Maurice Thomas

Title: Nurse Kate’s Mercy Flight
Author: Virginia K. Smiley
Publisher: Ace
Copyright: 1968
Illustrator: Maurice Thomas
Review available

Running won’t help—but I can’t go back! That was Kate’s desperate thought as she fled to Alaska, far from the New York hospital where the young nurse thought she had been fatally and tragically negligent in her duties. Here, in the land of the midnight sun, in the remote settlement where her aunt and uncle ran a bush pilot service, Kate was determined to isolate herself, to hide from love and her duty as a nurse. But she didn’t figure on the dangers the pilots faced daily—those brave cheerful young men who wanted her friendship, and needed her help. Most of all, she didn’t figure on Jeff…


The original art for this cover (left) includes a signature along the left side of her dress. This signature is very similar to that of a known Maurice Thomas work. Maurice Thomas illustrated pulp fiction covers in the early 1950s but is known to have illustrated a cover for The Fire of Love, by romance queen Barbara Cartland, in 1964 for Avon.

Mort Engel

Title: Nurse of Queen’s Grant
Author: Joanne Holden
Publisher: Pyramid
Copyright: 1965
Illustrator: Mort Engel
Review available

His signature is in the lower right-hand corner.

When lovely young nurse Anne Carter inherited a New England estate, complete with mansion, her life found strange new paths and problems. The possession of Queen’s Grant meant the fulfillment of a cherished dream, yet brought her bitter enemies. For another thing, she was faced with a choice among three attractive men: Dr. Steve, who loved her perhaps too possessively; Bob, the fascinating stranger with a mysterious past; and Brad, the “boy next door”—who happened to be a millionaire! No matter what happened, Anne Carter knew her life would never be the same!

Allan Kass

Title: Sea Nurse
Author: Diana Douglas (pseud. of Richard Wilkes-Hunter)
Publisher: Signet
Copyright: 1970
Illustrator: Allan Kass
Review available

His signature is in the lower right-hand corner.

A secret sorrow haunted Nurse Melinda Madison. She had signed on as cruise nurse to run away from a love affair that had ended in tragedy. And now she was assigned to work with Dr. Peter Raymond. She remembered him from her student nurse days. She’d had a crush on him when he was a promising young surgeon. Why was he the ship’s doctor? Was he running away, too?

Allan Kass

Title: Jet Set Nurse
Author: Jane Converse (pseud. of Adele Kay Maritano)
Publisher: Signet
Copyright: 1970
Illustrator: Allan Kass
Review available

His signature runs along her shoulder.

They were island hopping, flitting from one tropical paradise to another … laughing readily, drinking steadily—wealthy heiress Marlaine Hayden, her fifth husband, Noah, her financier cousin, Dunward, and an entourage of hangers-on. Why did they add Nurse Roxy Ferris, blue-eyed, beautiful and disapproving, to their glittering, glamorous caravan? Someone had to watch over Marlaine’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Gee Gee, a gorgeous child, really, with a genius I.Q. but with a personality her private-school principal had called sick … “very sick.” Gee Gee’s was a rare malady, an infection destined to endanger them all!

Mort Engel

Title: Private Duty for Nurse Peggy
Author: Madeleine Sault
Publisher: Pyramid Books
Copyright: 1965
Illustrator: Mort Engel
Review available

He is credited on the back cover.

The dark old house was haunted by the memory of Mrs. Reinley’s lovely granddaughter—and when Peg Merritt went there as the old lady’s private nurse, she could almost feel the dead girl’s presence … But Peg’s real problems came from two handsome doctors—rivals for Mrs. Reinley’s money, and for Peg herself!

Lou Marchetti

Title: Nurse Conner Comes Home
Author: Arlene Hale
Publisher: Ace
Copyright: 1964
Illustrator: Lou Marchetti
Review available

His signature runs up the left margin of the door frame.

Sue Conner never thought of competing with her sister Marsha. Marsha was the family beauty who led an exciting life, never lacking for a date. Sue was the serious and sensible type—dedicated to her demanding job as a nurse and resigned to the fact that no man would look at her twice while her sister was around. Yet everything changed when handsome David Wakefield came into their lives. For then Sue found herself in the role of her sister’s rival for a man destined to break one of their hearts.

Mort Engel

Title: Nurse Liza Hale
Author: Jane Corby
Copyright: 1965
Publisher: Pyramid
Illustrator: Mort Engel
Review available

He is credited on the back cover.

“I’m so frightened!” The terrified girl who had appeared out of the night at Liza’s door clung to her, sobbing.
“Please,” Liza said, “try to tell me what’s the matter.”
“The noises,” the girl said. “As if someone was tearing down the house. It’s haunted! But my husband won’t believe me. He thinks I’m …”
Psychiatric nurse Liza Hale thought she knew what lay behind her lovely neighbor’s panic—the tragedy of mental illness. But the truth was stranger and more sinister—and, disregarding the warning of the young doctor who loved her, Liza soon found herself in a maze of mystery of menace … with no way out!