Engaging

This book like the prior one in the series “An Irish Doctor in Peace and War” is full of flashback memories of World War II. In the prior book O’Reilly was entering anesthesiology training at the Royal Naval Hospital Hasler in Portsmouth. Deirdre meets O’Reilly in Portsmouth to get married. This book picks up as O’Reilly enters training.

In the current time, 1964, O’Reilly attends a medical school reunion and a former classmate is ill. Back in Ballybucklebo Barry is depressed because his fiancée, Sue, has bet a charming Frenchman while on teaching exchange.

The book is well written and is a “feel good” book. The story tells about life in a rural Northern Ireland village in the 1960s. The book is full of gentle humor and emotional stories taking place in the beautiful rural village. In the flashbacks Taylor tells of what life was like during World War II. I still enjoy the housekeeper/cook Kinky and her delightful cork accent and humor.

I have read the majority of books in this series as audiobooks. With all the various accents and Irish words, it is great to have a fantastic narrator, John Keating, able to performs them perfectly. Keating is an Irish actor and audiobook narrator. The book is just over eighteen and a half hours long.

7 people found this helpful

Disappointed Again

I have listened to every book in this series, read by John Keating, whose ability to capture the varied voices with Irish brogue always keeps me coming back for more. Sadly, as a long time fan of these stories, I am disappointed for the second time in a row, because Patrick Taylor, the author, has chosen to revisit so many of the same chapters in Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly's life. It's unfair to loyal readers when the characters' are tediously rediscribed in each later book; their life stories retold for the benefit of those who are new to the series. The style of alternating chapters of past experiences at war contrasted with present day married country life would have been better as two separate books.

3 people found this helpful

Great Book

Wonderfully read and very entertaining. I love the ongoing helpful Dr O'Reilly and his side kick Dr Lafferty. Makes me wish I lived in such a village. Makes me see such a place in my mind.

2 people found this helpful

Irish Doctor

I have read all of the previous Irish Country Doctor books, and thoroughly enjoyed them. This one ...not so much.

1 person found this helpful

love this series and the narrator

i love this series and the narrator. I strongly recommended it to anyone. very well written and very well preformed

1 person found this helpful

Deja vu all over again!

This book is a "cut and paste'" edition from all the former books in the Irish Doctor series. I frankly felt cheated that I used a credit to re-read all the stories I had read before, In addition,it was VERY CONFUSING. The author tells of the first wife and then switches back and forth to the second wife (20 years apart) with out any explanation. That being said, I still recommend all the preceding books in this delightful series. The excellent narration is the only reason I kept reading.

1 person found this helpful

Too much unnecessary detail

Struggled to finish. Good story but should be trimmed down. Too many boring details

Such a heartbreaking story

I love that Deirdre and Fingle’s story are told but it is heartbreaking. It is plain to see that she was the love of his life and I understand why he would not want to get married again. I wish the story could have been different and they could have been together all the way through the books. But it was very well written.and of course John Keating was wonderful as usual.

Love and WAR

I really love Taylor's books, but this one was hard to trudge trough. If you follow the series, which I hope you do by this point, you know what happens during the war, but you wait for that inevitable ending. The wartime stories are not necessarily a huge downer, but the tone of this book is darker than the rest. I'd still recommend the series, but I was glad to get through this one.

I loved this chapter in the series!

The reader is excellent. I love the variety of voices he uses—especially the Fingle and Donal characters. The story is so well written that even the battle aspects are interesting to me (I get so bored with this type of thing usually). Can’t wait for the next book.