The second volume not Cronin’s best

This audiobook covers two very different books. The first volume is more typical of what you’d expect if you’d watched the old BBC series (b&w!). There are witty observations on Scottish life, though based more in the industrial city of Levenford (Dumbarton) than in the heathery hills of Tannochbrae.
Finlay doesn’t have a first name - except “Doctor” - Cameron isn’t nearly as beneficent as his TV persona; he’s rather lazy and scheming, hypochondriacal and he shows a stereotypical attitude to £sd.
Janet is younger and less contented with her lot as skivvy to Dr Cameron, and Finlay really is hopeless when it comes to women- luckily he’s quicker on the uptake where medicine is concerned! Some of his (fairly) well intentioned behaviour would now have him investigated by the GMC!
The second part is a continuing story of one of Finlay’s disastrous relationships with women. We learn that the young doctor is a Catholic (TV omitted this, sectarianism having been a significant blot on Scottish life in the era of the stories and continuing when the series was made. I don’t think viewers furth of Scotland would have understood anyway.)
It’s harmless easy listening though.
I didn’t like the narrator at first but he grew on me.

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3 people found this helpful

Starts wonderfully but last chapters are awful.

I bought this after listening to the BBC radio 4 series on the radio. It is really a recording of two halves. The first few chapters are charming. They are engaging, well observed and with real attention to character. As a reader (listener!) you feel invested in Finley's story and warm to him as an fully rounded individual. However, this begins to change halfway through, presumably the following stories forming part of a different collection by the same author. Finley increasingly becomes a paragon of virtue who can do no wrong and is eulogised repeatedly for his selfless deeds of charity . The result is a 2D character who is a rather sanctimonious prig. What is worse is the level of misogyny in the final chapters. All the women are scheming vipers who try to trick and trap Finley. If that is not bad enough in itself the storylines are also so jarring and unbelievable. One moment a female character is fine and virtuous, the next she is a conniving, foolish and manipulative harpie. His treatment of the issue of domestic abuse is just plain offensive. I know Cronin is very much an author of his age, and believe me I love The Citadel but just wish I hadn't encountered the last chapters of the Casebook. It has now overshadowed my appreciation of his other works. One the plus side, the narrator is wonderful and the recording good, it is just three subject matter that isn't!

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1 person found this helpful

stunning book

l loved the characters. they jumped out at you. wonderful stories, wonderful people. a comfort book that isn't always comfortable

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Really Enjoyable

Recommended. After listening to a number of rather heavy serious audiobooks I was looking for something easy to listen to, and tried this. I was not disappointed. Only wish there were more books like this. So different from what I find in so many books today that seem to delight in strong language, gore, and explicit sex.

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Strange mix of stories

First half I liked, second part got stranger and less likeable and believable. Couldn’t fathom what happened to relationships and just behaviour with women weird.

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Stories not in sequence

Was fed up sbout hearing of his love affairs, not in sequence as he would have married after first one (don't know why he didn't). Would have preferred to have heard about his medical cases. Too much love life and too little about medicine. Narration was okay but generally, it was not right for people who remember Andrew Cruickshank and Bill Simpson.

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this is not Dr Finley

I was very disappointed with this as it's not the Dr Finley stories I really enjoy.

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A big disappointment

These are not stories written by A J Cronin himself who was a fine writer..They appear to be stories written by different writers
probably 40 years after the time when the original stories were written

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Not the Dr Finlay we love

The first twenty or so stories were enjoyable, then they suddenly changed in style and the character of Dr Finlay also changed dramatically and unpleasantly. I can only assume the publisher added stories by another writer without acknowledging the fact.

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