logo. I reread it I don't know how many times. And then, sometime between junior high and marriage, it disappeared. It's the only book I used to own that went astray and I have no idea what happened. A few have gone missing when borrowed....but Hunting's End? That one's a real mystery. It then became my mission in life to hunt up another copy. A few years ago I got my hands on a paperback copy, but I'm still on the lookout for a replacement Crime Club edition.
I think one of the reasons I liked Hunting's End so much was that it was my first locked room mystery. I also enjoyed the atmosphere--one of Eberhart's strong suits. Set in the rolling and desolate landscape of the Sand Hills of Nebraska, where Mignon G. Eberhart lived as a newlywed, this 1930 mystery revolves around a weekend party at Hunting’s End, a lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. Matil Kingery has invited a strange collection of guests to join her on the outing—the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of “heart failure” exactly five years ago. She has come to believe that her father was murdered and intends to find out which of the guests is the guilty party.
Among the guests is the dapper young detective Lance O’Leary who is posing as an acquaintance of Matil's. At his recommendation Matil has also engaged Nurse Sarah Keate to take care of Aunt Lucy while they're at the lodge—a fairly unpleasant assignment, as it turns out. Aunt Lucy is a crotchety old woman with a tongue as sharp as Nurse Keate's and who seems to know more than is good for her. In the course of the weekend, a November snowstorm hits the area and the group is stranded. The atmosphere is not made any cheerier by a jittery collie named Jericho and a stray cat who seems to able to herald new, clearly unnatural deaths. As the storm continues, nerves get frayed,the cook starts drinking heavily, secrets start leaking out, and the death toll continues to rise.
Nurse Keate is the same eagle-eyed, sharp-tongued, strong-stomached angel of mercy and sleuth who was introduced to mystery lovers in The Patient in Room 18. Her popularity helped establish Mignon G. Eberhart as a mainstay of the golden age of detective fiction. The Mystery of Hunting's End, her third novel, received the $5000 Scotland Yard Prize in 1931 and by the end of the 1930s, Eberhart was one of the leading American detective novelists. In 1971, she received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. She was also a past president of the Mystery Writers of America.
By far, the favorite was the mystery. It was a Crime Club hardback with the man with the gun logo. I reread it I don't know how many times. And then, sometime between junior high and marriage, it disappeared. It's the only book I used to own that went astray and I have no idea what happened. A few have gone missing when borrowed....but Hunting's End? That one's a real mystery. It then became my mission in life to hunt up another copy. A few years ago I got my hands on a paperback copy, but I'm still on the lookout for a replacement Crime Club edition.
I think one of the reasons I liked Hunting's End so much was that it was my first locked room mystery. I also enjoyed the atmosphere--one of Eberhart's strong suits. Set in the rolling and desolate landscape of the Sand Hills of Nebraska, where Mignon G. Eberhart lived as a newlywed, this 1930 mystery revolves around a weekend party at Hunting’s End, a lodge owned by the rich Kingery family. Matil Kingery has invited a strange collection of guests to join her on the outing—the same people who were at the lodge when her father died of “heart failure” exactly five years ago. She has come to believe that her father was murdered and intends to find out which of the guests is the guilty party.
Among the guests is the dapper young detective Lance O’Leary who is posing as an acquaintance of Matil's. At his recommendation Matil has also engaged Nurse Sarah Keate to take care of Aunt Lucy while they're at the lodge—a fairly unpleasant assignment, as it turns out. Aunt Lucy is a crotchety old woman with a tongue as sharp as Nurse Keate's and who seems to know more than is good for her. In the course of the weekend, a November snowstorm hits the area and the group is stranded. The atmosphere is not made any cheerier by a jittery collie named Jericho and a stray cat who seems to able to herald new, clearly unnatural deaths. As the storm continues, nerves get frayed,the cook starts drinking heavily, secrets start leaking out, and the death toll continues to rise.
Nurse Keate is the same eagle-eyed, sharp-tongued, strong-stomached angel of mercy and sleuth who was introduced to mystery lovers in The Patient in Room 18. Her popularity helped establish Mignon G. Eberhart as a mainstay of the golden age of detective fiction. The Mystery of Hunting's End, her third novel, received the $5000 Scotland Yard Prize in 1931 and by the end of the 1930s, Eberhart was one of the leading American detective novelists. In 1971, she received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. She was also a past president of the Mystery Writers of America.
April 1, 2018
A locked room (well, hunting lodge) mystery. I hadn't heard of Eberhart until listening about this book on the Classic Mysteries podcast. And I really liked this book.
