Mignon G. Eberhart (1899-1996) was a creative author of mysteries and romantic suspense. Her long career began in 1929 with a mystery featuring Sarah/Sally Keate, a nurse in New York, who was Eberhart’s only series character. Keate featured in seven books. The rest of Eberhart’s prodigious output consisted of 53 stand-alone novels and several collections of short stories. She received the Grand Master Award from Mystery Writers of America in 1971.
While I have read a few of the Eberhart stand-alones, While the Patient Slept (Doubleday Doran Crime Club, 1930) is the first of her series books I looked at. The third appearance of Sarah Keate, it exudes unease and anxiety from the opening pages as Sarah takes a taxi to an isolated old mansion on a foggy winter afternoon, where she finds her patient, elderly Mr. Jonas Federie, still unconscious after a stroke. The house itself is in need of repairs and its contents in need of replacement. With no electricity and only candles and gas lights for illumination, oddly shaped shadows are everywhere, contributing to the eerie atmosphere.
The household is an assortment of children, grandchildren, and friends of the patient as well as a peculiar manservant and even stranger cook. Each of them finds an occasion to take Sarah aside and tell her privately that they must speak to Mr. Federie before anyone else does when he regains consciousness. A large orange tomcat named Genevieve wanders the house, popping up at unexpected times and places. Why he has a feminine name is unknown. He decides to settle near Sarah as she arranges a large easy chair near her patient where she plans to rest during the night. Hours later a loud noise awakens Sarah and she jumps out of her chair to find Genevieve staring fixedly at a curtain hanging over a doorway to a stairway. (Everyone with a cat is familiar with that eerie feeling.) She pushes the curtain aside to find one of Mr. Federie’s sons sprawled across the stairs with a gunshot wound.
Sarah’s screams awakened the rest of the house. The family gathered quickly and the police were summoned. Leading the investigation is Detective Lance O’Leary, with whom Sarah worked on an earlier case and whom Sarah trusts implicitly. The weapon is missing and searching the old house is more than challenging, with its dozens of rooms full of potential hiding places.
This story is not quite a closed-circle mystery, since the house has multiple entrance points, not all of which are locked. The narrative is almost unbearably creepy at times, despite the dated writing style. It is a testament to Eberhart’s skill that she could produce such a strong piece of suspense and a well-plotted mystery so early in her writing career. It was reprinted in February 2026 as part of the American Mystery Classics series.