Nursing Home Mysteries

Sir John Phillips, the Harley Street surgeon, and his beautiful nurse, Jane Harden, are almost too nervous to operate. The emergency case on the table before them is the Home Secretary - and they both have very good, personal reasons to wish him dead. Within hours he does die, although the operation itself was a complete success, and Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn must find out why....

A glamorous woman is murdered in her ultra-luxurious London mansion and her husband goes missing. But according to public records, neither of them exists. The only leads police have are several objects arranged around the woman’s body, including a set of keys and a book called How to Process a Murder by Laughton Rees—a book that appears to have helped the killer forensically cleanse the crime scene.

Paul Jacobson, who suffers from short-term memory loss, becomes an undercover resident at a nursing home to help the Honolulu police track down a sexual assault perpetrator. The police give Paul the names of three persons-of-interest and Paul begins investigating. None of the three appear suspicious. Things go downhill when the woman who had been assaulted is found murdered. Paul meets interesting residents, including a woman with synesthesia, a woman who eats soap, and a woman who races wheelchairs. Then someone tries to smother Paul.

When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they think nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada is a very difficult old lady. But when Mrs Lockett mentions a poisoned mushroom stew, and Mrs Lancaster talks about "something behind the fireplace", Tommy and Tuppence find themselves caught up in an unexpected adventure involving possible black magic.