Sarah Keate is a nurse with acute hearing and an observant eye. She's invited to care for an elderly lady who was paralyzed by the shock of her brother's death five years ago. Now, the lady's niece has gathered the same group of people who were present when her father was shot to come to the same lodge. But this time she invites detective Lance O'Leary to help solve the crime. Too bad the murderer has come along with them again and is determined to keep their secret, even in the midst of a snow storm that keeps them all trapped for days...
Didn't love the ending but the rest of the story was fairly charming with a garrulous old woman, an opera singer and his jealous wife, a rival for his affections, a drunk cook and more.
Sarah Keate is a nurse with acute hearing and an observant eye. She's invited to care for an elderly lady who was paralyzed by the shock of her brother's death five years ago. Now, the lady's niece has gathered the same group of people who were present when her father was shot to come to the same lodge. But this time she invites detective Lance O'Leary to help solve the crime. Too bad the murderer has come along with them again and is determined to keep their secret, even in the midst of a snow storm that keeps them all trapped for days...
Didn't love the ending but the rest of the story was fairly charming with a garrulous old woman, an opera singer and his jealous wife, a rival for his affections, a drunk cook and more.
April 4, 2023
M G Eberhart was a prolific writer from the 1930s, known for mysteries often set in the Nebraska Sandhills. This title is the One Book One Nebraska selection for 2023 and features Nurse Keate and Inspector O'Leary who team up to solve the mysterious death of the Kingery family patriarch five years prior. His daughter invites a group to the family hunting lodge in the Sandhills as she is convinced one of them murdered him. While at the gathering, more murder ensues, a snowstorm strands them all (a closed room mystery!), and the suspense builds.
This book is a classic, kinda in the Willa Cather tradition where place is integral to the story. I was able to attend a lecture by a local professor who is an Eberhart expert, and it was delightful--more enjoyable, actually than the book. I struggled to finish or even read this book but rated it 3 stars bc it is a classic and I probably "should" have appreciated it more.
This book is a classic, kinda in the Willa Cather tradition where place is integral to the story. I was able to attend a lecture by a local professor who is an Eberhart expert, and it was delightful--more enjoyable, actually than the book. I struggled to finish or even read this book but rated it 3 stars bc it is a classic and I probably "should" have appreciated it more.
January 16, 2024
I read this mainly because it was set in the Nebraska Sandhills, a vast, magical area in my home state. While the author is from my hometown (Lincoln), I didn’t feel like she used the area to its best advantage in this mystery. Rather, she uses it only to emphasize isolation and unpredictable weather (the guests are slowly being murdered in a hunting lodge during a snowstorm). I didn’t really see any use of local customs, language or geography. Instead, the book is an imitation of an Agatha Christie plot, complete with high teas (!), dressing for dinner (!), and a cast of characters that include a countess, a French cook, an opera singer, and high rolling financiers (!), all supposedly from a fictionalized Lincoln--A less Nebraskan group of folks I have never seen. The mystery is solved and the killer is not all that surprising (I was hoping it was the first murder victim’s daughter). Sadly, I can’t recommend this mystery as having much new to offer.
February 22, 2021
Five years after the death of her father in his remote Sand Hill hunting lodge Matil Kingery invites the same high society guests for a weekend at that same lodge, with the exception of detective Lance O'Leary and at his suggestion, Nurse Sarah Keate to look after her wheelchair bound aunt. An unexpected November blizzard traps the party there and another murder occurs leaving tensions high and supplies low as they try to uncover identity of the murderer, who may be responsible for two murders now. An atmospheric setting and an eclectic cast of characters, the guests, servants and even pets, made this an enjoyable mystery where clues and luck lead to the discovery of the guilty party. I would rate this book 3.5 stars if Goodreads allowed half stars
August 29, 2026
Beware of typos!
I wasn't crazy about the first two books in this series, but I love Mary Roberts Rinehart's "Miss Pinkerton" books. I keep hoping this series (approximately the same vintage) would be like those. And reviewers whose opinions I value have rated them highly. So I bought this one on sale, hoping they improved as they went along.
And this one did seem to be better than the first two. Sadly, the typos in the Kindle edition make it unreadable. Normally, I'm tolerant of typos, but there are WAY too many in this book. Realized I was gritting my teeth in irritation and stopped at the six percent mark.
Hope the editor will correct the typos and send out revised versions to those of us who bought the bad one. I really would like to read it.
I wasn't crazy about the first two books in this series, but I love Mary Roberts Rinehart's "Miss Pinkerton" books. I keep hoping this series (approximately the same vintage) would be like those. And reviewers whose opinions I value have rated them highly. So I bought this one on sale, hoping they improved as they went along.
