Book Review: Scarecrow

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Scarecrow     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Robin Hathaway
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Woman Main Character
Series: Doctor Jo Banks # 1
Dunne, April 2003, $22.95, 224 pp.

When Dr. Jo Banks, a family practitioner with an office in a ritzy medical building, loses a patient due to a misdiagnosis, she can’t handle the guilt. The fact that her patient was a child makes the pain all the more excruciating for Jo. She heads out of New York with no destination in mind, winding up in a dinky motel where she ends up treating one of the guests. The owner of the Oakview Motor Lodge, Paul Nelson, is so grateful that he asks her to serve as the region’s on call motel doctor.

It doesn’t her take to long to realize that she no longer wants to practice anymore in New York. She returns to break up with her boyfriend and sublet her apartment before going back to the Oakview Motor Lodge where she’s given her own room and a cabin to make into a private office. She likes her work as a hotel doctor and is slowly building up her practice, making a place for herself in the community. When she is kidnapped, everyone from miles around gets involved in the search to find her.

The heroine is a truly fine doctor because she sees behind the business of medicine to its basic calling and the patients sense this and accept her. SCARECROW is a smooth and bloodless amateur sleuth tale where the doctor comes to the attention of some pretty shady people due to a believable set of circumstances. Robin Hathaway has created a winning series that will appeal to anyone who likes the author’s delightful Doctor Fenimore cozies.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner