Prescription for Murder by Hannah Lees

Caroline Faine, director of nursing at City Hospital, lay seriously ill from her diabetes. The best doctors in the hospital were at her bed side. They had done the best that they could do, but it seemed impossible to control her blood sugar level. When a new type of insulin was given, the blood sugar would go down, but then it would go up again. Finally nothing seemed to work,  and Caroline Faine died in a diabetic coma. All of the hospital staff was quite upset by this death.

Young intern, Cyrus Harvey was quite perturbed by this case. He acquired a bottle of the insulin which was last given to her. He tasted, it and it had no taste. He took it to the hospital laboratory for tests. The bottle they tested proved to be insulin, but Cyrus found that the bottle that he had given for the test had been removed and another had been substituted in its place. Cyrus went to Dr. Elliott, the director of the hospital, with his suspicions about Caroline's death, but the director would not listen to him. Cyrus also had suspicions about Dr. Willoughby, his chief at the hospital and a doctor whom Cyrus really admired.

Cyrus tells his suspicions to Sally Pepper, who is the Social-Service investigator for the hospital, and rather good looking. Together they carry out an investigation of Caroline Faine's death. As they came closer to the truth, there was even an attack on Sally's life. They arrive at the identity of the murderer through their own investigation. No police in this book. The reader may find the ending of the book rather controversial.

Overall I found this to be a very interesting book. Hannah Lees is the pseudonym for Elizabeth Head Fetter. She lived in Philadelphia and was the wife of a doctor. She wrote articles on health, and was a freelance writer. She taught writing at Bryn Mawr College, and she wrote five mystery novels. This book was published in 1941.