Three-legged Stallion

by Siegfried J. Kra

Kra, a renowned cardiologist, has set down a dozen stories of patients whose mysteries were especially intriguing.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember James Herriot, who wrote short stories about his experiences as a Yorkshire vet on those old, 1960s-70s issues of Reader's Digest? This is what I thought this book was about, with a title like this: a book about a vet and his patients. How wrong I was! But in a good way.

The good doctor starts off too glib with the first story, The Three-Legged Stallion, and I could not empathize with the characters and their situations, as too little is said about them. The writing style did not appeal to me, but I thought I'd give the next three medical detective stories, which were very short, a go. Thankfully, the narratives got better and the characters given a little more personality. As these stories were peddled as non-fiction narratives, all the more impressive.

But it gets better with the chapters on Dr Kra's charmed childhood in Danzig, meeting Hitler at Berlin. It peaks with the next three chapters: a romantic interlude while a medical student visiting a sanatorium in the Swiss alps, an episode reminiscent of Thomas Mann's The Glass Mountain, his too intriguing encounter with a dying Marquis, his lovely Marquise, and their translator in Toulouse, a plot worthy of Somerset Maugham, and the changing fortunes of an old friend residing in Greenwich--a character straight out of a John Cheever story!

The good doctor left the best for last, where he details how he survived a plane crash. I'm definitely getting my hands on more of his books.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like house, this is the same sort of medical mystery , just not as well done.
I enjoyed the ballerina with tuberculosis story but felt in genral that the suthor was a better doctor than he was a storyteller