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Overview
Welcome to the colourful Ulster village of Ballybucklebo, where two doctors work hand in hand to mend the bodies and spirits of the town’s diverse and engaging inhabitants. But who is looking after the wounded hearts of the doctors?
After less than a year, young Barry Laverty, M.B., is settling in to the village, with only a few months to go before he becomes a full partner in the practice. He’s looking forward to becoming a fixture in the community, until an unexpected romantic reversal gives him second thoughts. Will he truly be happy tending to routine coughs and colds for the rest of his career? After all, even when a more challenging case comes along, like a rare tropical disease, all he can do is pass it on to a qualified specialist or big-city hospital. As much as Barry enjoys the rough and tumble of life in County Down, is running a humble GP’s shop all he wants out of life?
Barry’s mentor, Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, is going through some personal upheavals as well. After mourning his deceased wife for decades, he’s finally allowed a new woman into his life. But this budding courtship is not going over well with Kinky Kincaid, the doctors’ redoubtable housekeeper, who fears having her position usurped by O’Reilly’s new flame. Tact, diplomacy, and a fair amount of blarney may be required to restore peace to the household.
Meanwhile, life goes on in Ballybucklebo, presenting both doctors with plenty of distractions from their own troubles. From a mysterious outbreak at the local school to a complicated swindle involving an unlucky racehorse, the two partners will need all of their combined wit and compassion to put things right again--just in time for their lives to change forever.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Ulster villagers of Ballybucklebo are happy with their two country doctors, but the physicians themselves seem to be growing restless. New arrival Barry Laverty has been in town only a year, but a recent romantic disaster and the doldrums of a rural practice have made him doubt the wisdom of his decision to settle here. Dr. Fingal O'Reilly, his County Down mentor and supervisor, has problems of his own. After a protracted period of mourning, Fingal has become involved with a charming woman, but her arrival on the scene has thoroughly ruffled his trusty housekeeper Kinky Kincaid. As the doctors untangle their respective dilemmas, problems medical and otherwise are popping up everywhere in this rustic enclave, much to the delight of confirmed Patrick Taylor fans.
Publishers Weekly
Taylor's fifth novel about the life of an Irish country doctor in Ballybucklebo, set on the cusp of 1965, is a warm, friendly tale about an idealized way of life. Dr. Fingal Flaherty O'Reilly, the local GP, tries to balance the needs of his patients with many personal demands. There's a rekindled love for Kitty O'Halloran; his housekeeper Kinky Kincaid's fears that she will no longer be needed; and the broken heart of his protégé, Barry Laverty, a young doctor torn between staying in a small town after the failure of his relationship and searching for something more. A subplot about corrupt, arrogant town councilor Bertie Bishop trying to cheat his employees out of their shares of a racehorse adds intrigue. An exquisite sense of place and Taylor's authentic medical experience help compensate for an undercurrent of outdated gender roles (housewives are happy; working women are not). Readers who adore novels set in rural Ireland (and fans of Jan Karon's U.S.-based Mitford books) will enjoy settling in again with Taylor. (Oct.)Kirkus Reviews
Continuation of Taylor's popular series about country doctors in the tiny Northern Irish town of Ballybucklebo, circa 1964.
At Number 1, Main Street, Ballybucklebo, Dr. Fingal O'Reilly still grapples with the symptoms of his motley group of patients and with the prickly mien of his imperious housekeeper, "Kinky" Kincaid. Kinky has even more to be testy about these days—she fears that Fingal's new girlfriend, Kitty, may actually convince the long-widowed doctor to marry again, thus dethroning Kinky as domestic tyrant. O'Reilly's young assistant Barry Laverty is reeling from a breakup with his lady love Patricia, who's told him in no uncertain terms that life as a general practitioner's wife in a backwater town is not for her. But what if Barry were to train in a specialty, say obstetrics/gynecology, for which he's been told he has a flair? Not only would he no longer have to refer all his interesting diagnoses to Belfast for treatment, he might be able to entice Patricia to the altar if he practiced in the big city. The plot, such as it is (Taylor's primary obsession appears to be the culture and dialect of Ulster province), revolves around these romantic concerns, as well as Fingal's well-intentioned attempt to bail out working-class Ballybucklebo-ites. A few of the local pub crawlers have gotten themselves embroiled in the latest scheme of unscrupulous politician and real-estate mogul Bertie Bishop to separate them from their hard-earned shillings. It's up to Fingal to figure out how the scam—featuring a crooked jockey and depreciating shares in a racehorse—operates before Bertie's marks lose everything. Interspersed throughout, medical cases, described in suitably gruesome detail (a long-festering liver abscess being only one example), will satisfy the most voyeuristic armchair physician. Fear not—in the cozy world of Ballybucklebo, hearts may be on the line but lives seldom are.
Nostalgia for a simpler time, plus an idyllic depiction of universal health coverage in action, may be the main appeal here.