Historical surgery is a very interesting source of fiction, but the first 30 pages skips the many interesting nuggets of medical entertainment. Instead it focusses on the surgeon character wandering happhazardly through time, engaging a few superfluous interactions with other characters, his father, his surogate father etc. The writing is good, but I wasnt a big fan of the ye olde style, I also found the references to the previous novel frustrating rather than intriguing, this could have been summarised better to allow one to read this without the requirement to read the previous book.
So what do we have? there are some good characters, a little stereotypical but distinct and interesting. The grissled War veteran chap, posh with a good tollerance for booze and blood, very stereotypical but likable. The protagonists "thick farmer" father displays an unexpected amount of emotion intelligence, which was a nice detour from stereotype, hope he turns up again in this novel. Plot development is slow paced, and then if we consider the aspirations to a murder mystery with medical elements, there was not enough sloothing or medical related detail. There is a severed hand, which a hungry child mistakes for a crab in the mud, but this is an unlikely scene, a child (and in particular a Gamin) can surely tell the difference between a hand and a crab. The fact that he is hungry would make his senses all the more alert to a severed hand, the hunger triggering an increase in synapse function.
In conclusion this book could go either way, it could turn out to be very good or equally poor, sink or swim. The author knows how to write so my hope is that the plot will develop and the Dr will get some medical action, perhaps with some crime busting although the latter is not strictly necessary for this character. He clearly doesnt want to become a Dr Watson to Holmes so let him roll up his sleeves and get out his bone saw.
So what do we have? there are some good characters, a little stereotypical but distinct and interesting. The grissled War veteran chap, posh with a good tollerance for booze and blood, very stereotypical but likable. The protagonists "thick farmer" father displays an unexpected amount of emotion intelligence, which was a nice detour from stereotype, hope he turns up again in this novel. Plot development is slow paced, and then if we consider the aspirations to a murder mystery with medical elements, there was not enough sloothing or medical related detail. There is a severed hand, which a hungry child mistakes for a crab in the mud, but this is an unlikely scene, a child (and in particular a Gamin) can surely tell the difference between a hand and a crab. The fact that he is hungry would make his senses all the more alert to a severed hand, the hunger triggering an increase in synapse function.
In conclusion this book could go either way, it could turn out to be very good or equally poor, sink or swim. The author knows how to write so my hope is that the plot will develop and the Dr will get some medical action, perhaps with some crime busting although the latter is not strictly necessary for this character. He clearly doesnt want to become a Dr Watson to Holmes so let him roll up his sleeves and get out his bone saw.