only am I a fan of this series, but I'm also a fan of Michael Glasscock! He's created such a unique story in his Round Rock books, and I just loved The Trial Of Dr.
Kate. I liked seeing characters from Little Joe make random appearances throughout the book and catching up with them, I also loved Shenandoah's story and how it intersected with Kate's story,
I wasn't surprised to learn of what happened the night of Lilian's death, but I loved how the story unfolded and how much Kate meant to the community.
And how much distrust there was between different people in Round Rock, They all have a history with each other, and some of it is not good, I liked how Shenandoah was reminded of her past and her family everywhere she went in Round Rock, and how she was able to overcome it, while also reconnecting with her hometown and her family when she returned home.
I love how real the book feels, and everything seems so real and authentic, Everything feels like it actually happened, and I love that Round Rock seems to represent the time and place and people of that time and place so well.
The characters are so memorable, and are very hard to forget,
The Trial Of Dr, Kate has so much going on, and really captures the essence of Round Rock and its inhabitants, Really, I cannot gush enough about this book!
Back to Lilian's death for a minute: You have so many people divided on whether or not Kate did it, and all of the different opinions are pretty well represented.
You get such a good picture of who Kate is and you're wondering what happened the night Lilian died, and then you find out, and it's not that surprising, but it's also a little surprising, because you're trying to figure out who Kate really is, and if she's really the sort of person who would help her friend die.
I don't necessarily think of doctorassisted suicide as something that happened in the fifties, but I really liked how Glasscock wrote that element of the story.
And I feel like I've barely talked about Shenandoah, even though she's the main character, I thought she was interesting as a character, and how she wanted to get of Round Rock, I think it's something a lot of people can relate to, and I like that she realizes that Round Rock isn't such a horrible place, and that some of her family aren't how she remembered them.
Final Thoughts: I really loved The Trial Of Dr, Kate! Round Rock really comes to life in this book, and I liked catching up with some of the characters from Little Joe while meeting new characters in The Trial Of Dr.
Kate. I'm looking forward to reading the next book, which I'm sure will be as great as the first two.
The Trial Of Dr. Kate getsstars.
The Trial Of Dr, Kate is a digital ARC from netgalley, com I received a free Adobe Digital Editions copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley, this has not compromised my ability to write an honest and critical review of the book.
/You know how I said that nothing happened in Little Joe well, you would if you'd read my review of it Well, that's not the case with The Trial of Dr Kate.
It starts with Dr Kate Marlow daughter of the sheriff from Little Joe in jail for the murder of one of her patients.
Kate's best friend from school, Shenandoah Coleman, who is now working for a Memphis newspaper, comes back to town to cover the trial and see if she can stop her friend from being sentenced to life in jail.
It turns out Kate has become an alcoholic in order to deal with the pressures of being a country doctor in one of the poorest counties in the state of Tennessee she's more likely to get paid with bacon than cash and this is causing the blackouts she's been experiencing.
One of these blackouts is the main reason she's in jail, she can't account for her whereabouts at the time of her patient's murder she woke up in her car on the side of the road some hours later with no memory of where she'd been for the whole day.
They also have a syringe with her fingerprints on it at the murder scene, the murder victim, Lillian, stating that Dr Kate was coming over to give her treatment and the rumour that Kate and Lillian's husband, Army, had been having an affair.
Shenandoah escaped town, and her family, as soon as she graduated high school by being the first Coleman to actually go to university and get a good job.
As far as the townspeople are concerned the Coleman name is another word for 'white trash' in Round Rock, they're the family whose kids are always dirty, don't wear shoes except for in the depths of winter, don't brush their hair and don't finish high school.
The men of the family are constantly in jail for assault they hate anyone who isn't a Coleman, especially anyone with a different skin colour and general disruption of the peace.
As soon as Shenandoah gets to town it's clear that she's not wanted, but not clear why.
Her tires are slashed and an unknown pickup runs her off the road, It could be because someone doesn't want her interfering in Dr Kate's trial possibly finding exculpatory evidence while on her search for character witnesses, it could be because she's getting ready to write an expose on a mob boss, it could be because she's a strong, independent woman who stands up to bullies like the sheriff.
She beat him up on the school bus after he provoked by cutting off her pride and joy, her long, red and, unusually for a Coleman, clean pigtail they've hated each other ever since.
In fact, his behaviour towards both Kate and Shenandoah, seemed to be such an extreme reaction towards two girls who had previously had no contact with him, lead me to think maybe he's gay and in an attempt to prove to himself and his friends that he's not, was acting out, and when they both called him on his bullshit claiming he was going to get in their pants and kissing Kate in the school hallway he reacted out of rage and fear that people would start to suspect him of being 'queer'.
Otherwise his senselessly violent behaviour doesn't make much sense to me, What would suddenly make him want to start picking on these particular girls To be continued, . .
/There are two mysteries that are keeping me fully engaged in the story and wanting to finish it in order to solve the mysteries, but at the same time not wanting to rush through it because I'm enjoying it so much and I don't want it to end.
I'm already wondering how I can get my hands on a copy of the final book in the trilogy.
When I first started reading The Trial of Dr Kate soon after I finished Little Joe I was most interested in the fate of Little Joe, Persifor and Frances Washington.
As I was reading the firstpages, or so, I found I was a little disappointed that the Washingtons got little more than a few sentences of dialogue from Frances before they became peripheral characters.
I wanted to know how Little Joe was getting on at school, if Lester Coleman was still bullying Little Joe, if Little Joe and Sugar had become more than just friends and what the final outcome from the barn fire was I thought it might cause temporary, or even permanent, destitution to the family.
But other than Frances telling Shenandoah that Little Joe and Persifor were in town at the time of her visit, that Little Joe was going to college in the fall and Persifor was feeling his age, we don't know what happened to them in the intervening years.
Fortunately for the story I have now become so engrossed in the twin mysteries of who has been trying to kill Shenandoah and what really happened to Lillie, that I haven't thought about what's happening with the Washingtons in overpages.
I think that the new Dodge that's been stalking Shenandoah might be driven by Army Johnson, Lillie's husband, I think he might be trying to kill her because Shenandoah is helping Dr Kate fight the murder charges, and Army doesn't want Dr Kate to go free because he's the one who killed his wife, and if Dr Kate is convicted then the investigation will be over and he'll get away with the murder.
I think Army might have killed Lillie because he does have feelings for Dr Kate, despite the fact that she doesn't return the feelings, and thought that if he could get Lillie out of the way, Dr Kate might
change her mind.
I think Dr Kate's drinking and blackouts were just a happy coincidence for Army and obviously he's completely capable of being the driver of the Dodge pickup.
Alright, that's enough writing, got to get back to the reading and see if my theory is correct, To be continued
WATCH OUT FOR SPOILERS
/Well, I didn't expect, or like, that ending!! How depressing! Also, my theory was completely wrong, but I think my ending which involved no dead people was better.
Prior to the last few pages I thought this deserved a,, but now I'm feeling vengeful and might take that/a point away out of spite, Also I don't understand why Glasscock would end the book that way, it could have ended on a happy note and been just as powerful.
As I was reading the 'shocking scene' I kept thinking/hoping that maybe she's having a nightmare and will suddenly jerk awake in the chair and see that everything's the way it should be, but no he stayed dead and she ended up marrying someone else.
I still want to read the final book in the trilogy, but I'm feeling grumpy towards Glasscock, so it's probably a good thing it's not published yet.
I need some time to cool down before I can give the next book a fair review without feeling the need to rant and rave about killing characters only seconds after everything's worked out for them.
.