About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

SCARECROW
by Robin Hathaway
Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin's Press, April 2003
224 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312308515


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

It is the start of a new year and time to try something new. Robin Hathaway is taking a break from her award-winning Dr. Andrew Fenimore series to try something different. She will introduce us to a character that is trying to escape her personal demons by leaving the past behind. She will be unsuccessful, but in her failure she will create a new lease and find a purpose in her life. It will not be easy, but the challenge will be welcomed.

Scarecrow marks the first appearance of Dr. Jo Banks, a twenty-nine-year-old Manhattanite coming to grips with a medical mistake. Dr. Banks is guilt-ridden after misdiagnosing the condition of a sick child causing her to die. Unable to forgive herself, she leaves the City and goes out for a long drive. She gets lost and decides to spend the night at the Oakview Motor Lodge in an isolated southern New Jersey small town. During the night, the motel has a medical emergency in which Jo was able to help out. The grateful owner offers her a free room and a job as a medical doctor for the hotels in the area. At first, she is reluctant but then decides to give it a shot. If only to try it out on a provisionary basis, while she decides what to do with the rest of her life. The rest, as they say, is history.

The novel works well as an introduction or pilot introducing Dr. Banks but as a mystery novel it feels rather empty. Character development is well established by having Jo give her insights as the narrator of the book. We see all her big city preconceptions of small towns and learn that she is mistaken in quite a lot of things. The reader also gets to see her do her job and the opinions she has of some of her patients. Everyone is skeptical at first over this new doctor, but in the end she will gain the respect of everyone involved.

The mystery part of the book is downplayed in order to spend more time developing the main character. An unidentified body is found in a field disguised as a scarecrow and the police have little clues to help them. Dr. Banks will unwittingly become involved and break the case, giving her more notoriety in the small town of Bayfield. One of the problems involves the, at first, unexplained disappearance of a friend who leaves her sketchbook behind giving the Doctor a clue. The way Jo gets the notebook seems highly unlikely given the situation and it could have been worked in a different way. The chapters of the book are too short making a reader rush till the end.

Scarecrow is too short a book for a reader to enjoy comfortably. It ends too quickly. The author leaves several windows open that can be explored in other future works. Overall, it is not a bad start, but the story could have used a bit more stuffing. It just left me hungry for more.

Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, April 2003

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]