An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor

Review by Mirah W. (mwelday)

Almost two years ago my in-laws came for a visit and my MIL brought me a bag full of books.  Her sharing books with me all the time is just one of the many reasons she is an awesome MIL…and there’s no sarcasm intended here, she really is awesome. Anyway, I digress.  In the bag were about 15 books, several of which were part of the Irish Country Doctor series by Patrick Taylor.  I had never heard of the series but thought they seemed interesting.  So I put the bag of books next to the bookshelf with the best of intentions, things got busy, other books got read, and recently I rediscovered the bag and decided to give the first book of the series, An Irish Country Doctor, a try.

The story, set in the 1960s, reminds me of two of my favorite television shows: BBC’s Ballykissangel, which aired from 1996-2001, and the CW’s current hit Hart of Dixie. I know this may sound strange but hear me out.   I won’t provide in depth descriptions of both tv series here…you’ll just have to take my word for it or take the time to watch both series and judge for yourself.  Just as in Ballykissangel, the new doctor in Ballybucklebo (the novel’s rural Irish town) has to learn, and come to accept and/or tolerate, the way things are done there.  And just as in Hart of Dixie, the new doctor has to realize practicing medicine in a small town is different than the city; people want their doctors to do more than just heal and prescribe medicine and the role of the doctor takes on new dimensions. And the quirky characters of a small village in Ireland and a small town in Alabama are strangely, humorously similar.

So back to the book itself. Dr. Barry Laverty is recently out of medical school and looking to gain experience in the profession.  He is drawn to small Ballybucklebo and the opportunity to be an assistant at Dr. Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly’s practice.  In the beginning of An Irish Country Doctor, Dr. O’Reilly seems to be just a crotchety old doctor who is stuck in his ways.  Within a short period of time Dr. Laverty comes to see Dr. O’Reilly in a different light.  I won’t tell you what situations bring Dr. Laverty to this conclusion because that would just spoil things.

The quirky characters, funny doctor-patient visits, heartwarming moments, and bits of wisdom crafted by Taylor all come together to make this book an enjoyable retreat.  I look forward to visiting with the doctors again in the next installment of the series.  And I’m hoping my MIL may have some new books to share in the future; she has great taste.

The Castle Tower Lighthouse – Edgar Font’s Hunt for a House to Haunt, Adventure One

by Patrick H. T. Doyle

Review by Kelsey O.

Sir Edgar Fonts is an eccentric man. That is something that the reader discovers quickly. His two grandchildren, Garrett and Audrey, recall very little of their grandfather except that he always had fantastic stories to tell of his numerous adventures. Even that doesn’t excite them now that they have to spend the entire summer with him at his new home, The Sterling Oaks Retirement Village. To them it equals an entire summer of boredom with a lot of old people.

Upon arriving at the retirement home the witness their grandfather jumping off a balcony. And so begins a summer that they will never forget. Eccentric doesn’t begin to describe Edgar Fonts. He is not ready for the old people’s home yet and so he takes his grandchildren on a epic journey to discover the perfect house to haunt once he passes on. Their first stop is the Castle Tower Lighthouse where they discover there might not be room for Edgar here and instead they might just need to solve the mystery and save the soul that is trapped there.

Patrick H.T. Doyle has an imaginative mind and he uses that to engage the young readers with puzzles for them to solve. Being an explorer himself, the reader is able to pick up on his experience with each new page. This book could easily be enjoyed by readers of all ages and because of the fast-pace at which it is presented, it will hold the young readers attention and have them eagerly picking up the next installment, The Fakersville Power Station (which is next on my TBR pile).

The Devil Loves Me by Margaret Millar

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Dr. Prye, I have arranged a little surprise for you. Knowing how interested you are in murders, I have decided to give you one on your own doorstep, as it were. I am leaving this note in a friend’s pocket. (Unsigned).

What good wishes to receive on one’s wedding day. Worse when psychiatrist-detective Dr. Prye’s wedding is stopped and postponed by a queasy, fainting bridesmaid, who turns out to have been poisoned. She pulls through but two ax murders and a fatal shooting ensue.

In this early Forties mystery, Dr. Paul Prye, Millar’s series hero, should not to be confused with Erle Stanley’s Gardner’s Paul Pry, a short-lived PI in the pulps, or the proverbial Paul Pry, any inquisitive meddlesome guy. Dr. Prye does not ask many questions. His manner seems rather above it all. Luckily he teams up with Millar’s other series hero, Detective-Inspector Sands. The Toronto sleuth is more used to upper class crimes such as scions forging checks or wealthy manufacturers suffering convenient lucrative fires in their factories. The opposite of the quietly charming Pry, Sands is “an odd little man … the type who encourages you to talk by his very quietness, until you talk too much.”

