Book Review: The Fugitive’s Doctor by Deirdre-Elizabeth Parker

Today’s book review is a novel that is written as a faux-biography, a rather unusual style that fits very well with the rather unusual story – that of a woman who discovers that the husband she has been married to is not, in fact, the man she knows him to be. My review copy of The Fugitive’s Doctor was generously provided by the author.

What would you do if your husband informed you that the police were searching your home because he was being sought for questioning on various counts of fraud because he was not Sam Cawley, the many you thought you married, but was instead William Wallace, an escaped convict who had been on the run for nearly two decades? This is the central conflict of The Fugitive’s Doctor, and it is presented in the opening pages. There’s no hiding the eight ball here, no question as to whether this is mistaken identity or a misunderstanding. Sam/William is guilty, and he admits it – to his wife and the reader – right off the bat.

The story is told primarily from the point of view of Doe (Doretha), the woman who married Sam and wound up married to William. It is presented as a narrative she provides to an author – Deirdre-Elizabeth, the actual book author – looking to tell her story to the world. This is an interesting way to lay out the book, and I enjoyed the conceit (I mean this as positive usage of the term!) of using the real author as the story author. It left me terribly curious as to whether the descriptions and mannerisms of the story D-E track those of the “real” D-E…

The circumstances underlying William’s conviction/jail time, his escape, and his attempts to build a “normal” life based on lies are sympathetic. Doe’s background and first marriage, her subsequent years building a career as an emergency physician and medical school professor after the collapse of that first marriage (a true tragedy indeed), her decision to hunt for a husband online, and her joy at finally finding what she believes to be the right man are engaging. This is the set up to an unimaginable ride through the legal system as Sam/William attempts to evade (avoid?) the inevitable come-uppance for his past and Doe lives with the consequences of his decision to run from it.

The conflict is real, Doe’s situation is empathetic. I can’t imagine learning what she did – or dealing with lawyers, investigators, secrets, blinds, fakes, identities, distrusting friends and disapproving family. But merciful heavens, I must confess that I sided with the disapproving family way early on. Doe is an educated woman. I get that she loves her husband. I just got married – and I too am an educated woman. I can understand wanting to stand by your man. But she gives up everything – her peace of mind, her privacy, her money, her job, her good name, her standing – for a man who lied to her from the beginning. And she did it knowing something was fishy from the start – she admits as much early on, acknowledging that Sam was secretive and she was suspicious. Yet she went along with it.

And as a result, I lost my ability to identify with her early on.

The story is written in an engaging enough fashion, and the conflict is an interesting one to see through. I was hooked in the beginning – I wanted to know how Doe was going to get herself out of the mess she had unwillingly (and unwittingly) found herself in, wanted to see how the legal and criminal justice systems would deal with her and Sam/William. Yet I must admit that my inability to continue to identify with her – and my eventual inability to even empathize with what I saw as a situation she kept herself embroiled in – made the story increasingly difficult for me to read. The pacing was also slightly uneven to my mind; the early chapters moved along well and the tension built accordingly – but the chapters detailing Doe’s attempts to get legal assistance and figure out how to avoid her own charges of obstructing justice moved a bit more slowly than I liked. It reminded me of The Kite Runner in that regard – there are many stories that are lovely pieces of writing, just not stories for me.

The format – moving between past and present and between Doe and Deirdre-Elizabeth – is well chosen for this story, and the writing is solid. It may be that the lawyer in me wouldn’t let me buy in to Doe’s woes (or William’s excuses) enough to fully engage in the story. Still, the premise is good, so perhaps the story will be more to your taste than mine. If the concept intrigues you, it’s definitely worth a look to see if that is so… 🙂