Assumed Dead

Monika Everhardt Medical Mystery #3

by Eleanor Sullivan

Two gravely injured head trauma patients—and two mysteries—arrive in nurse Monika Everhardt's ICU on the same day. The first is a John Doe whose car crashed during a high-speed police chase. The second is a woman who was bludgeoned in a bank parking lot. Police suspect the victim's husband. But Monika knows genuine grief when she sees it and she's got her eye on someone else: the husband's ex-wife.

Things get interesting when Monika's friend believes the John Doe may be her long lost brother, presumed dead for several years. But if he is, what was he doing with a stolen car from Texas and the ID of a dead man from New York? As Monika uncovers pieces of the shocking truth about why these patients ended up in her care, the hectic daily routine of life and death…becomes murder.

Genres: Mystery, Medical

269 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 28, 2006

About the author

ELEANOR SULLIVAN is the author of Singular Village Mysteries set in 1830s Zoar, Ohio, a village settled by her ancestors after their escape from religious persecution in Germany. The series feature a midwife, her cabinet-maker husband, and the town's leader, Eleanor's distant grandfather. The stories--and the murders in them--are fictitious; the town and its history are real! Graven Images is the second book in the series, following the release of Cover Her Body.

In her former life, Eleanor was dean of a university school of nursing, president of the world's largest nursing organization, editor of a prestigious professional journal, and author of award-winning books for nurses as well as a medical mystery series. Eleanor is a past member of the national board of Sisters in Crime and is an active member of Mystery Writers of America.

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the premise of this book. The execution needed a better editor in my opinion. I felt it dragged and the writing felt stilted at times. I wasn't on the edge of my seat when I should have been. I don't know- I just wasn't thrilled and nervous. It also seemed a VERY long time for the protagonist to be still not really dating after her husbands' death in 1972?? and this is 2002 or something after world trade center? And she had never been to the VietNam memorial? I just didn't buy it. I think it seemed like a book that had been written in the '70's. I really wanted to love it, but I didn't. I do think it could go through a major overhaul and be a good book though.

[Diana Hockley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Assumed Dead is the first I have read in the Monika Everhardt medical series and it will not be the last. If you are looking for a breath-takingly fast moving mystery, this is not for you. The plot of Assumed Dead is intertwined with the life of the hospital and the realities facing private medicine, particularly in the USA.

Ms Sullivan obviously knows her stuff as Monika battles with staff shortages, rampant - and grieving - relatives, and the administration accountants. Ethical dilemmas are faced, as two patients fight for their lives, and Monika - driven by the hitherto unexplained loss of her husband in the Vietnam War- tries to discover the truth about both patients.

I was delighted by the twist at the end of this interesting and intriguing novel. All too often, I pick the answer to the mystery and sometimes feel a little let down.

I have to mention - for the benefit of readers who download this book after me - that there are formatting collapses throughout, which are definitely not the fault of the author. Someone told me once that this happens from time to time with digital books. This happened to one of my own novels, and I have come across several in the same situation during the last couple of years. I have alerted the author to the problem, so I am sure it will be fixed very quickly.

This problem in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the plot and its outcome. :)

[Gayle Pace · Rating 5 out of 5]

REVIEW

I found this book at a book sale. The title and cover drew me in immediately. I haven't read any of the medical series but I'm positive I will now. There are times in the book where your heart will beat fast, you need to catch your breath. The plot is fast paced. The book is woven together with hospital life and the private practice.

The author evidently put a lot of her knowledge of the medical field into this book. The things that take place day in and day out in the doctor's offices and the hospitals. Death, Healing, Grief, heart broke relatives. patients that won't cooperate and those that go out of their way to help the doctors and nurses. Of course there is always the administrative side. I'm sure that is a pure nightmare. In this book, there are two patients fighting for their lives and a dedicated nurse, Monica is out to discover the truth about the patients.

Sometimes in the mystery novels, you can figure the ending out before you get there. Not in this book. This book put in a little web towards the end which was unexpected. The book is definitely a stand alone, but I wish I had had the opportunity to read Book One and Two before this one. If you do get the book, try to get the first two also and read them in sequence. This was an exciting, exhilarating and rather informative mystery story. I would suggest it to anyone who likes mysteries, hospital settings and a book that doesn't give away the ending.

[Lynda Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't for me. I made it 22% in and gave up. It all seemed a little farfetched and chaotic to me and sort of jumped around from situation to situation and introduced different characters into the story and never really padded them out.
There were formatting errors too that had been overlooked that I saw, Replacing I for 1 and a missing fullstop. These aggravate although there weren't any spelling mistakes so it earnt the extra star for this.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a nurse. I thought it was very well written and I learned something about Nurses that were in Vietnam- though that is only a sub plot. It was clean. Very little bad language though there is one "F" word and it was spoken by a Vietnam Vet remembering back to his time there and forgetting himself.

[Sandra Knapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Different, a little confusing, not great, but OK