The Nurse's Secret by Amanda Skenandore

The Nurse's Secret
by Amanda Skenandore

ISBN-13: 9781496726537
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Kensington
Released: June 28th 2022

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
In the slums of 1880s New York, Una Kelly has grown up to be a rough-and-tumble grifter, able to filch a pocketbook in five seconds flat. But when another con-woman pins her for a murder she didn't commit, Una is forced to flee. Running from the police, Una lies her way into an unlikely refuge: the nursing school at Bellevue Hospital.

Based on Florence Nightingale's nursing principles, Bellevue is the first school of its kind in the country. Where once nurses were assumed to be ignorant and unskilled, Bellevue prizes discipline, intellect, and moral character, and only young women of good breeding need apply. At first, Una balks at her prim classmates and the doctors' endless commands. Yet life on the streets has prepared her for the horrors of injury and disease found on the wards, and she slowly gains friendship and self-respect.

Just as she finds her footing, Una's suspicions about a patient's death put her at risk of exposure, and will force her to choose between her instinct for self-preservation, and exposing her identity in order to save others.

Amanda Skenandore brings her medical expertise to a page-turning story that explores the development of modern nursing--including the grisly realities of nineteenth-century medicine--as seen through the eyes of an intriguing and dynamic heroine.


My Review:
The Nurse's Secret is a suspense set in 1883 in New York City. Una has learned to look out for her own interests because she's had to take care of herself since she was a child. She's good at looking and acting respectable in order to pick people's pockets, but her habits aren't normally refined anymore. She cusses, drinks, steals. A rare act of kindness on her part ends up with her needing to avoid the police, making some bad decisions, witnessing a murder, and being arrested for that murder. She manages to escape and join a nursing school to hide from the police, but what she thought would be an easy disguise requires a lot more effort (and help from new friends) than she expected. Strangely, she spots more murders at the hospital, though it's not like she can report them to the police. Especially since no one else seems to think they are murders.

Though the murders were pivotal to Una's life, she didn't mystery-style investigate until nearly the end. Much of the story focused on what it was like to be a nurse, doctor, or nursing student at that time. The historical details were woven into the story and brought it alive in my imagination. The characters acted realistically. Una wasn't exactly likable at first, but I understood why she acted the way that she did. As time went on, friends who cared about her brought out her desire to help others even at risk to herself. The story stayed suspenseful as one bad decision after another left Una in danger of being thrown out of the school or spotted by the police. Again, I understood why she acted that way, and it was consistent with her character and past.

There were no sex scenes. There was a lot of bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting historical.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.