5 Star Review Published on Audible.com
"A Murder Mystery That Is So Much More"
Darden North’s "House Call" is a murder mystery, but it is so much more. The novel simultaneously tells tales of reverse discrimination, of the treacheries imbedded in diet/anti-depressant pharmaceuticals, of the financial intricacies of the new age of medicine, and of even the psycho-social legacies of Southern miscegenation. Grounded in and around the environs of the fictional Montclair, Mississippi, "House Call" presents a clever, smart depiction of modern life against the looming specter of a series of murders.
North has a sharp eye for characterization whether it’s the haughty Dr. Hawes or the amiable Dr. Gwinn. He deftly shifts perspective across a variety of intriguing storylines, all the while marking his prose with astute commentary (“Whether the body or their relationship was natural or unnatural did not seem to matter”). Centered on the young male OB-GYN, Knox Chamblee, the drama unfolds as a medical group becomes chaotically short-handed as the bodies start falling.The ending has some fine ironic, even humorous, twists – an ending that is simultaneously cynical and redemptive. As the narrator of the novel on Audible, Michael Robbins captures both the Southern flavor and the urbane wittiness of the writing. That only heightens the pleasures of this rich and lively novel.
North has a sharp eye for characterization whether it’s the haughty Dr. Hawes or the amiable Dr. Gwinn. He deftly shifts perspective across a variety of intriguing storylines, all the while marking his prose with astute commentary (“Whether the body or their relationship was natural or unnatural did not seem to matter”). Centered on the young male OB-GYN, Knox Chamblee, the drama unfolds as a medical group becomes chaotically short-handed as the bodies start falling.The ending has some fine ironic, even humorous, twists – an ending that is simultaneously cynical and redemptive. As the narrator of the novel on Audible, Michael Robbins captures both the Southern flavor and the urbane wittiness of the writing. That only heightens the pleasures of this rich and lively novel.
--Audiobook Reviewer, Michael Hartnett
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