author
Means Davis
1904–1999
Best known for a warm, sharply observed novel set around Johns Hopkins, this writer also used the pen name Means Davis for hospital mysteries. Her work blended insider detail, lively characters, and a strong feel for Baltimore literary life.
1 Audiobook
The Hospital Murders
by Means Davis
About the author
Born Augusta Tucker in 1904, she became known as a novelist and journalist whose work was closely tied to Baltimore and Johns Hopkins. Her 1939 novel Miss Susie Slagle's followed medical students living in a boardinghouse near the hospital and became her best-known book.
She later published mystery fiction under the name Means Davis, including The Hospital Murders. Johns Hopkins Press notes that she also wrote The Man Miss Susie Loved and contributed more than 300 feature articles, reviews, and opinion pieces to newspapers and magazines, including The Baltimore Sun and The Evening Sun.
She died in 1999. While some online sources give extra details about her life in Baltimore literary circles, the clearest confirmed picture is of a writer who brought medical settings, city life, and everyday human drama together in an accessible, popular way.