On the positive side, Millar is a graceful and vivid writer. For instance, of a character descending into a basement: “The cold air swept past her like ghosts clammy and chill from their graves, laying damp fingers on her cheeks. The steps sighed under her weight.” The dialogue is funny in a waspish way. Since the tragic destiny of the characters inexorably comes out of their flawed personalities, one can tell Millar studied the classics while she lived in Toronto.

However, despite the vibrant but not showy writing and amusing talk, the characters are not differentiated clearly. Prye’s fiancée and her mother don’t have much to do. The mystery side of things is slighted. Even I, always dense about clues, was able to guess the culprit. I could see many readers becoming bored with the urbane barbs traded by what sour old Kirkus Reviews called “morally questionable characters.”

This was Millar’s third novel. She had been working in the Craig Rice tradition of the comic mystery. But with this 1942 book, probably because of her education in those darn classics and the utter seriousness of WWII, she took up heavier themes than we’d expect in a lightweight genre. Millar went on to have a successful career as a writer of suspense stories and novels. She was granted the well-deserved Grand Master award for lifetime achievement by the Mystery Writers of America in 1983. As time goes by, she is becoming a neglected writer.

Too Much of Water by Bruce Hamilton

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

This 1958 mystery is set on a small steamer going from Liverpool to Barbados, carrying mainly cargo and a number of passengers. The unusual setting would be easy to visualize for readers who’ve been on a cruise. Ditto for people like me who have travelled on ferries or smaller ships for short runs. It might be hard to envision for readers who have no experience travelling on the ocean.

The main character is orchestra conductor Edgar Carrington. In his mid-fifties, he is intelligent and avuncular, but not sickeningly so. The characters – that is, suspects — vary from a classics master, a Barbados planter, a chemist, an architect, a drunken major, a counter-tenor, a YMCA organizer and a socialite. Hamilton effortlessly helps the reader visualize the characters in terms of appearance and personality. For instance, to introduce a character at table: “He dived instantly into the menu, rather in the manner of a hen investigating her feathers, so that almost all immediately visible of him was a satisfying bald head.”

The mystery plot, clues and solutions all play fair. Aside from the clear and pleasant prose, Hamilton appeals to thinking readers with asides about serious music, bridge, and the culture of Barbados such as the hospitality of the planters and the mania for cricket. The writing and the story never bog down and the reveal is satisfying. All in all, a good read.

Bruce Hamilton (1900 – 1974) was the brother of the better-known novelist, Patrick Hamilton, who wrote a play called Rope that Alfred Hitchcock made into an interesting if flawed movie.

Martin Edward, British crime writer said, “Hamilton’s policy of avoiding formula in his writing meant that his career as a crime novelist never had the success that I, at least, think he deserved.” It’s true – I think a mystery writer with a formulaic series character is more likely to be remembered. Like many writers of his generation, Hamilton’s writing career was interrupted by WWII. I could not find any details about his professional life apart from the bare fact that he wrote well-regarded detective thrillers. Too Much of Water was his last mystery and is listed on Roger Sobin’s “The Essential Mystery Lists.”

Plunder of the Sun by David Dodge

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

In this 1949 crime adventure novel, PI Al Colby accepts a job from a mysterious, wheelchair-bound Chiliean. Colby has to smuggle a small package from Chile to Peru. As an American tourist with coveted Yankee dollars, his luggage won’t be tossed by customs officials like his employer’s would. But often assignments that easy on the face are not easy in the end. A dead body. Two beautiful women lead him down the garden path. Colby is lambasted and sees stars. Greedy gunmen menace him. A crafty villain steals the small package. The rousing climax has Colby and greedy guys on the hunt for a treasure of Incan gold in Peru.

Cripes, with the South American locale, noir atmosphere and non-stop action, it would be crass to ask for more. Dodge’s other job was travel writer so his descriptions feel accurate. Like this: “There was a tremendous snow-capped volcanic cone rearing up behind the town but looking so close in the thin mountain air that it practically kept me company while I ate.”

At times the travel writer and the noir writer get along real well: “The [train] car stank with the smell that exists only on the desert side of Peru, where the population is heavy and water is too valuable to waste on washing. It was a dead, rancid smell that even the breeze from the open windows wouldn’t blow away.”

At other times it’s pure noir: “She was done up like a Christmas tree – over-ripe mouth, beads of mascara thick on her eyelashes, green eye-shadow, a hat with a trailing drape that wound twice around her throat and hung down her back. The only thing missing was a man on a leash.”

David Dodge’s most famous book is To Catch a Thief because it was made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock. Plunder of the Sun was also made into a movie with Glenn Ford, but apparently Hollywood, in its typical ham-handed way, screwed it up so badly that nobody remembers it. The novel, though, is terrific reading courtesy of its crisp and vivid writing, wild pace, and unpredictable plot twists. The series character Al Colby is tough-minded but good-hearted in that he doesn’t exploit the vulnerable and takes the side of the underdog. Besides, my inner 12-year-old is partial to buried treasure stories.

