Deathbed

258 pages. Royal octavo (9 1/4" x 6") bound in original publisher's quarter brown cloth with gilt lettering to spine over beige boards with gilt lettering to cover in original pictorial jacket. First edition. In "Deathbed," the eighth book in a series by acclaimed mystery writer William X. Kienzle, Father Robert Koesler takes on a temporary tour of duty as chaplain in a Detroit hospital whose dark passageways lead eventually to murder. But along the way, the antics of a security guard, a few nurse's aides, and a bumbling volunteer lead to madcap mayhem in a deft (and daft) counterpoint to the unfolding mystery. "Deathbed" follows the tracks of at least four people in St. Vincent's Hospital in Detroit whose rancor toward a single individual is so great it could translate into violence. The object of their wrath is an indomitable, unsinkable nun in her late sixties who almost single-handedly keeps the inner-city Detroit hospital open. As Father Koesler begins to learn what really goes on in a hospital, he discovers that St. Vincent's beds are used for more than convalescence. And in the Keystone Kop-like gropings in dim corridors, the real question becomes, Who's doing what to whom? Condition: Jacket corners and spine ends chipped and rubbed, back heal corner with tear and chip light edge wear.