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The Doctor of the Great North Woods
As a doctor fresh out of training, Aubrey Lane can't wait to leave those brutal days behind her. She's worked nights, weekends, and holidays, only to watch her twenties go by in a blur.
But just as she's about to walk out of the hospital for the last time, she receives some devastating news: her father is dead. The circumstances are mysterious, the cause unknown. Was it a heart attack? A strange illness? An accident in the Great North Woods of Maine, where Aubrey grew up? Her mother won't give her any details, but her message is clear: You need to come home.
As Aubrey tries to cope with her own grief and confusion, she makes the difficult decision to travel back to Maine. But what she finds there shakes her to her very core...
And dares her to become the doctor her community needs her to be.
But just as she's about to walk out of the hospital for the last time, she receives some devastating news: her father is dead. The circumstances are mysterious, the cause unknown. Was it a heart attack? A strange illness? An accident in the Great North Woods of Maine, where Aubrey grew up? Her mother won't give her any details, but her message is clear: You need to come home.
As Aubrey tries to cope with her own grief and confusion, she makes the difficult decision to travel back to Maine. But what she finds there shakes her to her very core...
And dares her to become the doctor her community needs her to be.
- GenresMystery
306 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2022
95 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 20, 2025
I have had this book for a while and finally decided to read it, and wish I hadn’t waited so long. It was a mix on so many things I like to read, medical mystery, a small town, family ties that needed healing, second chance romance…? I also like that it was set in Maine. It kept me guessing the whole time, and I did not expect all the places it took me, and appreciated how it wrapped up!
May 27, 2023
Since I live in a tiny, unorganized township in heavily wooded Maine, I feel a kinship to this book. In this medical mystery, Aubrey Lane has just finished her residency in Los Angeles and is about to start her career on the west coast. She receives a phone call with news of her father’s unexpected death. She is called back to her hometown in the remote northern Maine woods, a very small town of less than 500 residents and isolated from the rest of society. While she suspects her father’s death may not be due to the heart attack she was told, she also hears news of the death of 4 kids the previous summer. Could they be related? As she tries investigating the cause of both, somebody is working just as hard to keep this town’s secrets from getting out.
I enjoyed this book very much and found it hard to put down. I would definitely recommend it to those enjoying mysteries taking place in smaller, more rural areas. There are also the perfect amount of characters to keep track of, which always pleases me. I have already added another book by this author to my wishlist.
I enjoyed this book very much and found it hard to put down. I would definitely recommend it to those enjoying mysteries taking place in smaller, more rural areas. There are also the perfect amount of characters to keep track of, which always pleases me. I have already added another book by this author to my wishlist.
April 14, 2023
Awesomeness
What a story!!! Really well crafted...plots, twists, stories within stories. Loved the mystery, the clues and character development. More please!
What a story!!! Really well crafted...plots, twists, stories within stories. Loved the mystery, the clues and character development. More please!
April 11, 2023
couldn’t put it down!!!!
Great character development, good flow and I couldn’t put it down. Writing was easy, very clear descriptions. Loved that I had no predictability in the plot. I highly recommend this book. Wish this was the first of 30 books. KAL
Great character development, good flow and I couldn’t put it down. Writing was easy, very clear descriptions. Loved that I had no predictability in the plot. I highly recommend this book. Wish this was the first of 30 books. KAL
July 12, 2022
This review originally appeared on my blog www.gimmethatbook.com.
Thanks to Reedsy Discovery for this review copy!
The Doctor of the Great North Woods by Sawyer Hall is a fast-paced medical thriller that takes place in the eerie, sparsely occupied town of Callihax, Maine. Dr. Aubrey Lane, who lives in California, has just finished her residency when she receives word that her father, who was the town’s only physician, has died. She flies back to her hometown and quickly discovers that her father’s death may have been the result of foul play. She is forced to confront her demons: the relationship between her and the town’s 431 tight-knit residents, as well as her relationship with her long-ago first love, Luke Ainsley. Aubrey is unsure who she can trust and she soon finds herself in mortal danger as she delves deeper into the circumstances of her father’s death.
