Miss Pinkerton (The Hilda Adams Mysteries 1)

After a suspicious death at a country mansion, a brave nurse joins the household to see behind closed doors

Miss Adams is a nurse, not a detective―at least, not technically
speaking. But while working as a nurse, one does have the opportunity to
see things police can’t see and an observant set of eyes can be quite
an asset when crimes happen behind closed doors. Sometimes Detective
Inspector Patton rings Miss Adams when he needs an agent on the inside.
And when he does, he calls her “Miss Pinkerton” after the famous
detective agency.
Everyone involved seems to agree that
mild-mannered Herbert Wynne wasn’t the type to commit suicide but, after
he is found shot dead, with the only other possible killer being his
ailing, bedridden aunt, no other explanation makes sense. Now the
elderly woman is left without a caretaker and Patton sees the perfect
opportunity to employ Miss Pinkerton’s abilities. But when she arrives
at the isolated country mansion to ply her trade, she soon finds more
intrigue than anyone outside could have imagined and―when she realizes a
killer is on the loose―more terror as well.
Reprinted for the first time in twenty years, Miss Pinkerton
is a suspenseful tale of madness and murder. The book served as the
basis for a 1932 film with the same title, and its titular character
appeared in several others of Rinehart’s most popular novels.