Death at the Medical Board by Josephine Bell

World War II was going on and Ursula Frinton wanted very much to do her duty. It was necessary to pass an examination by the three physicians on the Medical Board before she would be considered healthy enough to participate in one of the women's corps on the home front. Ursula had had scarlet fever as a child and had heart trouble in her later years, but now she felt fine. She had even been to an outstanding heart specialist in London, Dr. Andrew Clegg, who found her perfectly healthy. Her uncle, however, had a Dr. Joseph Coleman write a letter to the board saying that she was unfit because of her heart condition.

Ursula came before the board and had had the examination. Then she went to the dressing room to put her clothes back on, and there she died. She was found on the floor, dead, with blood on her mouth. The police found a tiny cut on her mouth. It was later noticed that she was wearing a shade of lipstick when she died which she had never worn before.

Inspector Staines. of the CID branch of the Shornford Borough Police arrived and started the investigation of the death. It could be assumed that Rachel had died from a heart attack from the excitement of the medical examination. The doctors of the Medical Board suspected foul play, because they believed the findings of Dr. Clegg.

One of the doctors on the Medical Board wrote to her friend, Dr. David Wintringham about the possible murder. Wintringham had solved other mysterious cases for the police and the doctor suggested that he might be able to help with this on. Wintringham had been engaged in war work, but this case was quite intriguing so he managed to get a short vacation from work to go investigate. His investigation would lead to several who would wish Ursula dead, and to a very interesting method of murder. I found this to be a very interesting book, and Dr. David Wintringham to be a likeable detective. I do wish more of Ms. Bell's books were available.

This book was published in 1944, by Josephine Bell which was the pseudonym of Doris Bell Collier. She was a physician and started writing mystery novels in 1938. She wrote 45 mystery novels many of which dealt with medical topics and featured Dr. David Wintringham.