The Doctor Rocks the Boat

Description

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Customer Reviews

Great cozy mystery set around rowing in Philadelphia
Dr. Fenimore renews his membership at his old boating club to experience some of the relaxation rowing on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia provided in the past. He runs into his old fraternity brother, Charlie Ashburn, as he now runs the club. Charlie had to give rowing up years ago due to a heart condition back when he and Dr. Fenimore were in medical school.

Now Charlie's son Chuck is rowing. Charlie's wife asks Dr. Fenimore about the possibility of Chuck's having the same condition as Charlie. He is appalled that they haven't had him tested and helps her bring it up at a dinner party before the big regatta to try to save Chuck's life. This just makes Charlie refuse to talk to him.

The regatta goes off without a hitch, but soon after Chuck collapses and dies. Dr. Fenimore is determined to help find the killer. Could it have been his parents? What about his coach or the competition? What about the marina developer who wants to tear down the current boating area in the name of progress? Can he find the killer without putting himself or his girlfriend in danger?

I like Dr. Fenimore. He is the kind of doctor most of us would like to find; he still makes house calls. In this book he ends up needing a doctor more than he can be a doctor. I think that vulnerability adds credence to his character. I really like his assistant, Mrs. Doyle, and the teenager who helps out in the office, Horatio or "Rat" as he's called.

Plus in this book Rat is helping out a young runaway and brings Dr. Fenimore into that as well. I thought this added a lot to the story.

The uncertainty with his girlfriend helped to make his character more realistic. Things weren't totally secure in his life.

I liked the rowing. It's not something I've participated in, but I think it's a great sport. It really gave the story an interesting setting.

I highly recommend this book.

2007-09-26 | mysteryloverscorner.com reviewer (Lynchburg, VA USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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fun cozy
In Philadelphia Dr. Charles Ashborn sponsors the membership of his former medical school colleague Dr. Andrew Fenimore to join the rowing club on the Schuylkill River. Both men are avid rowers, but Charles was forced to give up competitive rowing when he was in college due to being diagnosed with Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD), a condition that can be inherited.

When Andrew learns that Chuck is a rower, he asks his friend whether a physician has checked his son to insure that he is not a potential SCD victim. Charles insists that cardiologist Dr. Burton gave Chuck the okay to row. After Chuck's mom voices concern over her son's health and feeling something is off kilter with Charles' obsessed need for his son to row, Andrew visits Dr. Burton, who admits that he diagnosed Chuck with SCD and implanted a defibrillator inside the college student. Not long after winning a race, Chuck is rushed to the emergency room where Andrew later learns that the rower showed no evidence whatsoever that he suffered from SCD though his body contained an overdose of potassium. Andrew investigates what he assumes is a homicide but almost is murdered in the Schuylkill River.

Though the suspense is not quite at the level of the previous four Dr. Fenimore thrillers, fans of the series will enjoy his latest escapades assisted by his capable crew (nurse Doyle, lover Jennifer and office assistant Rat) as they try to learn what is going on with Chuck. The story line is character driven by the obsession of Charles at any price to win glory through the successes of Chuck. The fascinating side to the mystery resides with Chuck's health rather than with the subsequent whodunit. Robin Hathaway provides a fun cozy starring her beleaguered middle age medical practitioner staying home this time.

Harriet Klausner

2006-06-28 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Doctor and the Dead Man's Chest (Dr. Fenimore Mysteries)

Description

In Dr. Andrew Fenimores, third adventure, a patients call leads to more detective work than medical care. Lydia Ashley, owner of a large farm in southern New Jersey, is being systematically harassed by someone who wants her land. When Dr. Fenimore goes to stop the pranks, he learns that a hidden treasure is at the root of all the evil deeds.

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Customer Reviews

No blood or violence just a pleasant read.
I have now read three in this series. They are more escapist novel than mystery. I like the author's style of writing. The characters are charming. If you are a hardcore mystery reader this won't be the book for you.

