Hanging on the Wire - Softcover

Gillian Linscott

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0751502510 ISBN 13: 9780751502510

Publisher: Sphere, 1993

Synopsis

Nell Bray has dedicated herself to the woman's suffrage movement; it's her amateur sleuthing, though, that seems to be attracting the most attention. First, Nell unearthed the truth behind the mysterious death of one of France's most notorious courtesans, and now comes a plea from her old friend Jenny Chesney.
World War I is at its height, and Jenny is hard at work at Nantgarrew military hospital, where Freudian analysis is a specialty. Her efforts are complicated by Mrs. Monica Minter, who is determined to express her disapproval of Freud's theories through petty acts of sabotage. But would Mrs. Minter resort to a pot-shot at one of the patients? It seems unlikely, but someone did.
Nell holds no truck with either Dr. Freud or Mrs. Minter. Neither does she approve of war, but attempted murder is another matter. So she heads for Nantgarrew - where she finds that mysterious behavior is a way of life. Mrs. Minter swoops down like lightning, bent on her schemes. One soldier keeps a handy box of grenades and revolvers under his bed. Another is determined to reach Moscow by bicycle. And the doctors in charge are far less interested in these odd goings-on than in their patients' dreams - be they of sausages or sex.
Nell's bafflement turns to horror when the would-be assassin's aim finally turns true. Nantgarrew - devoted to healing - becomes the site of a murder, and Nell Bray, indomitable and irrepressible, is determined to solve it.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Turn - of - the - century activist Nell Bray (introduced in Sister Beneath the Sheet ) turns from the suffrage movement to campaign against WW I in this exhilarating mystery. Her friend Jenny Chesney asks her to come to the small auxiliary hospital in Wales where Jenny works with Dr. Julius Stroud, who is using Sigmund Freud's new techniques to help soldiers suffering from shell shock. Jenny wants Nell to help stop the efforts of rabid war supporter Monica Minter, who believes the hospital should be closed and its "coddled" patients sent back to the front. When Nell arrives she speculates about a shot that was fired into the room occupied by two soldiers, hitting neither one. Then she finds the body of one of the men, shot through the head and draped over the barbed-wire fence surrounding the hospital. While Stroud deems the death a suicide, Nell disagrees, and tries to determine the truth despite the doctor's wish to avoid notoriety, which might lead to the hospital's closing. A harrowing drive in an automobile takes plucky Nell to a final confrontation in a quarry. Linscott deftly combines period detail and psychological elements in a suspenseful plot.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- Nellie Bray, amateur detective and ardent suffragette, is reluctantly drawn into investigating the murderous happenings at a World War I military hospital in Wales. As in her earlier adventure, Sister Beneath the Sheet (St. Martin's Pr., 1991), Nellie tackles the problem with guts and humor and proceeds at breakneck speed to upset the establishment, the military, and conventional society. Linscott presents a motley crew of suspects, including an ardently patriotic woman intent on sabotage, one food-loving soldier obsessed with sausages and another enamored of grenades and guns kept hidden under his bed, and a young man determined to join the communist revolution by bicycling to Moscow. In a true cliff hanger, Nellie solves the crime, sorts out the wounded and war-weary personnel, and sends a brigadier general into retreat. Fans of mysteries with unusual settings, strong female detectives, and a historical bent will enjoy this one.
- Mary T. Gerrity, Queen Anne School Library, Upper Marlboro, MD
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sphere
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0751502510
• ISBN 13: 9780751502510
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224