Customer Reviews

The Case of the Roasted Onion

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After tenured professor Austin McKenzie retires, he and his wife Madeline move to their farm in Trumansberg, New York, just outside Ithaca. Due to a bad investment on Austin's part, he has a big loan that must be repaid so he opens up a big animal vet practice. He hires two assistants, Joe and Allegra who are competitive with each other but loyal to the McKenzies.

After receiving an invitation to be the delegate at the Earlsdown Three Day Event from venture capitalist and horse owner Brewster McClellan, Austin accepts because the fee for his services is $15,000. Dr. Grazley who was in charge of the horse Brewster was running in the event is murdered as was Dr. Schumacher who preceded Dr Grazley. Austin believes Brewster is behind the murders because they both owned a piece of the horse and were partners in another business venture. Austin sets out to solve the homicides but it is only when a third member of the syndicate is murdered do the McKenzies and their two assistants concoct a plan to smoke the murderer out.

The first mystery in "The Casebook of Dr. McKenzie" takes place in the same arena as the Hemlock Falls mysteries. This is a cleverly constructed who-done-it with so many layers to peel that the protagonists have to stay alert for any clue because the killer left almost no evidence behind. The love between Austin and Madeline permeates the whole storyline and uplifts the audience to see two passionate seniors care about one another and life in general.

Harriet Klausner

I have enjoyed the Hemlock Falls mysteries, however this effort doesn't live up to them. The language is stilted and pretentious, the characters are all rather pompus except for the two veterinary assistants who are always fighting, but you never are quite sure why. The story takes many twists and turns and was sometimes difficult to follow. Perhaps if the reader was very familiar with the venue, ie: the 'horse competition scene', the story would be more interesting. For me, it just didn't make the grade.

The fact that I am partial to horse mysteries is a bit of a mystery to me - I don't particularly like horses, you see. But this book by Claudia Bishop is the first in a new series from The Casebook of Dr, McKenzie, a rural vet, and includes other animals in addition to horses. And in case you were wondering about the unusual title, a roasted onion is involved in a traditional cure for colic in horses.

Prompted by a financial reversal, Dr. Austin McKenzie (with the help of his fiesty but fun wife Madeline) has set up a rural vetrinary practice after many years in academia. When he is offered a large amount of money to be the Vetrinarian Delegate at a multi-day horse show, he realizes he will need to hire an assistant to help with the practice during his absence, and two young vetrinary students enter the story.

But Dr. McKenzie has been asked to be a part the horse show because the previous invitee has been murdered. This death is quickly followed by several others and McKenzie must delve into the crimes to save his own skin.

I liked this book. The plot is good, the characters are interesting, and the world of horse events and a vetrinary practice absorb the reader. My two niggly criticisms of this book both involve diaglog. First, the annoying banter between the vetrinary students goes on too long and it is out of character for the McKenzies to tolerate this rudeness. Second, the conversations between the McKenzies are a little cloying. But these are minor issues and shouldn't interfere with your enjoyment of this book.

Hard core cozy readers will probably find some of the content not to their liking and might want to avoid this one, but everyone else should be okay with it.

Favorite character? There are several good ones, but the escape artist Pony is my favorite. Did I guess it? Sort of. Will I read more? Yes.

Although this is a new series, Claudia Bishop is no newcomer, so this book doesn't suffer from any of the new author problems found in other series firsts. This series features Dr. Austin McKenzie (Austin), his wife, Madeline, and two veterinary students, Joe and Ally. Austin is 72, recently retired from a lifetime of teaching and research, and forced by an unfortunate investment to take up a private large (and sometimes small) animal practice. His English is proper and a bit stilted, as might be true for an academic ole duffer, and the 2 youngsters are awfully competitive with one another, but that is to be expected of vet students because of the fierce competition for one of the very limited spaces in the vet program at Cornell (the vet school in this story). They also seem almost like children to the older childless couple, so some of the banter could be from sibling-like rivalry.
The characters are well drawn, interesting people, revealing some of their backgrounds in this book. I'm sure we'll see a lot more in the books to come. The plot has enough twists to make it enjoyable, and the sleuthing is amateurish, but they are learning quickly, and it is fun.
Think James Herriot meets Diagnosis Murder (Dick van Dyke), and you just about have it.
There were a few typos, and this is the second author recently to confuse rifles with shotguns, but those were minor irritations.
This looks like a fine series, and I'm looking forward eagerly to the next installments.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book with Dr. McKenzie, his wife and two assistants. They all play off each other in a way to keep you interested in what will happen next. Looking forward to the next in the series.