2009-09-12 (Austin, TX) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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Ugh!
This is the third book in this series but the first one I read. It is truly a poorly written book. The characters are not fully developed, the secondary plotline of gang murders is almost entirely ignored, and the main character--the detecting Dr. Fenimore--really doesn't do much of anything but meet his cop buddy for drinks. The author's age is clearly reflected in her prose...much as Lilian Jackson Braun's is in her "Cat Who..." series. One other thing...on page 27, the author describes one of four cars as a "Taurus van." There is no such thing as a Taurus VAN...an insignificant mistake, perhaps, but it shows that the author and her editors don't check facts. With all the excellent mystery writers to choose from, this author is a waste of reading time.

2003-07-28 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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Engaging amateur sleuth
A deceased patient, Reebesther Smith, bequests fifty acres of choice marshland in Southern New Jersey to Dr. Fenimore with specific stipulations on the care of the land in its natural habitat. There is also a pirate's treasure map that provides a path to riches buried on the land.

Dr. Fenimore and his able assistant Rat head south to see what he inherited especially the booty. They stop at the home of another patient Lynn Ashley, who is the recipient of some nasty pranks that are a form of subtle pressure to force the senior citizen to sell her property. Knowing the treasure is not going anywhere Dr. Fenimore begins to investigate who is trying to scare Lynn off her land. To his surprise the list of individuals and corporations that could gain with the purchase of Lynn's acres is large, making it difficult to determine whom the culprit(s) is.

The third Dr. Fenimore tale, THE DOCTOR AND THE DEAD MAN'S CHEST, pays homage to Stevenson's Treasure Island though it is set in New Jersey. The story line is fun due to the strong supporting "good guys" and insightful references to historical tidbits such as brickwork. Bringing most of the potential "bad guys" to one party allows Fenimore easy comparisons, but seems to simple of a solution. Still the trek into the New Jersey wilderness is an engaging diversion for those readers who enjoy a non-metropolitan northeast cozy.

Harriet Klausner

2001-10-24 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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The Doctor Digs a Grave (Dr. Fenimore Mysteries)

Description

Available for house calls-- and homicide...

When cardiologist Dr. Andrew Fenimore isn't mending weak hearts, he's solving crimes in Philadelphia's wealthy Society Hill. But murder is the last thing the good doctor expects when he befriends a teenage boy trying to bury his dead cat. As the two dig a grave for the cat's final resting place in a vacant lot-- which happens to be an ancient burial ground-- they discover a fresh corpse, buried feet flexed, facing east, according to Lenape Indian tradition.

Fenimore's P.I. pastime starts to become a distinct health hazard as he and his young sidekick follow the trail of the deceased young woman straight to the son of a colleague, one of Philadelphia's most prominent surgeons. Surely the scion of a fine old Philadelphia family and his Indian fiancee ignited some powerful passions. But are they enough to risk trying for the perfect murder in a place where civility rules with an iron fist in a velvet glove?

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St. Martin's Press nourishes the mystery genre's roots by giving out an annual Malice Domestic Award for what it labels "Best First Traditional Mystery." The hero of its 1997 winner would certainly seem to fit that category: at first glance, Dr. Andrew Fenimore could come straight from a book by Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers. A Philadelphia physician who dabbles in criminal investigation, Dr. Fenimore manages to be both sharp and soothing as he digs, literally, into the mystery of why the body of a recently deceased young Native American woman came to be buried, sitting up, in an ancient tribal graveyard. It's only as we become better acquainted with Dr. Fenimore and his colorful band of associates that we see what Robin Hathaway is really up to: she uses the boundaries of the traditional mystery to contain a very modern story about social and cultural change. But of course that's also what Sayers and Christie were up to in their time. Welcome to the club, Robin Hathaway. --Dick Adler

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Customer Reviews

Nice quick read
I found this a perfect book for a busy weekend. Never one to be without a book, I was intrigued by the title and decided to give it a try. I enjoyed my find. The doctor and Mrs. Doyle have a very believable relationship and I like the way Dr. Fenimore studies his subjects and reports to the reader. The calmness of his personality is infectious. Nice quick read.

2001-04-17 (Sunland, CA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 4

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I enjoyed it
OK book. My interest was the discussion of Indians (uh, Native Americans) in of all places, New Jersey. I appreciated a plot that linked this group of people with the PA Main Line. I figured out the ending too early, which was a drag, but I'd like to read more from Ms. Hathaway.

