DEATH OF A 'NIPPY'

A 1939 David Adair mystery

By: Peter Zander-Howell

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

A waitress at one of the great London 'Corner Houses' dies while at work. It is quickly realised that she has been poisoned. Her death is initially thought to be suicide, but doubts soon arise.
It is then found that on the previous day another 'nippy' was poisoned at a different restaurant owned by the same company. This girl is still alive - just - and it was initially believed that she had appendicitis. Even when the hospital reported that she had been poisoned, the message was misinterpreted and the restaurant management assumed that the problem was one of food poisoning.
Eventually, it is realised that the poison involved - aconitine - is the same in both cases, and so there is almost certainly a link.
The two incidents occur in different Metropolitan Police divisions, and the heads of these units jointly decide to ask Scotland Yard for help.
Newly-promoted Detective Superintendent Adair, with no other senior detective available, takes on the case himself.
What is the link between the two incidents? Who would want to poison these unfortunate nippies? And how did they ingest the poison anyway?

Institutional Injustice

Issues that are still relevant today were horrific in this early WWII case. Very interesting to see how the Yard men worked through it, without any clear laws to guide them.