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The Secret Lives of Dentists
In 1955, small-town girls flock to Minneapolis for work, love, and adventure. But Teresa Hickman, from Dollar, North Dakota, is a special case. Beguiling. Promiscuous. And, on a chilly April morning, dead along an abandoned trolley track in a Southside neighborhood.
Teresa Hickman was three months pregnant when she was strangled. Was the unborn child’s father also her killer? Could the killer have been––among the many men drawn to her like flies to honey––Dr. H. David Rose, a middle-aged dentist who admits he was with her the night she died? There’s no forensic evidence or credible witnesses tying him to the murder. Yet the police, including a pair of obsessive investigators with lethal secrets of their own, agree that a Jewish dentist will get them a conviction.
Dr. Rose’s spectacular trial and its shocking aftermath will mesmerize the Upper Midwest like few crime sagas before or since.
Teresa Hickman was three months pregnant when she was strangled. Was the unborn child’s father also her killer? Could the killer have been––among the many men drawn to her like flies to honey––Dr. H. David Rose, a middle-aged dentist who admits he was with her the night she died? There’s no forensic evidence or credible witnesses tying him to the murder. Yet the police, including a pair of obsessive investigators with lethal secrets of their own, agree that a Jewish dentist will get them a conviction.
Dr. Rose’s spectacular trial and its shocking aftermath will mesmerize the Upper Midwest like few crime sagas before or since.
312 pages, Paperback
First published April 20, 2021
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57 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 10, 2022
Good mystery, with a good trial at the end along with some surprising, twisted fates of some of the characters at the end.
May 7, 2021
The blurb pulled me in. If you know me, I love a good mystery thriller. From the beginning I struggled. I wasn’t engaged enough. I kept putting the book down. There were many points of views. At times I wondered why we were getting certain character’s point of views. I felt they didn’t further the plot. I wanted to like the book more than I did. The ending was a let down for me.
The book is well written. Definitely fits the era in which it took place. I struggled with the authors story telling style. I recommend reading this book for yourself. It wasn’t for me but it might be for you! I give it 3 stars.
**Review has been done in conjunction with Nerd Girl Official. For more information regarding our reviews please visit our Fansite: www.facebook.com/NerdGirl.ng**
The book is well written. Definitely fits the era in which it took place. I struggled with the authors story telling style. I recommend reading this book for yourself. It wasn’t for me but it might be for you! I give it 3 stars.
**Review has been done in conjunction with Nerd Girl Official. For more information regarding our reviews please visit our Fansite: www.facebook.com/NerdGirl.ng**
April 4, 2021
This was a somewhat interesting murder mystery, yet seemed to contain few, if any, redeemable characters that didn't have some sort of fatal flaw. I'd give it a moderate recommendation for fans of straight murder mysteries set in the 1950s Midwest.
The story follows the murder of Teresa Marie "Terry" Kubicek Hickman, a young mother from Dollar, North Dakota living in Minneapolis and working as a waitress at a greasy spoon, living with her sister and her abusive brother-in-law, while her husband is a Private in the Army stationed in Germany. Terry has a history of promiscuity, and is found murdered next to some abandoned streetcar tracks not long after an appointment with a Jewish dentist, H. David Rose, who often services his patients (many of whom are working-class women) at night. The police, a standard set of 1950s Midwest cops full of inherent biases, quickly focus on Dr. Rose and no one else as the culprit. Other characters include a young and ambitious reporter, his various adulterous lovers, Terry's sister (an abused wife who has always been jealous of Terry's natural beauty), the sister's husband (a drunk who is quick with his fists, against women at least), a mysterious taxi driver who had a serious obsession with Terry both before and after her death, and the lawyers for the prosecution and defense.
The plot was solid, in that the investigation proceeded through its various stages of evidence-gathering, at least until the cops decided the Jewish dentist was the only possible murderer and stopped looking seriously for other suspects. But EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in this book has an irredeemable character flaw that makes it hard for the reader to like any of them. Virtually everyone in the book is an adulterer, having liaisons with friends' wives or husbands, or with other people outside of their own marriage. The casual racism (especially antisemitism, but also anti-minority sentiments in general), sexism, and homophobia of the entire cast of characters, while probably accurate for the time and place in which the novel is set, is really off-putting, making the reader wonder why the author chose to place the novel in that time and place. Terry's promiscuous and a bit of a thief. Her sister is a jealous, weak-willed doormat. The driver is a stalker and more than a little delusional. The reporter is willing to do anything, including lie to the police and the court, in order to get what he wants, but he's so wishy-washy he doesn't really know what he wants. Even the good-seeming Dr. Rose has his own peccadillos that make him unsympathetic. The only character I can come close to liking is Dr. Rose's wife, but even she has a blind spot to her own husband's character flaws. On top of these character issues, the ending (which I will not spoil here) leaves so many things unresolved that it felt like the author sent the manuscript to the publisher before adding the necessary final chapter.
While the writing was mostly fine from a grammar and writing mechanics standpoint, it does have a single, major problem (at least for me): It's written in present-tense narrative (so, "Terry says" instead of "Terry said"), which in my opinion is ALWAYS a bad choice for a novel writer, and becomes difficult to maintain in a book that is set 70 years ago and spans many months of activity.
