Women of Magdalene

Book review by Jane
In this book, a doctor comes to work in an asylum. There, he finds that the doctor in charge is using his power to extort money from the patients’ families and worse. The story starts in the days soon after the Civil War in the South.

There are side stories that deal with the doctor’s family history, and it gets into the present as well. There is a love interest for the doctor, who is also a patient of the asylum. They take a journey to find the patient a place to live after her family stopped paying the fees of the asylum.

I found one spot in the book where I thought it could have been left out, or more could have been written about it. It involved the patient of interest to the doctor shooting someone who had attacked the doctor during the journey. I found that there were many things about that part of the book that were not clear. Even though it may have been intended that the doctor not know all the facts, it still did not explain things to the reader as clearly as I would have liked.

Other than that, the story sounded somewhat authentic. It is written from the standpoint of the doctor, and he is a noble character. The story flows other than what is mentioned in the previous paragraph. I would not read this book again, but am glad I did read it.

Jane.