I would consider this a medical thriller “light”, that is, very minimal gore and medical talk and heavy on the personal relationships between Aubrey and her mother, Luke, Sheriff Jim Ranson, replacement doctor Sheldon Kline, and other colorful town characters. There is also a curious relationship between Aubrey and the Great North Woods themselves, which adds another layer of suspense to the story. Here’s a paragraph describing Aubrey’s drive to Callihax:
An hour outside of Bangor, the signs of suburbia began to fade. ….Then came the perverse sense of abandonment: rusted signs and toppled garbage cans. Mailboxes with chipped paint, no numbers. Side roads that deteriorated into gravel, then dirt, then shadows. I passed campsites with weeded parking lots and hotels with punched-out windows. And woods. Millions upon millions of woods. There was something terrifyingly claustrophobic about all those woods.
Aubrey’s reluctance to trust others is a main plot point. She comes across as a sympathetic character, lacking in self-esteem, with no choice but to defer to the overbearing personality of the experienced Dr Kline. His character is arrogant, pompous, and thoroughly unlikeable. Every time he treated Aubrey like a lackey, I cringed and wished she had more of a backbone.
Aubrey is also reluctant to explore the emotions she feels whenever she is around ex-love Luke, not wanting to revisit the reasons behind their breakup 12 years ago. The tension between them is obvious from the start and the author develops this plot point well, not making it overly sexual or saccharine.
I vacillated between trusting/not trusting Luke, as I was not sure what his motives were. He seemed to be a one-dimensional character for part of the book, then as the story progressed he developed more into a multi-layered person.
The author’s writing style is easy to fall into, and the plot grabbed me right away and kept me interested all throughout. As Aubrey is learning more about her father’s medical practice, she discovers that last summer four boys died of a mysterious disease. Her father worked intently to save the boys and learn more about the disease but was constrained by the town’s remoteness and lack of emergency services. Aubrey’s amateur detective work puts her in the crosshairs of a mysterious person who is intent on stopping her before she finds out the truth.
Towards the end of the book, there are a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming. This ramped up my already piqued interest and kept me racing through the book, as I was quite eager to see how things would all turn out. The ending was easily believed and I felt there were no loose ends.
Aubrey is quite an interesting character, and I would love to see this turn into a series. I can picture her bonding with the town’s residents, trying to come to terms with the Great North Woods, and perhaps solving another mystery or two.
This story reminded me of the Timber Creek series written by Margaret Mizushima. Her stories take place in the Colorado high country, and the setting really adds to the plot. The author brings Timber Creek to the forefront of the stories using picturesque language and thorough descriptions of the rugged land. In each book, Deputy Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner, Robo are called upon to solve mysteries and keep the townsfolk safe. Mizushima works at her husband’s veterinary clinic when not writing, and she truly brings the K-9 Robo to life, describing each nose twitch and growl realistically. If you have not read any of her books, I highly recommend you check them out.
I give this book 4 stars, as I felt a real connection to the characters and was invested in how the author would bring this story to a close. I was left both satisfied with the ending yet wanting to read more, hence my thoughts about a series. Sawyer Hall has written other books, and I headed over to Amazon to grab a copy of Playing God. Hopefully it will be as good as this one!
Thanks to Reedsy Discovery for this review copy!
The Doctor of the Great North Woods by Sawyer Hall is a fast-paced medical thriller that takes place in the eerie, sparsely occupied town of Callihax, Maine. Dr. Aubrey Lane, who lives in California, has just finished her residency when she receives word that her father, who was the town’s only physician, has died. She flies back to her hometown and quickly discovers that her father’s death may have been the result of foul play. She is forced to confront her demons: the relationship between her and the town’s 431 tight-knit residents, as well as her relationship with her long-ago first love, Luke Ainsley. Aubrey is unsure who she can trust and she soon finds herself in mortal danger as she delves deeper into the circumstances of her father’s death.
