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Reviewed by Nino Lobiladze for Readers' Favorite
The Doctor of Bellechester by Margaret A. Blenkush, the first book in a series, starts with Doctor Harold Merton arriving in London from the small village of Bellechester on a hot August day in 1959. He is about to meet with his old friend and colleague, Dr. Basil Applegate, at Mother of Mercy Hospital. Harold needs to find a young physician who will agree to share the practice with him and take his place after Harold's retirement. But the hot day takes its toll on Harold. He feels unwell right at the entrance of the hospital. A young woman notices Harold there and takes care of him. When Harold finally meets Dr. Applegate, he asks his friend to allow him to stay at the hospital as a patient to get a better look at the young doctors. Meanwhile, Dr. Mary Elizabeth Senty finds herself at a crossroads as her long-cherished plans may come to naught.
The Doctor of Bellechester is an engaging read for fans of women's fiction and medical dramas and is an enticing invitation to simpler times. We don't need a medical background to grasp all aspects of the narrative as Margaret A. Blenkush has a clear and appealing writing style. The author crafted her characters extremely well. We get to know Harold and Mary Elizabeth little by little. Mary Elizabeth loves praying the rosary with her patients, and Harold gets stubborn when it comes to his medical treatment. The more I learned about the main characters, the more I liked them. Margaret touches on the meaningful topic of women's roles in the medical field and the issues they faced in the middle of the twentieth century. Dedicated to her profession, Mary Elizabeth wanted to become a physician to help people. Yet she needed to overcome many obstacles on her way. Dr. Senty's fight for her right to get a proper practice is the centerpiece of this captivating story. I didn't want The Doctor of Bellechester to end. I highly recommend it to my fellow readers.