2001-01-15 | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Doctor digs a grave
I am a big fan of Agatha Christie. I have read almost all her books. Finished reading her work makes me both satisfied and dissatified at the same time. I am glad to find someone with similar style of writing here. I really enjoy the main character's sense of humor and the author's way describing her characters. I have a very clear picture of what they are like. however, comparing to agatha christie, there is still some way to go.

2000-04-25 (Hong Kong) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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Middle-school writing
Count me among the handful who thought this book was perfectly dreadful. It's written in the prose of an eighth grader. I finished it, but only because I was on a plane and had no other books with me. My advice is to pass on this one.

1999-11-27 | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 1

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Totally engrossing read!
Bravo Robin Hathaway! I could not put this book down and took it with me everywhere until I finished it. The characters in Hathaway's first novel are likeable and engaging. At first I was a bit apprehensive about a doctor and his young sidekick, but Hathaway pulls it off beautifully without falling into that formula one might expect with a mentor/student type relationship.

The plot moved at a very enjoyable pace with just enough character development to keep the read hooked.

I can't wait for the next Hathaway novel.

1999-11-11 | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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The Doctor Makes a Dollhouse Call (Dr. Fenimore Mysteries)

Description

Emily and Judith Pancoast, elderly sisters, are the owners of a priceless dollhouse that is an exact replica of their Victorian home in a small seaside resort near Philadelphia. The dollhouse is inhabited by dolls that the sisters crafted to resemble each member of their family.

On Thanksgiving Day, just before relatives arrive for dinner, Emily Pancoast discovers that the dollhouse dining room table, set in miniature of the real one, is in total disarray and the doll representing their niece Pamela is lying facedown in her dessert plate. When Pamela's death soon follows, the sisters turn to the physician detective, Dr. Andrew Fenimore.

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Customer Reviews

A likeable but not great hobbyist detective
Okay so Dr. Fenimore isn't Kojak but this book is well written and the characters are charming. I had never read a book where the sleuth erred on who the culprit was. I bet real live detectives do that all the time.
I just started another in the series.

2009-09-03 (Austin, TX) | Helpful Votes: 0 | Rating: 4

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The Doctor Disappoints
I enjoyed "The Doctor Digs A Grave" - a solid 3 or 4 stars despite a little bit of unbelievability around the edges; it wasn't fabulous but it was fun. This one by contrast was so bad I couldn't believe it was by the same author. I would prescribe staying as far away from it as possible.

2007-02-19 (Evanston, IL USA) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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The Doctor Makes a Dollhouse Call
This is a fun and fast paced mystery much in the style and theme of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. In fact, there is a lot to compare it to that familiar mystery. Still, it has suspense and puzzlement as one by one members of a family are killed off after discovering a similar fate has befallen tiny dolls in a family dollhouse. Dr. Fenimore and his compatriots are interesting and fun to get to know. The avid mystery reader may figure this out before the last chapters, but there is enough good misdirection to keep you guessing. This is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon or two.

2006-03-13 (Cecil County MD) | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 4

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The worst of the series
I knew in advance what I was getting into...but I couldn't help it...if you think the other Dr. Fenimore mysteries are bad, wait until you read this one...murders keep occuring in a family...the police are virtually non-existent; the family members don't change their routines, hide, or demand protection; Dr. Fenimore doesn't do any detecting of note (as usual)...the plot is ludicrous, the writing is poor, and the money spent on this book is wasted!

2003-08-05 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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I should have stopped after reading one of her other books!
What a poorly written mystery....loose ends, a detective that doesn't detect much, thin plot...don't waste your time!

2003-08-05 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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The Doctor Makes a Dollhouse Call (A Doctor Fenimore Mystery)

Description

Emily and Judith Pancoast, elderly sisters, are the owners of a priceless dollhouse that is an exact replica of their Victorian home in a small seaside resort near Philadelphia. The dollhouse is inhabited by dolls that the sisters crafted to resemble each member of their family.

On Thanksgiving Day, just before relatives arrive for dinner, Emily Pancoast discovers that the dollhouse dining room table, set in miniature of the real one, is in total disarray and the doll representing their niece Pamela is lying facedown in her dessert plate. When Pamela's death soon follows, the sisters turn to the physician detective, Dr. Andrew Fenimore.

