Mad Dash [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Patricia Gaffney (Author), Laural Merlington (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 2007

The puppy started it. The poor thing was cold and trembling, abandoned on their front doorstep. Dash, impulsive as always, decides on the spot that they should keep it. But her husband, Andrew, thinks it’s the craziest thing he’s ever heard. A fight over a scruffy little dog doesn’t seem like much of a reason to walk out on your husband of twenty years - but the spat over the puppy is just the last of many straws. Dash is so tired of the faculty parties at Mason-Dixon College that Andrew insists they attend even though he won’t mingle with his colleagues, tired of his constant fretting over illnesses he doesn’t have, tired of the glass of warm milk he must have every night before bed. Why can’t he see that with her mother gone and their daughter off at college, Dash needs something more? Now, living on her own for the first time in years, Dash can do whatever she wants…if only she could figure out what that is. But every time she starts making plans for the future, she finds herself thinking about the past - remembering the mother she’s lost, her daughter’s childhood, and the husband she isn’t entirely sure she wants to leave behind…

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A former high school English teacher and freelance court reporter, Patricia Gaffney is the bestselling author of several historical romance novels since 1989, including her debut, Sweet Treason, the winner of won the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart award. Lately her fiction has taken a contemporary turn with The Saving Graces, Circle of Three, and The Goodbye Summer, all national bestsellers.

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Guest Reviewer: Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts, who also writes under the pseudonym J.D. Robb, is the author of over 150 bestselling, including: Angels Fall; Born in Death; Blue Smoke; The Reef; and High Noon, published in July 2007.

It’s been too long between Patricia Gaffney books. Too long, in this reader’s opinion, to settle in with a story told in her unique and engaging style. Fortunately, Mad Dash is worth the wait. By turns quirky, poignant and flat-out funny, Mad Dash mines the treasure trove of consequences, epiphanies and surprises when a long-time married couple experiences mid-life crises simultaneously.

The underlying question Gaffney asks through her utterly human characters shines a mirror on anyone who’s ever been in a relationship. How can I love you when you annoy me so much?

For Dash Bateman, floundering after the death of her mother, and with her only child off at college, a moment of impulse reaps enormous repercussions. An abandoned puppy, a husband with allergies, a simmering discontent add up to a flashover that has her walking out on her husband and their D.C. home to take up residence in their summer cabin in Virginia--with puppy.

It was all his fault anyway.

Andrew Bateman isn’t one for change or for impulses. He’s perfectly happy--or so he tells himself--with his steady if routine career as a college professor. He’s certain he’ll enjoy a little break from his energetic and often chaotic wife. A little peace and quiet, a little order, with everything in its place.

Besides, she’ll be back.

Over the six months of their strange and somehow intimate separation, Dash falls back in love with her job as a children’s portrait photographer, and remembers not only who she was, but learns to understand and accept who she is. Andrew discovers peace and quiet isn’t all he assumed it would be--and that if his eight-year-old neighbor understands women better than he does, it might be time to learn.

Using alternating points of view, Gaffney exposes he hearts and minds, the frustrations, flaws and foibles of the two central characters with such affectionate clarity, you’ll find yourself rooting for both of them. Mad Dash blends the colorful, impulsive Dash, the steady, yet hypochondria-prone Andrew with a cast of diverse, well-drawn characters, flavors them with a perfect blend of humor and heart, and simmers them together in entertaining style. The result is a delightful soufflé of a novel the reader will remember long after the last page.

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--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Gaffney's latest (after The Goodbye Summer) chronicles a 20-year marriage on the verge of imploding. Vivacious, impulsive professional photographer Dash Bateman is the opposite of her worrywart, straitlaced husband, Andrew, a history professor at Mason-Dixon College. After Dash's mother dies and the couple packs off their daughter for her freshman year at college, Dash's crisis of purpose culminates with Dash fleeing her house and husband for an extended stay in the couple's isolated cabin. As they attempt to live without one another, Andrew flirts with a feisty younger colleague and salivates over the chance to be chair of his department (if he can navigate the politics), and Dash finds a substitute mother, daughter and potential love interest. Gaffney tells the story from both Dash's and Andrew's points-of-view, allowing readers to see how the two frustrate and fall in love with one another. The writing is lively, though scenes involving conversations about the nature of love and relationships can turn tedious. The climax teeters on the edge of being over the top, but the denouement is just rosy. It's a lot of fun, and the faults are easily forgiven. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged Lib Ed; Library edition (August 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423330064
• ISBN-13: 978-1423330066
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 6.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,581,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Patricia Gaffney began her writing career with the publication of Sweet Treason, a historical romance set in revolutionary Scotland. Eleven romance novels later, she tried something different--The Saving Graces, a story of women's friendships, that ended up spending 17 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List.