In sum, this is a decent light read for fans of straight crime mysteries, but isn't the best example of the genre, and I think most readers will be disappointed by the novel's conclusion.
Thanks to Seventh Street Books (and my many Book Fairies there) for providing me with a copy of this book.
The story follows the murder of Teresa Marie "Terry" Kubicek Hickman, a young mother from Dollar, North Dakota living in Minneapolis and working as a waitress at a greasy spoon, living with her sister and her abusive brother-in-law, while her husband is a Private in the Army stationed in Germany. Terry has a history of promiscuity, and is found murdered next to some abandoned streetcar tracks not long after an appointment with a Jewish dentist, H. David Rose, who often services his patients (many of whom are working-class women) at night. The police, a standard set of 1950s Midwest cops full of inherent biases, quickly focus on Dr. Rose and no one else as the culprit. Other characters include a young and ambitious reporter, his various adulterous lovers, Terry's sister (an abused wife who has always been jealous of Terry's natural beauty), the sister's husband (a drunk who is quick with his fists, against women at least), a mysterious taxi driver who had a serious obsession with Terry both before and after her death, and the lawyers for the prosecution and defense.
The plot was solid, in that the investigation proceeded through its various stages of evidence-gathering, at least until the cops decided the Jewish dentist was the only possible murderer and stopped looking seriously for other suspects. But EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in this book has an irredeemable character flaw that makes it hard for the reader to like any of them. Virtually everyone in the book is an adulterer, having liaisons with friends' wives or husbands, or with other people outside of their own marriage. The casual racism (especially antisemitism, but also anti-minority sentiments in general), sexism, and homophobia of the entire cast of characters, while probably accurate for the time and place in which the novel is set, is really off-putting, making the reader wonder why the author chose to place the novel in that time and place. Terry's promiscuous and a bit of a thief. Her sister is a jealous, weak-willed doormat. The driver is a stalker and more than a little delusional. The reporter is willing to do anything, including lie to the police and the court, in order to get what he wants, but he's so wishy-washy he doesn't really know what he wants. Even the good-seeming Dr. Rose has his own peccadillos that make him unsympathetic. The only character I can come close to liking is Dr. Rose's wife, but even she has a blind spot to her own husband's character flaws. On top of these character issues, the ending (which I will not spoil here) leaves so many things unresolved that it felt like the author sent the manuscript to the publisher before adding the necessary final chapter.
While the writing was mostly fine from a grammar and writing mechanics standpoint, it does have a single, major problem (at least for me): It's written in present-tense narrative (so, "Terry says" instead of "Terry said"), which in my opinion is ALWAYS a bad choice for a novel writer, and becomes difficult to maintain in a book that is set 70 years ago and spans many months of activity.
In sum, this is a decent light read for fans of straight crime mysteries, but isn't the best example of the genre, and I think most readers will be disappointed by the novel's conclusion.
Thanks to Seventh Street Books (and my many Book Fairies there) for providing me with a copy of this book.
May 21, 2021
I was quite disappointed in this book. It was one of the most anticipated releases in early 2021, but didn't deliver. It's not a mystery nor thriller. Just a crime story.
First, the author introduces so many characters so quickly that I lost track of who was who and kept having to go back and find where the character first appeared to know which person they were.
Second, the book is poorly named. While there is more than one dentist, only one gets any attention. The book should have been called "The Secret Life of a Dentist." That mistake goes to the publisher.
Third, the ending was not satisfying.
The only thing that kept me moving forward was to find out if the villain was found guilty or not.
First, the author introduces so many characters so quickly that I lost track of who was who and kept having to go back and find where the character first appeared to know which person they were.
Second, the book is poorly named. While there is more than one dentist, only one gets any attention. The book should have been called "The Secret Life of a Dentist." That mistake goes to the publisher.
Third, the ending was not satisfying.
The only thing that kept me moving forward was to find out if the villain was found guilty or not.
September 19, 2022
Written like a true crime, non-fiction book, this novel brings readers to the neighborhoods, streets, and lakes of my beloved Minneapolis. But you don't have to be from the Twin Cities to enjoy it. Fans of the hard-boiled detective genre will enjoy the secret lives of not just the dentist being accused of a murder - but those investigating the case, as well.
August 7, 2024
A murder mystery book set in my own neighborhood in 1955! The story is fictional but is based off a real Minnesota story!! I found it fun to read because I can picture every location noted very vividly! If you live in MN it’s a good read for sure!!
July 14, 2021
Too lomg
I thought this story could have heads a much better ending. It send up being boring and too drawn out
I thought this story could have heads a much better ending. It send up being boring and too drawn out
July 18, 2021
This was a random book I saw on the library shelf and it piqued my interest. The writing was a bit dry, but the story kept me on the edge of my seat. The twists and turns were wild.
November 7, 2021
Truthfully, A long boring narrative with an unsatisfactory ending.
March 23, 2022
An interesting story to me in the noir/hardboiled genre. The setting of the story was part of the appeal for me.
May 13, 2022
Picked it up - at the library, thankfully - mostly because its location is southwest Minneapolis, where I grew up. Meh
August 13, 2022
An odd sort of book but it captured my interest. I did take a star off for the raw language but otherwise I enjoyed it. The ending left me wondering.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews