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An absorbing and chatty Scottish-based mix of Agatha Christie meets Emmerdale, this is the first of the Dr. Cathy Moreland series I have had the pleasure to read – a situation I would like to remedy quickly.

Dr. Cathy is an earnest, sincere woman, a somewhat-frazzled GP who knows her duty, sees her long list of patients, does her best, and can’t help but be drawn in to assist when things don’t quite seem to add-up.

A woman who has experienced her own dark side, Dr. Cathy is being treated for bipolar disorder, a devastating mental illness which although now under control through medication, has cleaved her professional and personal life into two camps – those quick-to-demonstrate caring and protective oversight (her closest personal and professional friends), and those now on the outskirts, disengaged and shrugging cold-shoulders mired in ignorance and marginalization (the others).

When Sara Wiseman, a medical secretary in her late forties, and a patient of Cathy’s, becomes entangled in not one, but two potentially-suspicious deaths, Cathy feels compelled to come to her assistance.

With the help of her connections and colleagues, including close-friends ENT Dr.
Suzalinna Bhat and her husband, pathologist Dr Saj Bhat, (a partner in the practice that employs Sara), Cathy soon finds criminal-activity looming around every corner, sucking all in its path into the murky depths of suspicion.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly, – a gossipy, intimate and engrossing read, with just the right amount of murder and mayhem – leaving me both satisfied (with the well-crafted ending) and wanting (eager to read more of Dr. Cathy).

A great big thank you to the author and the publisher @BloodHound books for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.