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Customer Reviews

a great miniature mystery!
This is a wonderful story which uses a doll's house to give clues as to who will be murdered next. The characters are interesting and well developed. The book leaves you wanting to read the next adventure.

2000-01-30 (Phil., PA) | Helpful Votes: 5 | Rating: 5

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wonderful Americanization of a Ms. Christie-like cozy
Just before the Revolutionary War, the Pancoast family founded Seacrest, a resort town near Philadelphia. Over two centuries later, the townsfolk still hold the Pancoast family in high esteem. Especially loved are the senior citizen Pancoast sisters Judith and Emily. The duo own an incredible dollhouse that is identical to every nook and cranny in their mansion. Additionally, family members have a miniature that is an exact replica of them.

This year, the siblings are preparing the Thanksgiving dinner when they notice the doll of their niece Pamela lying face down in her plate. They think mice must have knocked the doll over. However, Pamela is found dead. The two sisters ask their friend Dr. Andrew Fenimore to look into the death. Besides being a physician, Andrew has experience as an amateur sleuth. He learns that someone poisoned Pamela. Soon two more family members die with their replicas giving a foreshadowing of their death. As months go by and more killings follow, it soon appears that only the murderer will remain as the sole living family member; that is if the killer is even a Pancoast.

Anyone who has read Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE or seen one of the movies of that novel will realize that Robin Hathaway has put her own spin to the tale. The concept works as it maintains a freshness that will fascinate the audience until the novel is finished. The first class story line stars two adorable elderly ladies and an amateur detective. Though the murder count is high, violence is nil and kept off-stage. Thus, in spite the constant killings, Ms. Hathaway has written a wonderful Americanization of a Ms. Christie-like cozy.

Harriet Klausner

1999-12-31 | Helpful Votes: 32 | Rating: 5

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Scarecrow (Beeler Large Print Mystery Series)

Description

Briefly departing from her Doctor Fenimore stories, Robin Hathaway brings readers Dr. Jo Banks, a young female doctor practicing in Manhattan. When a little patient dies, Banks blames herself. Unable to face her life, she runs—leaving her lover, driving away from New York and through New Jersey without a destination on the highway or in her life. She stops at a motel, and that evening is called upon to treat a woman taken suddenly ill.

The episode leads the motel owner to present Jo with a deal. Neither he nor the other motel owners can afford to keep a doctor on hand, but it is sometimes difficult to get one to come out from the nearest city. What they need is a cooperative house doctor—someone who can quickly get to any of the nearby motels. How about it? Jo takes the deal—without knowing that it will involve her in a series of gruesome murders of itinerant farm workers.

Full of the wit, charm, and lively settings that have made Hathaway’s Doctor Fenimore series so popular, Scarecrow is sure to please.

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Customer Reviews

Dr. Jo Banks becomes a motel doctor in NJ
Dr. Jo Banks takes off leaving her Manhattan practice after she misdiagnoses a young girl and she dies. She has no destination in mind. She stops at a motel in remote New Jersey for the night. That night she is called up to treat a woman at the motel. The next morning she finds out they left the hotel in the dark of night without paying their bill.

The next morning Paul Nelson, the motel owner, offers Jo a job as a motel doctor. The motels have to have a doctor on call for emergencies, much like the previous night. She immediately turns down his offer.

After driving around, picking up a young girl who was hitchhiking - Becca, and finding herself back at the motel that evening, she finally decides to accept his offer. It takes her a little over a week to find someone to take over her office and get her ex-boyfriend to find someone to sublet her apartment.

Jo and Becca have become good friends, but her family is quite different. Jo believes their boarders are none other than the Milacs, the couple from her first night at the motel, and sets about trying to find out more about them.

She has run into Tom Canby, and keeps running into him. He even assists her in her investigation as she doesn't know the area as well.

When Becca mysteriously leaves town with her aunt, Jo is concerned something more sinister is going on. She steps up her investigation and ends up in danger.

Jo is a terrific character. I can just see her tooling around New Jersey on her motorbike. She is great with Becca and has fit right into life in remote New Jersey, but still misses Manhattan at times. I like the relationship with Tom as well. She is constantly putting him off but isn't quite sure why.

