The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs by Nick Trout
| The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs by Nick Trout | |
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| Category: General Fiction | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: An engaging story about pets, their owners and the staff of The Bedside Manor for Sick Animals. A good holiday read. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 342 | Date: April 2013 |
| Publisher: Hyperion | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1401310882 | |
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Dr Cyrus Mills only intended to return to Vermont for long enough to sell the veterinary practice which his father had left him, collect the money and get back to South Carolina where he was trying to sort out the little matter of having his licence to practice suspended. He had never got on with his father who had - somehow - managed NOT to tell his son that his mother had died until after her funeral. The first snag he encountered was quite a big one: his father had been equally forgetful about dealing with his financial affairs and the Bedside Manor practice was dying on its feet. Cyrus didn’t have the money to prop it up and it looked as though he would have to hand everything over to the Bank and walk away with nothing. The second problem was an aging Golden Retriever by the name of Frieda and an owner who’s very keen to see her put to sleep.
If you have fond memories of the James Herriot books and television series then you’re likely to enjoy this book. The setting is a very snowy Vermont rather than the Yorkshire Dales and Cyrus Mills is no James Herriot but there’s a similar collection of good, bad and indifferent owners and pets which are going to twang your heart strings. Mills is forty years old and it’s not so much that he’s not in the first flush of youth, but rather than you suspect that he never had a first - or any - flush. On paper he might ‘’look’’ qualified to treat animals (well, if it wasn’t for the small matter of the suspension...) but for the past fourteen years he’s been a veterinary pathologist and he’s got very little idea about dealing with a living patient - and much less about the owners.
It’s a light, enjoyable read, which I picked up when I ‘’really’’ should have been reading something else and managed to find sufficient excuses to finish over a couple of days. I’m besotted by dogs and the collection - large and small - which paw their way through the book delighted me. There’s sufficient medical background to make all that happens more than believable and a real empathy with the animals. I’d really like to hear more from the Bedside Manor Practice and certainly from Nick Trout.
I’d like to thank the publishers for sending a cop to the Bookbag.
For another book which put us in mind of James Herriot you might lik to try An Irish Country Village by Patrick Taylor
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