--- description: Find out why 'The Patient in Room 18' by Mignon G. Eberhart made the list. title: The Patient in Room 18: The 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48703072f6e0fab/698a4087e6e84a52ef2b07cf/ThepatientInRoom18.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Oct 03, 2023 # The Patient in Room 18 by Mignon G. Eberhart by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  _The Patient in Room 18_ holds the distinction of being Mignon G. Eberhart’s first novel. Over the span of her 60-year career—during which she wrote 59 books—Eberhart would go on to become one of the highest-paid and most popular mystery writers. She was awarded the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award in 1971, and then served as the organization’s president six years later. But before all of that, she introduced the world to Sarah Keate, a nurse and an amateur sleuth who would later appear in six more of Eberhart’s works. In _The Patient in Room 18_, published in 1929, three people die in the titular room at the fictional St. Ann’s Hospital over the course of roughly a week, and Sarah must figure out why. The novel opens on a dinner party of hospital staff, during which a patient’s treatment is discussed. This patient (who stays, of course, in room 18) is being treated with $65,000 worth of radium, which suddenly disappears—turning suspicion toward the dinner party guests. The communal nature of the hospital and its doctors makes for a particularly suspenseful and unsettling reveal. —_Laura Zornosa_ --- ### More from TIME --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309161/the-patient-in-room-18/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309161/the-patient-in-room-18/"},"headline":"The Patient in Room 18: Best Mystery and Thriller Books","datePublished":"2023-10-03T11:56:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:21:05.750Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309161/the-patient-in-room-18/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48703072f6e0fab/698a4087e6e84a52ef2b07cf/ThepatientInRoom18.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48703072f6e0fab/698a4087e6e84a52ef2b07cf/ThepatientInRoom18.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309161/the-patient-in-room-18/","name":"The Patient in Room 18: Best Mystery and Thriller Books"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How We Chose the 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time","description":"Here's how TIME created its 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books list. There are books from 15 different countries, and no author appears on the list more than once.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/bNzuDcsg/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-10-02T16:54:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bNzuDcsg.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309161/the-patient-in-room-18/","duration":"PT1M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/best-mystery-thriller-books/6309161/the-patient-in-room-18/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```