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Murder By Prescription
(1937)(Murder or Mercy?)
(A book in the Doctor Westlake Mysteries series)A novel by Jonathan Stagge (Patrick Quentin)
A case of mistaken identity leads to death and deception in this classic “three-ringed thriller . . . [with] plenty of shocks and jolts” (New York Herald Tribune).
It’s not the first time the local press has made a mistake, but this one has consequences for Dr. Hugh Westlake. An article about an advocate of euthanasia has switched the name of the old quack named Westbrook to “Westlake,” which leads to Hugh getting summoned in the middle of an icy winter night for a mercy killing.
The poor, fatally ill woman is the matriarch of a new, wealthy family in town. Ethically, all Hugh can do is ease her pain, so he leaves her with some morphine tablets and in the care of her beautiful daughter Hermia, a sight for sore eyes to the widower of eight years. But Mrs. Talbot’s unexpected death on the following morning—and her will—draw Hugh into the secrets of the odd household, which consists of her much younger husband, an adopted sibling, a flighty nurse, and a couple of mad scientists. And when another of Hugh’s terminally ill patients is found dead from a morphine overdose, he becomes the prime suspect in a case that comes down to the question of mercy—or murder . . .
“This detective novel is teeming with nail biting thrills. . . . For a book written in the 1930s it still has some resonance for a 21st century reader.” —Pretty Sinister Books
“One of those ‘one in a million’ mysteries that has everything . . . one can’t help enjoying it.” —Worcester Telegram
Genre: Mystery
It’s not the first time the local press has made a mistake, but this one has consequences for Dr. Hugh Westlake. An article about an advocate of euthanasia has switched the name of the old quack named Westbrook to “Westlake,” which leads to Hugh getting summoned in the middle of an icy winter night for a mercy killing.
The poor, fatally ill woman is the matriarch of a new, wealthy family in town. Ethically, all Hugh can do is ease her pain, so he leaves her with some morphine tablets and in the care of her beautiful daughter Hermia, a sight for sore eyes to the widower of eight years. But Mrs. Talbot’s unexpected death on the following morning—and her will—draw Hugh into the secrets of the odd household, which consists of her much younger husband, an adopted sibling, a flighty nurse, and a couple of mad scientists. And when another of Hugh’s terminally ill patients is found dead from a morphine overdose, he becomes the prime suspect in a case that comes down to the question of mercy—or murder . . .
“This detective novel is teeming with nail biting thrills. . . . For a book written in the 1930s it still has some resonance for a 21st century reader.” —Pretty Sinister Books
“One of those ‘one in a million’ mysteries that has everything . . . one can’t help enjoying it.” —Worcester Telegram
Genre: Mystery
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