I would consider this a medical thriller “light”, that is, very minimal gore and medical talk and heavy on the personal relationships between Aubrey and her mother, Luke, Sheriff Jim Ranson, replacement doctor Sheldon Kline, and other colorful town characters. There is also a curious relationship between Aubrey and the Great North Woods themselves, which adds another layer of suspense to the story. Here’s a paragraph describing Aubrey’s drive to Callihax:
An hour outside of Bangor, the signs of suburbia began to fade. ….Then came the perverse sense of abandonment: rusted signs and toppled garbage cans. Mailboxes with chipped paint, no numbers. Side roads that deteriorated into gravel, then dirt, then shadows. I passed campsites with weeded parking lots and hotels with punched-out windows. And woods. Millions upon millions of woods. There was something terrifyingly claustrophobic about all those woods.
Aubrey’s reluctance to trust others is a main plot point. She comes across as a sympathetic character, lacking in self-esteem, with no choice but to defer to the overbearing personality of the experienced Dr Kline. His character is arrogant, pompous, and thoroughly unlikeable. Every time he treated Aubrey like a lackey, I cringed and wished she had more of a backbone.
Aubrey is also reluctant to explore the emotions she feels whenever she is around ex-love Luke, not wanting to revisit the reasons behind their breakup 12 years ago. The tension between them is obvious from the start and the author develops this plot point well, not making it overly sexual or saccharine.
I vacillated between trusting/not trusting Luke, as I was not sure what his motives were. He seemed to be a one-dimensional character for part of the book, then as the story progressed he developed more into a multi-layered person.
The author’s writing style is easy to fall into, and the plot grabbed me right away and kept me interested all throughout. As Aubrey is learning more about her father’s medical practice, she discovers that last summer four boys died of a mysterious disease. Her father worked intently to save the boys and learn more about the disease but was constrained by the town’s remoteness and lack of emergency services. Aubrey’s amateur detective work puts her in the crosshairs of a mysterious person who is intent on stopping her before she finds out the truth.
Towards the end of the book, there are a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming. This ramped up my already piqued interest and kept me racing through the book, as I was quite eager to see how things would all turn out. The ending was easily believed and I felt there were no loose ends.
Aubrey is quite an interesting character, and I would love to see this turn into a series. I can picture her bonding with the town’s residents, trying to come to terms with the Great North Woods, and perhaps solving another mystery or two.
This story reminded me of the Timber Creek series written by Margaret Mizushima. Her stories take place in the Colorado high country, and the setting really adds to the plot. The author brings Timber Creek to the forefront of the stories using picturesque language and thorough descriptions of the rugged land. In each book, Deputy Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner, Robo are called upon to solve mysteries and keep the townsfolk safe. Mizushima works at her husband’s veterinary clinic when not writing, and she truly brings the K-9 Robo to life, describing each nose twitch and growl realistically. If you have not read any of her books, I highly recommend you check them out.
I give this book 4 stars, as I felt a real connection to the characters and was invested in how the author would bring this story to a close. I was left both satisfied with the ending yet wanting to read more, hence my thoughts about a series. Sawyer Hall has written other books, and I headed over to Amazon to grab a copy of Playing God. Hopefully it will be as good as this one!
October 17, 2022
Although the idea behind this book was great, I found it to be too long. That did not stop me from enjoying the story line. A young woman returns to her home town after her father passes away. The town sheriff expects her to take over his medical practice knowing there was a deadly pandemic the previous year. Story goes on from there.
June 19, 2023
This was a unique book about a daughter going home to the Great North Woods of Maine to attend a funeral. The character is a strong, educated woman who might just be the next doctor is this small rural setting. There were several twists in the book which kept me wanting to read on.
June 25, 2023
This was a good suspenseful read. I have to admit I was getting angry and frustrated as I got further into the book. All I can say without ruining the plot is nothing is what it seems.
July 8, 2023
This is an unputdownable book. Loved the story line and tension it invoked!
October 24, 2023
An amazing tale
The author has created an unusual and unique plot to go with a great group of characters making this hard to put down
The author has created an unusual and unique plot to go with a great group of characters making this hard to put down
February 1, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. Very descriptive and it kept me guessing.
February 17, 2024
Fantastic read!
Great storytelling and plot.This book was hard to put down, the characters and storyline are so believable! Reminds me of Robin Cooks works.
Great storytelling and plot.This book was hard to put down, the characters and storyline are so believable! Reminds me of Robin Cooks works.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews