Rebecca Shaw, Country Wives

Country Wives

Rebecca Shaw

Three Rivers Press (Crown), October 2006, $12.95

ISBN: 1400098211

In Barleybridge, England, Dr. Daniel Brown joins the staff of the local veterinary hospital as a temporary veterinarian. He is terrific with his patients, but he has no patience for their inane owners. In fact, his lambasting of Lord Askew for mistreating a cow leads to this influential client angrily informing senior partner Dr. Price that he will go elsewhere. Price is irate over losing an affluent client, and the office manager Joy wants Dan fired. However, Price's wife Miriam thinks the new vet is a winner. So does receptionist Kate Howard, who dreams of becoming a vet one day, though money is an issue.

Dan takes Kate with him as he makes his rounds, which enables her to understand more of his past. She also wishes she could learn more about her biological mom, whom she never met except inside the womb, as her mother abandoned her and the family when Kate was born; however, she will never act on her desire because she does not want to hurt her loving dad or stepmom. Sometimes you get what you wish for, as a personal tragedy enables Kate to meet the woman who dumped her years ago, the person who offers her the money to go to school if she accepts the conditions imposed on her.

This fine cozy enables readers to follow the goings on in a rustic English village, where in some ways the center of life is the vet hospital that cares for farm animals as well as pets. The storyline is character driven, mostly by Daniel who refuses to back down when he sees animal abuse, even by an aristocratic patron who could cost him his job, and by Kate who has to decide between her loving stepmother and her deserting mother. Readers will enjoy returning to Barleybridge for A COUNTRY AFFAIR.