The mystery in Nick Trout's cozy The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs isn't "Who did it?" but "Will he do it?" Will Dr. Cyrus Mills, returning to his hometown with a new last name, a suspended license, a shady past and a St.-Bernard–sized load of emotional baggage, pay off the debt on his late father's veterinary practice so he can abandon frigid Vermont for a new life in South Carolina? Or will he embrace his father's legacy and settle in among the history and the snow drifts?
After a 15-year estrangement, Cyrus inherits his father's beloved Eden Falls Bedside Manor, but memories haunt the old offices. The bitter Dr. Mills is not receptive to the welcome from his father's longtime business partner and keeps a suspicious distance from the other townspeople--however, the pets of Eden Falls know a good man when they sniff one. Although Cyrus's specialty was pathology, not hands-on care, he has a knack for diagnosis and a love for the critters who appear in his waiting room.
Charming dog-in-stethoscope photos introduce each chapter, and the citizens of Eden Falls are as quirky as the events that guide Cyrus's path, including the lovely waitress with the heterochromic eyes who catches Cyrus's interest from the get-go. Trout, the author of Tell Me Where It Hurts and other veterinary nonfiction, peppers his first novel with Cyrus's thoughts on obscure medical facts, guiding the young vet's care and enlightening readers. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, Book Passage, San Francisco