Robin Hathaway Books In Order

The Doctor Digs a Grave

Winner of the Malice Domestic St. Martin’s Press Award for ‘Best First Traditional Mystery of 1997’As Dr. Fenimore takes a stroll in Philadelphia’s ‘Society Hill’, he observes a teenager trying to bury a sack. When a guard chases the youth out of the park, Fenimore gets involved. ‘What’s in the sack?’ he asks.’My cat’, the youth says unhappily. ‘A car got him’. Fenimore leads the teenager to a burial ground set aside years ago by William Penn for the use of the Lenni Lenape Indians. But, while preparing the grave for the cat, the doctor discovers that the space is already occupied…
by a young woman who has not been buried long, or in the usual way. She is sitting upright, facing East. Investigating this mystery, Fenimore travels from rural South Jersey to the affluent Main Line suburbs and acquires the help of a cast of eccentric friends the teenager, an outspoken nurse, a cooperative policeman, an erudite bookseller and his blase cat Sal. In the end, however, it is the doctor’s medical knowledge that provides the unique solution.

The Doctor Makes a Dollhouse Call

Emily and Judith Pancoast, elderly sisters, are the owners of a priceless dollhouse that is an exact replica of their Victorian home in a small seaside resort near Philadelphia. The dollhouse is inhabited by dolls that the sisters crafted to resemble each member of their family. On Thanksgiving Day, just before relatives arrive for dinner, Emily Pancoast discovers that the dollhouse dining room table, set in miniature of the real one, is in total disarray and the doll representing their niece Pamela is lying facedown in her dessert plate. When Pamela’s death soon follows, the sisters turn to the physician detective, Dr. Andrew Fenimore.

The Doctor Dines in Prague

Dr. Fenniman has a surprised communication from a cousin he doesn’t know, who lives in Prague, and she indicates that she and her family are having serious problems and needs help from him. Off he goes to Prague to help her in whatever way he can, and decides to get his relatives to the U.S. But it is not simple, and Fenniman pulls in his lover, his secretary, and the street urchin turned teenaged helper, bringing them all to the beautiful old city, where they become tangled with a psychopath who is planning to overthrow the government and declare himself ruler of the country, an agenda that involves a talented maker of puppets, the rescue of a young child, and murder.

The Doctor Rocks the Boat

Like so many of Dr. Fenimore’s adventures, trouble starts with a harmless idea.
From his train window, the good doctor sees a single shell gliding on the surface of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, an image that stirs up fond memories of his rowing days. Rowing had been the perfect antidote to the hectic rush of medical school, and he wonders why he ever gave it up. He could also use some exercise, as Jennifer, his significant other, broadly hints. So with renewed dedication, he goes knocking on the office door at Boathouse Row to reenroll as a member of the Windsor Club.
Charlie Ashburn, whom Dr. Fenimore knows from medical school, is running the club, and they catch up on lost time. Charlie s son, Chuck, is a great rower and is currently training for the big regatta. Talking about Chuck makes Charlie swell with pride, but it makes Fenimore a little uneasy. Charlie was an incredibly talented rower himself but had to give it up because of a serious heart condition.
Dr. Fenimore doesn t enjoy his membership for very long before he finds himself drawn into an Ashburn family problem. Charlie s wife comes to his office in secret and begs him to talk to Charlie about getting their son checked out by a doctor. To Dr. Fenimore s surprise, Charlie has been refusing to face the possibility that Chuck might have inherited the same heart defect he has. The doctor agrees to help, and his well intentioned efforts put his own life at risk.
In this fifth Fenimore episode, Robin Hathaway captures Philadelphia s exciting rowing scene and proves once again that when this doctor is in, it s great fun for all.

Scarecrow

Briefly departing from her Doctor Fenimore stories, Robin Hathaway brings readers Dr. Jo Banks, a young female doctor practicing in Manhattan. When a little patient dies, Banks blames herself. Unable to face her life, she runs leaving her lover, driving away from New York and through New Jersey without a destination on the highway or in her life. She stops at a motel, and that evening is called upon to treat a woman taken suddenly ill.

The episode leads the motel owner to present Jo with a deal. Neither he nor the other motel owners can afford to keep a doctor on hand, but it is sometimes difficult to get one to come out from the nearest city. What they need is a cooperative house doctor someone who can quickly get to any of the nearby motels. How about it? Jo takes the deal without knowing that it will involve her in a series of gruesome murders of itinerant farm workers.

Full of the wit, charm, and lively settings that have made Hathaway’s Doctor Fenimore series so popular, Scarecrow is sure to please.

Satan’s Pony

Hathaway’s likeable young doctor, Jo Banks, is solidly ensconced as ‘house doctor’ to a group of motels in the New Jersey countryside. Then one day the motel where Jo is living and where she has her office is suddenly over run by a loud group of motorcyclists. When one of the riders is murdered, suspicion falls on Dr. Jo’s landlord’s son, who turned up after having been presumed either to have permanently gone AWOL or to be lost in battle in Vietnam. Trying to help her friends, and prove that the man is innocent, Jo takes on a lot more than she may be able to handle.

Sleight of Hand

Dr. Jo Banks is well settled in her rather unusual life as one of the few doctors in the New Jersey fields, her office in a motor inn run by a pair of friendly, elderly Jersey ites. But New York City is where she grew up, and there are times when she thinks back to those days with her father. One day, as she is driving home from her rounds at the hospital in the nearby town, she hears a familiar sound coming from a barn. It is the hum of an out of date printing press, a brand her father used. On an impulse, Jo leaves her motorcycle in the road and walks down to the barn housing the machine. But the printer is hardly welcoming. While she is trying to talk to him, he catches his hand in the press, and Jo bursts into action. Although she removes the screws from the roller that is clamping the man’s fingers and offers to drive him to the hospital, he refuses to go and insists she treat him in his home. The strange episode leads to Jo s calling daily to attend to the man s injury. She learns that he s living with his daughter a grown woman who possesses the mind of a child that they are from New York, and that his wife has mysteriously disappeared. The printer is roughly grateful for Jo s care, but he has much on his mind, and he will not leave his house. Jo begins to suspect he is connected to a recent local murder. Robin Hathaway rewards her readers with another rich story of the lives of people who live and work in the New Jersey farmland. Sleight of Hand is a worthy addition to this finely crafted series.