And this one did seem to be better than the first two. Sadly, the typos in the Kindle edition make it unreadable. Normally, I'm tolerant of typos, but there are WAY too many in this book. Realized I was gritting my teeth in irritation and stopped at the six percent mark.
Hope the editor will correct the typos and send out revised versions to those of us who bought the bad one. I really would like to read it.
May 26, 2023
I read this book for Book Club. It was a One Book One Nebraska read where book clubs across the state read the same book at the same time. I was not a big fan of this book. Usually I enjoy mysteries but this one seemed to drag on and did not captivate my interest as some have.
Living in the country southwest across the state from the setting of this book, I could definitely relate to the howling snowstorm that kept the inhabitants trapped inside for three days. Running low on food is something most natives are aware of and prepare for ahead of time.
I'm glad I read the book, but I would not read it again.
Living in the country southwest across the state from the setting of this book, I could definitely relate to the howling snowstorm that kept the inhabitants trapped inside for three days. Running low on food is something most natives are aware of and prepare for ahead of time.
I'm glad I read the book, but I would not read it again.
February 4, 2023
At a hunting lodge retreat, banker Kingery announces to five fellow officers that one of them has forged documents and embezzled $500,000. Before the evening is over, Kingery is shot dead and the police officially rule it a suicide. Kingery's daughter doesn't agree and asks for help from her aunt's nurse, who suggests her detective boyfriend, for the case. O'Leary has all of the suspects return to the lodge and begins his investigation. Stuck in the snowbound shelter, the suspects and victims begin to pile up.
June 2, 2026
This is a Nebraska One Read for 2023. The Sandhills of Nebraska inspired the setting for this 1930 chiller, similar to Agatha Christie’s writing. Matil Kingery, owner of a remote weekend lodge, invites the same guests who were present when her father died of “heart failure” five years ago. Mattel insists and intends to find out who murdered him. Two extras who will help discover the murderer are Nurse Sarah Keate and Detective Lance O’Leary. Then a blizzard isolates everyone from the outside world. Great book!
December 22, 2023
This is the first book I have read by this author. I found the book in a stack of books from my Grandmother. She read this in 1968 and my Mom read it in 1973. This is a mystery story similar to what Agatha Christie wrote. This was had a good plot with interesting characters and clever backstory to the mystery. Clues were slowly revealed throughout the book with the ending bringing everything together. I will be looking to see what other books I want to read by this author.
March 9, 2023
It’s like Agatha … but annoying.
I struggled with the fact that these people are all just lying through their teeth about everything and NO ONE has a clue why people just keep being killed around them while they’re snowed in at a cabin. They all act like it has to be “someone outside in the blizzard because it can’t possibly be one of us”.
I struggled with the fact that these people are all just lying through their teeth about everything and NO ONE has a clue why people just keep being killed around them while they’re snowed in at a cabin. They all act like it has to be “someone outside in the blizzard because it can’t possibly be one of us”.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 19, 2023
I was excited to read a book from a Nebraskan author for a book club this month! It was chosen for the 2023 One Book One Nebraska reading program. I don’t typically read mysteries, but this one had some some interesting plot points. I think I need to work on my deductive reasoning skills though, lol.
November 16, 2023
Matil Kingery has unanswered questions about her father's death five years ago. So she decides to invite everyone who was at the hunting lodge the night he died back for a weekend. She also invites a detective and his friend, Nurse Keate who will look after her ailing aunt. Then there is another death among the group, a blizzard strikes, and the plot thickens.
March 22, 2024
I added this book to my to read list because it was the One Book One Nebraska book choice in 2023. Mysteries are not my favorite genre by any means, and I struggled with this one. It was just a lackluster read. Sad to think there wasn’t a better selection out there to choose for One Book One Nebraska
March 4, 2023
I read this for a book club at work. I enjoyed the story overall, and am glad to have learned more about the author. I had a really hard time keeping all the characters straight, with the exception of Miss Keate, O'Leary, and Matil.
April 9, 2023
One Nebraska 2023
It was ok but written not within the time frame of when the book was suppose to take place, 1930's. The hunting lodge made no sense for that time frame. The landscape was inaccurate.
The description details of this book were wonderful. The story itself kept my attention.
It was ok but written not within the time frame of when the book was suppose to take place, 1930's. The hunting lodge made no sense for that time frame. The landscape was inaccurate.
The description details of this book were wonderful. The story itself kept my attention.
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