Starry Night: A Christmas Novel by Debbie Macomber

Review by Cynthia F. (frazerc)

First off, I love Debbie Macomber’s Christmas novels and re-read many of them seasonally. This one won’t be one of those that I re-read however.  Don’t get me wrong it was a good ‘read-once’ but lacked the ‘ahhh’ element that brings me back again and again.

That said, this is a good read with interesting characters and a relationship-driven plot.  The heroine is Carrie Slayton, a reporter desperate to escape the doldrums of the society pages of her Chicago newspaper.  To this end she approaches her editor who agrees to move her to ‘real’ reporting if she successfully gets an interview with the reclusive author of the hot best-seller ‘Alone’. The hero is said author, Finn Dalton, who wrote the book to inspire others to step out their doors and really see nature, not just pass through it.  He never expected it to be an overwhelming success and he especially never expected to be hounded by reporters, newscasters, and talk show gurus.

Carrie manages to locate Finn’s mother and she actually talks to her rather than slamming the door in her face.  Although they are estranged – and have been since Finn was a child – she does share some clues with her and gives Carrie Finn’s father’s wedding ring to return to Finn. Using the clues Carrie travels to Alaska and using the ring she manages to talk one of Finn’s friends into flying her to his cabin. They arrive in the teeth of a storm so he drops her off and points in the direction of the cabin.

By now she realizes that winter in Chicago had not prepared her for winter in the high north but her options are limited so she trudges off towards the cabin. There’s ice and snow and wind and suddenly a wolf… and Finn who collects her from where she had fallen like she was a dropped blanket and carries her off to his cabin. The wolf turns out to be Finn’s dog and neither of them is very happy to see her.

Finn is a man with issues.  Big ones.  Issues like abandonment and betrayal and trust – especially related to women. The last thing Finn wants is some reporter tracking him down to write an article about him. During the storm-enforced captivity they begin to talk and slowly become if not friends than at least not enemies.  When the storm finally clears he takes her outside and they watch the aurora-streaked brilliance of the starry night and she finally begins to understand the man and why he would want to be in this place and in this time. And why she will leave at least a little part of her heart behind when she leaves.

Carrie has her article but will she print it?  Finn has asked her not to but it’s the chance for the break she’s been looking for. What to do…

Finn is finding being alone synonymous with lonely.  He and Carrie begin a long distance relationship via phones, and emails and posts.  Things are poignant but then he comes for a visit… Pick an emotion and she’s there: deliriously happy, frightened, angry when a friend figures out who he is and suggests he’s just doing it to manipulate her into not publishing the article and calling her a fool for refusing to do so. Complications abound – Finn goes back to Alaska.  She goes home for the holidays. Both of them are miserable. Since this is a Debbie Macomber novel you know it’s going to work out in the end but it takes a painfully long time.

The Case of the Runaway Corpse by Erle Stanley Gardner

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

The hard-charging Sara Ansell hustles her kind-of-a -relative Myrna Davenport into lawyer Perry Mason’s office. Myrna explains that her husband Ed suffers poor health and may drop dead at any time. Ed has warned others that his wife probably knocked off two of her relatives with poison and that he too is in danger of being done to death with arsenic. Myrna has heard from Ed’s lips that he has written a letter labeled “to be opened in the event of my death and delivered to the authorities.” Sara cajoles and coerces Myrna into hiring Mason to manage the estate in the event of Ed’s demise. The first order of business, then, is for Mason to visit Ed’s office (Myrna gives him the key), find the letter, and determine its contents.

Events unfold rapidly after the first chapter. Like: a doctor declares Ed dead, but Ed’s corpse does a bunk and is later found in a shallow grave. Like: in two excellent chapters, Mason does the fandango dodging questions from local law enforcement and exasperates a credulous young woman. Like: the trial sequence between Mason and a Fresno DA throws off sparks.

Although not as delightfully convoluted as a typical Mason novel, this one has a little more depth than usual. One gets the feeling that Mason loves questioning people, doing hocus-pocus with evidence and using the law to protect his clients from  cops and DA’s that have drawn the wrong conclusions from fragmentary evidence or the inaccurate memories of witnesses. Mason also waxes philosophical, which happens once in a blue moon:

… it’s an unfortunate trait of human nature. You accept all kinds of phony tips from touts and never win, then one day a quiet, sedate individual comes along with a straight tip on a dark horse in the fifth race and you pass it up because you’re too smart to fall for any more of that stuff. After the fifth race you kick yourself all over the lot.

One also feels that Gardner respected intelligent people, not only Mason’s quick-witted logic but also a DA’s clever strategies at trials and even a crook’s fiendish ingenuity in cooking up scams. Stupidity is the same stale stuff time after time, despite poor outcomes. It’s intelligence that makes life lively and fascinating and joyful.