Dr. Gail McCarthy, D.V.M. Mystery, No 12
Laura Crum
Perseverance Press
April 2, 2012 / ISBN: 1564745082
Mystery & Detective - Women Sleuths
Amazon
Reviewed
by Beth E. McKenzie
Dr. Gail McCarthy,
equestrian, mother, and D.V.M., is going through a midlife crisis
of sorts. Having taken the last 10 years off from regular veterinarian
rounds to raise and home school her now 11-year old son, Mac, should
she take up the work again? Further complicating her choice is an
inheritance that relieves all financial burdens. Riding Sunny on
the trails near her home is the perfect way to relax and ponder
her future, or at least it was until she found the crumpled rider
and wandering horse. Then less than a week later, just when she
got the courage to go back into the woods, found a second murdered
horsewoman. Gail is done with indecision at this point. No jerk
is going to take away her playground without a fight. Nobody has
the right to make her worry about standing in her own back yard.
She is going to take it back!
I doubt that Dr. McCarthy and I would get along very well. She fits
the imperious "I'm a doctor so I know best" stereotype.
She hasn't taken the time to understand the benefits of natural
horsemanship before she knocks it. She is correct that a competent
horseman would already understand the precepts, but there is a lot
of vague opinion about what makes up competency. Most of the old-timers
I know who think natural horsemanship is bull are really upset that
I can go to a weekend training session and learn what they would
teach me in 20 lessons with better results, and are afraid they
might learn something that says they've been wrong all these years.
It doesn't make horses cranky.
Also, in all
her self-focused deliberation about the beauty of the woods, her
right to ride the trails and whether to return to a regular veterinary
practice, I don't recall her ever thinking about how the decisions
would affect her family. Is it worth the risk to leave your son
motherless to find a killer? I don't know, and Gail didn't consider
it seriously, and her husband never seemed to engage with the danger.
I expected that after the cops visited the house the second or third
time, that Blue would have said that he would prefer she stay out
of the woods; or maybe he just didn't waste his breath.
But whether
I would personally get along with the character or not, she knows
herself and makes Barnstorming a meditation on peaceful co-existence
and what it costs to achieve it. Would be you willing to pay the
price?
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