The Case of the Roasted Onion is a must read for mystery fans. Claudia weaves together engaging characters, twists, and clever dialog. Her writing is as smooth as butter melting off the page. Once I started the book, I couldn't stop, and now I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

This warm series features veterinarian Austin McKenzie and his wife Madeline.Austin a retired professor at Cornell University has always loved caring for his pets and spending time with his loving wife Madeline. As the bills piled up, Austin had to come out of retirement and open a veterinarian office.The Mckenzie's farm is located in Trumansburg. Trumansburg is a village in Tompkins County, New York. The Mckenzie farm is brimming with farm pets.When Austin is offered the opportunity to be the veterinary delegate to the Earlsdown Three-Day Event, he refuses.Madeline is excited to get away for a little vacation, and the $15,000 check convinces him he needs to accept.Now he just has to find someone to watch his practice and pets while they are gone.Joe and Allegra both arrive to apply for the job. Finding it too hard to pick one, the McKenzie's offer Allegra and Joe a chance to share the duties. They accept, but can they get along well enough to do the job?Before the event, vets start being killed. Everyone fears a sniper, but Austin and Madeline are sure it's something more. Can they, with the help of Joe and Allegra, discover what's happening and who is the killer without putting any of them in danger?I thought the plot was well constructed. I enjoyed the details about the animals and event.Claudia Bishop did a fantastic job of interspersing the details with the investigation.This first installment in The Casebook of Dr. McKenzie is a fast reading cozy not to be missed.

I found this book entertaining. I was previously unfamiliar with Ms Bishop's work. I bought the book because I thought it was a mystery involving horses. The story involves horses but only tangentially. Nevertheless, this book enhanced my Christmas vacation. I thought the carnage among large animal vets in upstate New York a bit far-fetched. Large animal vets are becoming an endangered species anyway without murdering off that many of them. I will try the next one in this series.

Veterinarian Austin McKenzie has always loved his job working with animals. Working with college students as a professor, however, didn't suit him as well. And, as much as he loathed having to give up the cushy paycheck, he couldn't help relegating his teaching duties to a colleague to enjoy the good life with his beautiful wife, Madeline, and their menagerie of pets. After a bad stock left him close to broke, Austin knew that he had to come out of retirement and open up a private practice in order to keep up with the mounting bills. The one thing he could never have imagined, however, was how deadly the animal business truly was.

With so much competition, and being right near Cornell University, the private practice business is certainly not booming, for Summersville, New York based veterinarian, Austin McKenzie. Luckily, he has his wife, Madeline's, love to keep him warm - seeing as how the heat is close to being turned off, what with overdue bills. When Austin is offered fifteen thousand dollars to work the upcoming Earlsdown Three-Day Event, an important time for equestrians, he would love nothing more than to turn the offer down. But Madeline would so love to get away from it all for a few days, and they could truly use the money, so Austin accepts. Now, however, he needs to enlist the help of someone to take over the practice while he's gallivanting around with gussied up horse buyers. Enter Allegra and Joe, two more-than-capable veterinary students from Cornell, both vying for the position. But before Austin even has the time to choose which one he's like to hire, or head off to Earlsdown, he stumbles upon a mystery more messy than manure. Something fishy is going on with Earlsdown, and the fact that bodies of judges - many of whom are Austin's very own colleagues - keep piling up, has put him and Madeline on edge. The rest of Summersville is convinced that the murder's are just a coincidence, and the work of a sniper, but Madeline and Austin know different; and, with the help of Allegra, Joe, and some of their good, yet slightly eccentric friends, they plan to get to the bottom of the mystery, or Austin may not make it to Earlsdown.

As a huge fan of Cynthia Baxter's REIGNING CATS & DOGS MYSTERIES, I was thrilled to see that a new mystery series, based on a veterinarian, was on the market. Having never read anything by Claudia Bishop, however, I was hesitant in delving into the series. I need not have been. Austin McKenzie is an old-fashioned type of character, who reminds me quite a bit of James Herriot, sans the accent, and slightly more ornery and grumpy. His love for animals and intelligence manage to make you overlook his attitude; but the fact that he is fairly stuffy as an individual makes him unlikable. The characters of Allegra and Joe are downright obnoxious at times. Their constant bickering is not humorous, and leaves the reader thinking that a romantic relationship could develop at sometime in the future. Madeline, however, is a peach. I absolutely love her. She reminds you of a mother hen, constantly hemming, hawing, and fussing over everyone surrounding her. She alone makes the story worthwhile, and leaves me interested in stopping in for more. An interesting debut, to say the least.

Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer