The Blood Doctor: A Novel [Hardcover]

Barbara Vine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2, 2002

When Martin Nanther, Hereditary Peer in the House of Lords, is choosing the subject of his next biography, he becomes intrigued by the life of his own great-grandfather, Henry Nanther. So grateful was Queen Victoria for Henry’s services as physician to the royal family that she granted him a peerage, making him a lord, the first doctor ever to be so honored. Henry had been especially attentive to hemophiliacs in the royal family, for he was obsessed with blood. As he recounted in his diary, “Red is my favorite color. To me a splash of blood is beautiful, and I profoundly lack understanding of those who flinch or even faint at the sight of it.”

As his research deepens, Martin begins to uncover hints that his great-grandfather’s fascination with blood may have had its darker side. The murder of Henry’s fiancée, the death of his young son, the remarkable number of relatives and friends who died mysteriously—could all these have been mere coincidence? Martin scours England and America for relatives whose attics or memories might hold clues, until finally the tragic truth stands revealed.

Drawing from the dark themes of obsession and murder that drive so many of Barbara Vine’s extraordinary novels, The Blood Doctor is also enriched by domestic intimacies familiar to readers of Ruth Rendell’s beloved Inspector Wexford novels and by details of Dame Rendell’s own experience as a Life Peer in the House of Lords. Once again we have a masterful work from a storyteller of the highest order.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This rich, labyrinthine book by Vine (aka Ruth Rendell) concerns a "mystery in history," like her 1998 novel, The Chimney Sweeper's Boy. Martin Nanther-biographer and member of the House of Lords-discovers some blighted roots on his family tree while researching the life of his great-great-grandfather, Henry, an expert on hemophilia and physician to Queen Victoria. Martin contacts long-lost relatives who help him uncover some puzzling events in Henry's life. Was Henry a dour workaholic or something much more sinister? Vine can make century-old tragedy come alive. Still, the decades lapsed between Martin's and Henry's circles create added emotional distance, and, because they are all at least 50 years dead, we never meet Henry or his cohorts except through diaries and letters. Martin's own life-his wife's infertility and troubles with a son from his first marriage-is interesting yet sometimes intrudes on the more intriguing Victorian saga. Vine uses her own experience as a peer to give readers an insider's look into the House of Lords, at the dukes snoozing in the library between votes and eating strawberries on the terrace fronting the Thames. Some minor characters are especially vivid, like Martin's elderly cousin Veronica, who belts back gin while stonewalling about the family skeletons all but dancing through her living room. Readers may guess Henry's game before Vine is ready to reveal it, but this doesn't detract from this novel peopled by characters at once repellant and compelling.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In her tenth novel writing as Barbara Vine, Ruth Rendell offers a novel of suspense based in 19th-century England and centering on deceit, murder, and various other family skeletons. Martin Nanther, the fourth Lord Nanther, has a comfortable life in present-day London as a Hereditary Peer in the House of Lords and as a historical biographer. He chooses as his most recent subject his own great-grandfather, the first Lord Nanther, physician to the royal family (Victoria and Albert) and an early noted researcher into the cause and transmission of hemophilia. The reader is taken through the family history as Martin painstakingly uncovers some not so savory bits of his own family's past. The story is dense with characters, and the author provides family trees of the two principal families, for which any reader will be eternally grateful. The story lacks the usual page-turner suspense of the Rendell/Vine novels but makes up for that with unusually detailed glimpses into Victorian life and the inner workings of the House of Parliament, which American readers will find particularly intriguing. Recommended for all public libraries. Caroline Mann, Univ. of Portland, OR
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books (July 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400045045
• ISBN-13: 978-1400045044
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,251,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I hate to be negative, August 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Blood Doctor: A Novel (Hardcover)

but I'm a huge fan of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine and have read (most) everything she has published in the last 30 years. I think she is a true master and I especially enjoy the novels under the Barbara Vine pseudonym.

However, (and I admit I'm only a third of the way through it), I have found this to be the most plodding, didactic, and just plain hard to read book of hers in years, if ever. While I enjoy my novels to be educational, I feel that I'm being lectured to. I find the family tree business to be difficult to keep straight in my mind (thus, constantly referring to the family trees in the front of the book).

The writing, as usual, is excellent. But, at least for me, in this case, a little less would yield a lot more. It's just not a page turner for me and I have found many reasons to read other books rather than return to this which, unfortunately, feels more like a chore to me.

Granted, this is the first time I've ever posted a review on Amazon.com. I read like a fiend and was curious as to what others thought because of my disappointment. The glowing reviews pushed me over the edge to write.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior, July 12, 2002

By 

Candace "thepageturner" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blood Doctor: A Novel (Hardcover)

And anyone who has read Barbars Vine knows, calling one of her novels superior is really saying something. Readers who have never before picked up one of her books are in for a treat.

In "Blood Doctor" she juggles a mystery in history, the end of an era in the House of Lords, and modern fertility issues with great depth and sensitivity. Martin Nanther is dealing with all of these. A biographer and hereditary peer, he is beginning to research the life of the physician anscestor who earned the peerage for the family. The historical mystery theme is a popular one in current literature, but Vine plays her story out so beautifully, offering fascinating vignettes on Victorian and Edwardian life, hemophilia, period medical practice, and one man's life as expressed through the minimal entries in his diary that the book is hard to put down. The intertwining stories of the House of Lords and our un-Victorian challenges with fertility are equally engrossing.

Vine covers no new ground with "Blood Doctor" but who cares? You might even figure things out before the end of the book. But no one would dream of putting this book down before reaching the last page. Her writing is marvellous, and she sets the gold standard for nuanced psycological insight into her characters from the past and present. This novel comes close to my favorite of her books, "No Night Is Too Long."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply mesmerising...Vine much better than Rendall, October 19, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Blood Doctor: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've always thought Barbara Vine wrote better books than Ruth Rendall. "The Blood Doctor" again supports this belief. It's a fascinating study of genealogy and of the dreaded blood disease (haemophilia) that afflicted Queen Victoria's progeny. This time, we're spared Rendall's nonsensical flirtation with grotesques (eg, "A Sight For Sore Eyes","Adam And Eve And Pinch Me", etc). Instead, we get to burrow into the secret life of the fictional former Lord Henry Nanther, great grandfather of biographer Martin Nanther and physician to QV herself in his time. As Martin tries to make sense of Henry's life for the biography he is writing, he interviews surviving relatives and scrutinises letters between family members for any light that they may shed on his subject. In the process, he stumbles across curious evidence suggesting the existence of a dark family secret, not formally known or understood, though suspected among those affected within the extended family. He hunts down the clues to reveal a truth that is as appalling as it is sensational. In the meantime, we are treated to a mildly interesting subplot involving Jude's (Martin second wife's) desperate attempts to bear a child and yet another subplot - more interesting this time - about the life of peers in the House Of Lords.

Figuring who's who isn't too difficult with the help of the two geneology maps that precede the narrative. Nobody with an interest in families should find the proceedings tedious. I didn't. Indeed, I found it fascinating.

"The Blood Doctor" is another clear and undisputed triumph for Barbara Vine. Don't miss it !