<DIV>On a blustery February day Sarah Keate arrives at a gloomy mansion to nurse old Adolph Federie, bedbound after a stroke. Meeting the patient sets off an alarm inside her, but fleeing the house is impossible. The redoubtable red-haired nurse is stuck there with a strange coterie and a black cat named Genevieve. Originally published in 1930, a year after her debut mystery novel <I>The Patient in Room 18</I>, <I>While the Patient Slept</I> strengthened Mignon G. Eberhart's hold on fame.</DIV>