THE FUGITIVE’S DOCTOR

Name: THE FUGITIVE’S DOCTOR
Author: Deirdre-Elizabeth Parker
ISBN: 978-1461172611

by Deirdre-Elizabeth Parker ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 2011

A compelling tale of the ultimate faithful wife, though the telling is hindered by an awkward structure and lacks emotional...

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A woman works diligently to obtain her husband’s release from prison.

In 1998, middle-aged divorcée Doretha “Doe” Vaughn looks for love online and finds it in charming Sam Cawley. When they meet, things click. But there’s a chink in this knight’s armor—Sam pays for dates with cash, has no relatives and makes a slip about prison food. Happily in love, Doe looks the other way, and Sam moves in with her. The two marry in June 2001 and, like any good wife, Doe adds Sam to her health insurance coverage—which eventually leads to his undoing. In May 2006, the truth comes out—Sam Cawley is William Wallace, a convicted felon who was serving time for a drug charge, and who now faces resentencing and charges of identity theft. After William is apprehended, Doe is advised to divorce but stands by her man. As a doctor, her compassion extends to all—“You take care of the victim as well as the perpetrator without prejudice.” Although the book is a novel, it reads more like a nonfiction primer for wives who find out that the old ball and chain has, well, escaped the old ball and chain. The author is also a character in the novel—an interviewer who plans to write a book (possibly this book) about Doe’s story, which is, nevertheless, written here in the first person from Doe’s viewpoint. This literary device serves no purpose beyond letting the reader know, in the preview of Volume 2 of the novel (titled The Doctor’s Fugitive), that Volume 1 (The Fugitive’s Doctor) has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for 27 weeks. In spite of confusing transitions from narrator to interviewer, the play by play of events—Doe’s work as an emergency room physician, her take on the criminal justice system and her fight to free William—is convincing, but the emotionality of the characters is not.

A compelling tale of the ultimate faithful wife, though the telling is hindered by an awkward structure and lacks emotional impact.

Pub Date: May 10, 2011

ISBN: 978-1461172611

Page Count: 298

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2011

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.