What you need to know: Winners are chosen from the 42 VNRNs I’ve read
these two years 29 different authors. The Best and Worst Authors categories includes all
the VNRNs reviewed for this blog (312 to date), but only authors with more than
one review are included; the One-Hit Wonders category is reserved for the best
books by authors with only one review.
BEST BOOKS:
1. Nurse
with a Past, Diane Frazer (pseud. Dorothy Fletcher)
2. Factory
Nurse, Hilary Neal (pseud. Olive Norton)
3. Runaway
Nurse, Ethel Hamill (pseud. Jean Francis Webb III)
4. Nurse
Barlow, Lucy Agnes Hancock
6. Duty
Nurse, Diana Douglas (pseud. Richard Wilkes Hunter)
7. Queen’s
Nurse, Jane Arbor
8. Night-Duty
Nurse, Katherine McComb
BEST NOT-A-NURSE NOVEL:
Doctor
Day, Thomas Stone (pseud. Florence Stonebraker)
WORST BOOKS:
1. Nurse
Kathryn, Peggy O’More
2. Holiday
for a Nurse, Joanne Holden (pseud. Jane Corby)
3. Nurse
Gina, Joanne Holden (pseud. Jane Corby)
4. Nurse
in Las Vegas, Jane Converse (pseud. Adele Kay Maritano)
5. No
Escape from Love, Bennie C. Hall
6. Wings
for Nurse Bennett, Adeline McElfresh
7. Nurse
in Panic, Jane Converse (pseud. Adele Kay Maritano)
BEST COVERS:
Woman Doctor, cover illustration by Tom Miller
BEST QUOTES:
1. “She had gone out with him twice,
but one time didn’t really count because they had gone to a movie she had
wanted to see, a movie called The Savage Eye, which left him shaky and
unfit for normal pursuits afterward.” Nurse
with a Past, Diane Frazer (pseud. Dorothy Fletcher)
2. “Donna was suddenly very impressed
with Steve’s ability in hand-to-hand combat.” Nurse
in Istanbul, Ralph E. Hayes
3. “Sit here and contemplate the
rewards of sin. I’ll case the joint.” Runaway
Nurse, Ethel Hamill (pseud. Jean Francis Webb III)
4. “How do you like being an
incurable disease, Beautiful?” My
Love an Altar, Joan Sargent (pseud. Sara Jenkins Cunningham)
5. “Margaret Wilkerson had come to
nursing through a simple process of elimination, more or less as young men of
small talent decide to take up business administration in college instead of
the humanities.” Nurse
with a Past, Diane Frazer (pseud. Dorothy Fletcher)
6. “Do I detect an acquisitive female
gleam in your eye in connection with this paragon of all manly virtues?” Woman
Doctor, Peter Baldwin
7. “I’m not very hot for hardware.” Disaster
Area Nurse, Arlene Hale
8. “My experience of nurses is that
they’re always ravenous and cost a fortune to feed.” Hockey
Star Nurse, Diana Douglas (pseud. Richard Wilkes Hunter)
9. “ ‘You make me want to cry,’ Ralph
said. ‘What a hideous waste! A girl with legs like yours reading that kind of
stuff.’ ” Nurse
with a Past, Diane Frazer (pseud. Dorothy Fletcher)
10. “The guy has his good points.
He’s asked me twice for a date.” Duty
Nurse, Diana Douglas (pseud. Richard Wilkes Hunter)
BEST AUTHORS:
1. Jeanne Judson (3.9 average, based
on 3 reviews)
1. Marguerite Mooers Marshall (3.9
average, based on 3 reviews)
3. Faith Baldwin (3.8 average, based
on 4 reviews)
4. William Neubauer (3.7 average,
based on 2 reviews)
5. Ethel Hamill (3.3 average, based
on 5 reviews)
6. Elizabeth Hoy (3.3 average, based
on 3 reviews)
7. Helen B. Castle (3.3 average,
based on 2 reviews)
7. Joyce Dingwell (3.3 average, based
on 2 reviews)
ONE-HIT WONDERS: Best VNRN authors with one review
1. “K”, Mary Roberts Rinehart
2. A
Challenge for Nurse Melanie, Isabel Moore
4. Nurse
Pro Tem, Glenna Finley
5. Walk
out of Darkness, Arlene
Karson
6. Woman
Doctor, Alice Lent Covert
7. Town
Nurse—Country Nurse, Marjorie Lewty
8. Hospital
Zone, Mary Stolz
9. Factory
Nurse, Hilary Neal (pseud. Olive Norton)
10. Night-Duty
Nurse, Katherine McComb
WORST AUTHORS:
1. Arlene Fitzgerald (1.2 average,
based on 2 reviews)
2. Patti Carr (1.5 average, based on
2 reviews)
3. Peggy O’More Blocklinger (writing
as Peggy O’More and Jeanne Bowman) (1.7 average, based on 10 reviews)
4. Ruth McCarthy Sears (1.8 average,
based on 3 reviews)
5. Virginia Smiley (1.9 average,
based on 2 reviews)
6. Elizabeth Kellier (2.0 average,
based on 2 reviews)
6. Suzanne Roberts (2.0 average,
based on 5 reviews)
6. Isabel Stewart Way (2.0 average,
based on 3 reviews)
9. William E. Daniel Ross (writing as
Rose Dana, Ann Gilmer, and Rose Williams) (2.1 average, based on 6 reviews)
9. Jane Corby (writing as Jane Corby and
Joanne Holden) (2.1 average, based on 11 reviews)
9. Richard Wilkes Hunter (writing as
Diana Douglas) (2.1 average, based on 11 reviews)