As Jo is finding herself and getting her self-confidence back, she is getting to know everyone and even has Thanksgiving dinner at the Nelson's. Their son took off some time ago. The not knowing is taking its toll on them.

This remote location in New Jersey is a terrific setting for a mystery.

I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading the next one! I got to meet Robin Hathaway last night. I gained additional insight into both of her series. Please read my review of her other new book "The Doctor Dines in Prague."

2003-12-10 | mysteryloverscorner.com reviewer (Lynchburg, VA USA) | Helpful Votes: 4 | Rating: 5

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The first volume in the Dr. Jo Banks murder mystery series
   Robin Hathaway is the author of three Doctor Andrew Fenimore novels: The Doctor Digs a Grave (1999), which won her an Agatha Award for Best First Novel); The Doctor Makes a Dollhouse Call (2001); and The Doctor and the Dead Man's Chest (2001).

   Dr. Fenimore, a thirtysomething bachelor, is an old-fashioned Philadelphia physician who still makes house calls and, often accompanied by Nurse Doyle, his assistant sleuth, dabbles in criminal investigation.

   With Scarecrow, Hathaway launches a new murder mystery series featuring Dr. Jo Banks, a female version of Doctor Fenimore. An almost-thirty-year-old woman, Jo is running away from the flotsam and jetsam of a botched career and a tired love affair. She abandons her practice in New York City when she misdiagnoses Sophie Miller, a young girl who dies of spinal meningitis.

   Numbed and anesthesized, Jo flees to Bayfield, a small town in the boondocks of southern New Jersey, about fifty miles from Philadelphia and in near the marshlands of the Cohansey River.

   Jo checks in at the Oakview Motor Lodge, a two-star motel owned and operated by Paul and Maggie Nelson. She soon meets a teenage girl named Becca Borovy; Ema, Becca's eccentric aunt; and (the plot thickens) a tall, dark, and handsome "Robin Hood" named Tom Canby.

   You know you're in the boonies when the nearest Wal-Mart is no closer than twenty miles away. South Jersey abounds in names such as Polecat Corner, Snakeskin Road, Crab's Neck Road, Possum Hollow Road, the Blue Arrow Diner, and the Lenape Trailer Park.

   Bayfield's one claim to fame is a nuclear power plant. Black against the sky, its cooling tower is a giant chimney spewing clouds of steam. Flashing lights circle its gaping mouth, warning airplanes to keep away.

   Immediately on her arrival in Bayfield, Jo treats a woman who becomes suddenly ill, and is offered a deal to become a "motel doctor," a person on call to serve the medical needs of various motels in the area.

   Having fallen in love with small-town life and the people of Bayfield, Jo accepts the offer. Breathing a sigh of relief to have escaped the urban rat race. Zooming around Bayfield on her newly purchased motorcyle, Jo is happy to have found a place so peaceful and serene, far from the violence of big-city life.

   But when a dead man is found disguised as a scarecrow in found in a local farmer's field, Jo discovers a serpent in the pastoral Eden. And, one can see it coming, she places her own life in jeopardy by playing the dubious role of "lone woman who courageously, but foolhardily, investigates a dark and deserted house." Like the scarecrow in her favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz, Jo desperately needs a brain.

   Scarecrow is an easy and enjoyable read. The chapters are short and the plot moves quickly. The dialogue is snappy, and the heroine, Dr. Jo Banks, is an engaging and likeable character. Above all, the author writes with a delectable sense of humor that will cause you to smile, chuckle, and laugh out loud.

A charming work of escapist fiction.

2003-09-23 | amateur philosopher (Nolensville, Tennessee) | Helpful Votes: 2 | Rating: 4

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Worse than the Dr. Fenimore series
If you think that Robin Hathaway's Dr. Fenimore series books seem like they're written by an 8th grader, wait until you read this one...and the "plot"--a doctor who lives in a motel in exchange for taking care of guests' illnesses??????? Give me a break--and give yourself one by not reading this book!

2003-08-08 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 1

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smooth and bloodless amateur sleuth tale
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

2003-04-12 | Helpful Votes: 1 | Rating: 5

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