Twelve years after leaving Stillwater, Ill., where gossip grows alongside the corn and beans, emergency room nurse Frankie Stapleton reluctantly returns home to help her sister through a dangerous pregnancy. When Frankie arrives, the hospital is overloaded with accident victims and she finds a man suffering alone outside the ER. Unable to ignore her instincts, Frankie saves his life before proceeding to her sister's bedside.
When the man dies unexpectedly, Frankie has a lot more trouble heaped on a plate already overflowing with everything she abandoned when she fled town: her scared, angry sister; her cool, critical mother; her childhood flame (the first of three fiancés for the serially engaged Frankie); and a troubled family business. When a surprising plaintiff files suit, the hospital administration targets Frankie, jeopardizing her all-important career.
In Time of Death, Lucy Kerr creates a trio of strong and irresistible characters in the Stapleton women. Although this super debut mystery is focused on Frankie's fight to prove her innocence, there is no lack of small-town family drama fortified by a supporting cast intriguing in their own rights.
The investigation is imbued with just the right amount of medical details--challenging and written with authority while still engaging. Frankie's specialized knowledge allows Kerr's plotting to avoid the pitfalls that often come with amateur sleuth protagonists. But nurses don't often deal with murder, and Frankie may have more to save than her license, and must face her lifelong demons to get the job done. --Lauren O'Brien of Malcolm Avenue Review