Book by Alex A. Kecskes
Reviewed by Pennell Paugh
October 16, 2024 (San Diego) — Alex A. Kecskes, a San Diego resident, has written a debut book that mixes science fiction and fantasy with romance.
In 1888, Rene Sakin loses both her parents, falls into depression and is expelled from a prestigious medical college for laudanum abuse. Posing as a nurse, she leaves New York society determined to move medicine into the 20th century using herbs. She heads west to a Tennessee mining town where she meets a mysterious healer — Charles Noble.
After Charles restores a blind woman’s sight and saves a child from an incurable disease, Rene risks everything to learn Noble’s secrets. Following a night of passion, Noble knows ahead of time that a town will have an outbreak of typhus. He moves there in advance and asks Rene to join him. Together they eradicate typhus in the early stages of the contagion.
Charles and Rene are followed across the country to San Francisco by men wanting to profit by stealing his invention. Can Charles protect his equipment from theft? Is he an incredible inventor ahead of his time or could he be from another century in the future?
Below is an excerpt from the novel:
I entered the house and sensed it. Someone powerful had occupied this place.
Not unlike the time Father, a prominent New York banker, took us to visit President Garfield’s office in the White House. Father and the President had been outside in the garden. Mother and I had been talking, just above a whisper, about the elegant furniture and art in the room. I’d risen out of a handsome leather settee and moved about, my fingers following the outline of his desk and chair. “Sit down, child,” Mother had said in a stern whisper.
In this small unassuming house in the woods, the feeling was strangely similar. It was strongest when I approached a fine roll-top desk — the only piece of furniture in the room. I ran my fingers across its ribbed cover and turned to the agent.
Reading my curious expression. “Don’t know why he left that handsome desk.”
“He?”
“Doctor Noble.”
A bold of curiosity stiffen me. Could it be? “The Doctor who cured that little boy?” The New York Times had headlined it as Town Quick to Embrace Quack. Had the good Lord guided me to his very residence? Or was it just coincidence? Or perhaps the agent, aware of my medical background, simply chose to show me a house once occupied by a ‘doctor.’
Healing has twists and turns that keep the reader’s eye flying over the pages. A delightful romance is entwined in the mystery around Charles Noble. A delightful book, I highly recommend it to everyone.
Alex A. Kecskes is a regular contributor to several print and online magazines writing on a wide variety of topics, including health, medical, science, technology, and green issues. He is a graduate of Long Beach State University.
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