Nurses are smart, determined and resourceful, making them the perfect characters to keep a story moving and get to the bottom of some gripping mysteries. These six novels feature nurse protagonists (and No. 6 is even written by a nurse.)
1. 'Outlander' by Diana Gabaldon
Claire Beauchamp Randall, is a British combat nurse who is reunited with her husband after a long wartime separation. They travel to Scotland together for respite and to become reacquainted. There, Claire becomes intrigued by an ancient stone sculpture. She finds herself spiraling through time after touching one of the sacred boulders, and lands in the year 1743. While stuck in an unfamiliar and tumultuous era, "Claire uses her nurse's training to help heal the sick, her wits to foil those who would brand her a spy, and her humor and courage to disarm any would-be captors." Finding passionate love complicates her plans to attempt an escape back to the life she once had.
2. 'The Nightingales of Troy' by Alice Fulton
A fiction collection from celebrated American poet Alice Fulton, "The Nightingales of Troy" explores the story of an Irish-American family over the course of a century. One of the stories' protagonists is a Depression era nurse. Each tale is gripping and lyrical.
3. 'A Duty to the Dead' by Charles Todd
Written by New York Times Bestselling author Charles Todd, "A Duty to the Dead" is the story of Bess Crawford, a World War I nurse whose dying patient's wish sends her into a harrowing mystery.
4. 'The Walnut Tree' by Charles Todd
Another World War I era tale. Elspeth Douglas, a British aristocrat, becomes stranded due to war activity while on the French Coast. She brings water to the troops on the front lines. There, she meets Peter Gilchrist, a captain who saves her from enemy shellfire, though they're abruptly separated. Once back in London, she begins her training as a nurse. She has promised herself to a man, Alain, but cannot forget Peter. Alain goes missing, Peter gets wounded, and Elspeth tries to survive the effects of war.
5. 'The Rose of Sebastopol' by Katharine McMahon
The time is 1854 during the Crimean War. Mariella Lingwood's cousin, Rosa, has traveled to the battlefields as a nurse in Florence Nightingale's nursing corps and her fiance, a well-known surgeon, also volunteers to help the wounded. When her fiance becomes sick, she races to his side, and upon her arrival, discovers that her cousin, Rosa, is missing. As she travels through war-torn Crimea, she learns more about secrets, love, and battle than she ever wanted to know.
6. 'I Know You're There' by Susan Allison-Deans
Jill Bradley, a NYC nurse, falls asleep at the wheel on her way home from a double shift, hitting and killing a couple in an on-coming car. She learns that the woman was pregnant and that the baby survived. While recovering in her parents home, she also discovers some well-kept family secrets. Desperate for escape, Jill jet sets to the Carribean, but soon finds out that she can't run from what haunts her.
