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The Doctor Dines in Prague: A Doctor Fenimore Mystery    by Robin Hathaway Amazon.com order for
Doctor Dines in Prague
by Robin Hathaway
Order:  USA  Can
Minotaur, 2003 (2003)
Hardcover
* * *   Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth

Robin Hathaway takes the good Doctor to his mother's home city of Prague in the latest of her Doctor Fennimore series. It's such a grand tour of Prague, that should I ever get to that glorious city, I will take this novel along as one of my guide books. It is also a top rate mystery. This latest adventure of the loveable and gentle, but fiercely determined Doctor, is fast paced and action filled.

Dr. Fennimore becomes worried when his phone calls to cousins in Prague are unanswered. He rushes to the Czech Republic to find his cousins missing and their child hiding in their apartment. Heeding his late mother's words about the authorities in that city, he chooses not to call the police and sets out to find his relatives on his own. The Communists who took over Prague after WW II are not quickly forgotten.

The search takes the good doctor through the streets of Prague to the university, over the famous bridge, into a puppet theater, and high above the city in a tower. Dr. Fennimore's aura suggests quietness and repose, not the quick wittedness that he possesses. His detective team rallies to his side – Horatio (Rat), Mrs. Doyle, and Jennifer, the woman in his life. By this fourth book in the series, they are well fleshed out and a great adjunct to his detecting skills (I would hate, though, to pay the airline costs for all the last minute flying back and forth between Philadelphia and Prague.)

This is a fun series. The Doctor Dines in Prague has plenty of fast-paced action to keep the reader's attention, and a smash ending. My only problem with award-winning Hathaway's writing is that her books are not long enough. I want to spend more time with the good Doctor.

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