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Barnstorming
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?

Reviewer's Note: The reviewer is a life-long horse owner
Reviewed 2012
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