A Sudden, Fearful Death. This item is unavailable.A Sudden, Fearful Death

383 pages. Royal octavo (9 1/2" x 6 3/4") bound in original publisher's quarter black cloth with gilt lettering to spine over black boards in original pictorial jacket. Signed by the author. First edition. In a London hospital, Prudence Barrymore, a talented nurse who had once been the one of Florence Nightingale's angels of mercy in the Crimean War, meets sudden death by strangulation. Private inquiry agent William Monk is engaged to investigate this horrific crime--which intuition tells him was no random stroke of violence by a madman. Greatly helped by his unconventional friend Hester Latterly, another of Miss Nightingale's nurses, and barrister Oliver Rathbone, Monk assembles a portrait of the remarkable woman. Yet he also discerns the shadow of a tragic evil that darkens every level of society, and a frightening glimmer of his own eclipsed past--Publisher's description. Condition: Signed on the title page else a near fine copy in like jacket.