Circle of Three, Flight Lessons, and The Goodbye Summer followed, all bestsellers that established Gaffney as a premier mainstream fiction writer.

Her new book is Mad Dash, the story of a happy marriage in trouble. It's due out in Spring 2008.

Gaffney, who lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, is currently at work on a novel about a man who changes his life when he finds out he's dying--then finds out he isn't. Working title: On Second Thought.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Patricia Gaffney, August 25, 2007

By 

Patricia Kay "author and avid reader" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mad Dash: A Novel (Hardcover)

I said it before, I'll say it again -- Patricia Gaffney could write a grocery list and I'd be enthralled. MAD DASH is a gem of a novel and Dash and Andrew are wonderful characters -- three dimensional, charming, fascinating, quirky, funny, and oh, so human. As other reviewers have pointed out, Gaffney tells the story from two points of view, but make no mistake, this is a woman's story. In fact, for any woman who has been married more than ten years, this is a must read. So many truths are contained in this book, one wonders if Gaffney has been spying in your house, or worse, reading your mind, for how else could she know these things? I kept laughing (quietly, I didn't want my husband to ask what was so funny) as I read, and I didn't want the book to be over. Sadly, it was. Now the wait begins for another Gaffney book. Hurry up, Pat. Some of us are not very patient! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A SUPPLE, SMOOTH VOICE PERFORMANCE, August 19, 2007

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mad Dash (Audio CD)

Decisions, decisions, decisions....life's full of them, isn't it? Sometimes we live to regret them; at other times we're thankful for powers that help us choose which is best.

Dash Bateman finds herself in a quandary, an unhappy one. Married for two decades to Andrew she now finds him bothersome. In fact, almost everything he does bothers her. Isn't it ridiculous that he needs a glass of warm milk at bedtime or that he forces her to go to faculty parties that he obviously doesn't enjoy?

Their daughter has recently gone to college, and she lost her mother a short while ago. Now, it seems that's all that's left for her is Andrew and she doesn't believe that's near enough. Dash is convinced there must be more in life for her than what she has, but where is it or who is it? She leaves, retreats to their summer cabin.

It comes as no surprise that recently Andrew hasn't found much joy in their relationship either. He's a college professor who likes quiet, and order in his life. He certainly didn't want the abandoned puppy they found on their doorstep! He thinks with Dash gone he can concentrate on his work and enjoy a peaceful existence.....for a change.

Gaffney tells her story in alternate points of view as we learn more about both Dash and Andrew and, as it evolves, they learn more about themselves and each other. How strong are love's ties? What brought them together 20 years ago?

It would seem almost logical that in an almost two character story an audio version would have a male and a female voice. This is not the case, and actress Laural Merlington does a splendid job of reflecting both personalities, their hopes and their dreams. Many will remember her for vivid narrations of Acts of Malice, Back On Blossom Street, Beautiful Dreamer, etc. Merlington is an experienced performer who always delivers her best in a voice both supple and smooth.

- Gail Cooke

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warm, witty, wise, and wonderful, June 15, 2008

By 

D. K. Stokes - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mad Dash: A Novel (Hardcover)

Patricia Gaffney's women's fiction books are a real challenge for me. I can't resist them, because she's such a fabulous writer, and because she's witty and wise and, well, I don't think it's exaggerating much to call her a goddess. On the other hand, it's women's fiction. In general, it's the one genre I loathe. At best, it's serious. At worst, it's whiny women who blame men for all their problems. It's a good thing I love Gaffney, because otherwise I'd hate her. Not only does she make me read women's fiction... she makes me love it.

Dash and Andrew have been married nearly 20 years. He's a stuffy history professor, she's a free-spirited photographer. Dash's mother died recently, and now their only child is going off to college. Then a puppy shows up on their doorstep. Dash wants to keep it; Andrew's allergic. Dash and the puppy move out, going to their cottage.

Andrew: She's leaving me? Over a puppy?

Dash: How can he not see that it's not about the puppy?

I'd venture to say that most long-married couples will recognize the spirit behind their confusion--Pat has human nature down so well that these characters feel utterly real.

Like many couples in their situation, they've taken each other for granted, focused on their careers, their children, their aging parents, and when that outside focus is taken away, they find themselves married to someone they don't know, and maybe don't even like all that much. And the women (though this could apply to men, too, but in this case, it's Dash) discover that after years of devoting themselves to other people--husband, parents, children--there's nothing left of themselves.

How Dash and Andrew cope with the separation and learn and grow and find themselves and each other again is a story full of warmth and humor and pain and love and realism. It's truly a wonderful book.

All the moreso because it brought me to an odd realization about myself, which was both uncomfortable and inspiring.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.