Murder by succinylcholine

Nancy Tardy is a retired pharmacist and attorney with university teaching experience. Interested in all things medical, she enjoys exploring the history of medicine in early Nevada mining towns.

Her medico-legal training led her to attend a Reno, Nevada murder trial of an emergency room nurse, accused of using an anesthetic drug, succinylcholine, to kill his wife, a well-known elected state official. Her knowledge has proved helpful to authors and law enforcement members about the use and abuse of this drug. 

A recent guest speaker at the History of Anaesthesia Society meeting in Bath, England, she presented an overview of American murder cases involving this tongue-twister of a drug. 

Nancy’s first novel in a series of three cozy mysteries, is set in the barren mountains of central Nevada. It focuses on a female pharmacist and her best friends, both female volunteer EMTs, as they investigate the possibility that one of their coworkers may be a serial killer using this common hospital drug

A world traveler and published travel writer, Nancy now lives and writes in Las Vegas, where she is a member of the Henderson Writers Group.

Find Nancy at nancytardy.com

“Cozy” and serial killers combine in a series of three novels set in rural Central Nevada in the mid-eighties. The main characters are Tina, a young female pharmacist in an on again-off again relationship with the county deputy sheriff, and her two best girlfriends, volunteer EMTs. Filled with quirky characters, common to most small towns, the first book will intrigue readers as Tina and her friends work to identify and understand a rather obscure medication, often called the “perfect murder weapon”.

Stay tuned.

Why has the death rate of poor, ill and elderly residents residing in central Nevada skyrocketed? This medical thriller takes place in sparsely populated rural towns, involving a local female pharmacist and her two sidekicks, both female EMTs. Unofficially investigating these suspicious deaths leads to concern that one of their own in this small, closely-knit health professional group is a serial thriller.