Thursday 3 June 2010

Adult Fiction dentists can sink their teeth into...

Click on the BOOK TITLE call number in the University of Toronto Libraries, unless specified.

ADULT FICTION
 
Sagebrush Dentist. by Dr. Will Frackelton
Sagebrush Dentist (as told to Herman Gastrell Seely) tells the story of a "tenderfoot dentist who saw the last days of the winning of the West." Characters such as Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill, Indians of the Custer Massacre, veterans of Fort Kearny and a host of others were still on the scene. This is the real "he-man story" of the life of a man who had to establish his professional life as much through his fists, guns and main strength as by his dental skill.

Dentist of Auschwitz by Benjamin Jacobs
In 1941 Berek Jakubowicz (now Benjamin Jacobs) was deported from his Polish village and remained a prisoner of the Reich until the final days of the war. His possession of a few dental tools and rudimentary skills saved his life. Jacobs helped assemble V1 and V2 rockets in Buchenwald and Dora-Mittelbau; spent a year and a half in Auschwitz, where he was forced to remove gold teeth from corpses; and survived the RAF attack on three ocean liners turned prison camps in the Bay of Lubeck. (amazon site)

Aint No Valley: A Novel by Sharon Ewell Foster
Against the backdrop of San Francisco, Anthony, a banking executive, and Naomi, a dentist, are two people who have trusted their jobs and status to make them whole--until they are suddenly without either. Filled with signature humor, this story takes them on an unexpected search for a new life.

The Daisy Ducks by Rick Boyer (available in Toronto Public Library)
The raunchy, adventure-seeking Boston dentist Doc Adams. In this, third in the series, Adams recounts his latest gaudy swashbuckling escapades, this time instigated by his buddy Liatis Roantis. Leader of the Daisy Ducks, a team of commandos in Vietnam, Roantis had stashed a fortune in Kowloon at the war's end. He wants Adams to help him retrieve the loot, but before they can plan the trip, the veteran is almost a dead Duck from a sniper shot. While Roantis recuperates, the dentist acts on suspicions that his friends' former comrades are guilty of the attack. Adams meets them all and they are gathered together at the book's furious, blood-chilling climax, even Roantis (well again) and the "Daisy," for whom the Ducks were fighting. Tough as the company is, no one in it can make Adams cringe as his fierce wife Mary does, when she catches up with her errant spouse. (Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

High Stakes (Vegas Vampires, Book 1) by Erin McCarthy
In Ethan's world, vampires are civilized beings who have wealth, power, and their own chosen leaders, voted on by their peers. This year, Ethan is up for re-election, and he knows one way to clinch the win is to have a lovely, biddable wife at his side. He believes he's found her in Brittany Baldizzi. She is a sweet-tempered dentist with a soft heart and a fabulous figure - the perfect political wife. He sets out to woo her as his bride, and the taste of victory is within reach....but not if fiery-tempered Alexis has anything to say about it. Alexis will do anything to protect Brittany, even sacrifice herself to the blood-sucking monster out to trap her innocent and naive sister.

MYSTERY SERIES

The Steve Raymond Series
Death in the Dentist's Chair by Eric B. Olsen
Crime-solving dentist Steve Raymond is back in an all-new mystery. When a colleague brings disturbing news of a patient who has died in her chair, she calls on the Seattle dentist for help. Little does Dr. Raymond realize that his offer to treat the surviving family members will draw him into another murder investigation. At the same time Steve is playing saxophone with the best band he's ever been in. But the choice between music and dentistry is just one of the decisions Steve will have to make. Suspects abound, and time is running out, as death sits in a most unlikely place. (amazon site) The Daisy Dalrymple

Die Laughing by Carola Dunn (available in Toronto Public Library)
In April 1924, the honourable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher must face her darkest fears and confront the one person she's tried to avoid - the dentist. But upon arriving for her appointment, she discovers the dentist stone-cold dead. (amazon site)

Dead Creek (Loon Lake Fishing Mystery Series) by Victoria Houston
This is not your typical small-town mystery featuring a cozy fishing village. Retired dentist Paul Osborne has a habit of coming accross dead bodies, and this time it's a doozy. Four dead bodies are left frozen in a cage, with one displaying rather disturbing gender parts. Paul would rather not have much to do with this, but when asked by the lovely Police Chief Lew Ferris to help out, he cannot refuse. Paul is aided by his trusty young friend Ray, who comes from a family of lawyers and doctors yet chooses to live off the land poaching and tracking.

POETRY

Can Dentists Be Trusted? by Martina Evans
Martina Evans' third collection of poems begins and ends in the dentist's chair. In between come stories ranging from an Irish childhood to present-day London, featuring voices from the poet's own to those of her family, her cat, and a supporting cast of hectoring lawyers, born bores and rambling mothers. (Amazon website)  


NON-FICTION

The Right Bite: Dentists as Detectives (24/7: Science Behind The Scene: Forensic Files) by Elizabeth Siris Wichester
With lots of gruesome detail, this slim title in the 24/7 Science behind the Scenes: Forensic Files series uses true-life cases to bring close how forensic dentists identify corpses by their teeth or bite marks. The interactive text is very chatty ("Say some forensic dentist needs to identify a victim"), and each double-page spread is filled with screens, boxes, color photos, and bits of information for browsers. Based on interviews with forensic dentists, the book discusses a murder conviction where the criminal left a bite mark on the victim, a plane crash where forensic dentists identified more than 100 victims, and more. Then there is today's headline drama: 87 percent of Asia's recent tsunami victims were identified by forensic dentists, who are now working with Katrina victims. A final section looks at tools and equipment, including the use of digital imaging. The "gross stuff" will draw readers, who will also enjoy the combination of science, disaster, and up-to-date detective work. (ALA)  

Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend by Gary L. Roberts
Doc Holliday, one of the most famous western gunfighters, died of tuberculosis at the ripe old age of 36. But he left behind him a legend so immense that, even with the addition of this effusively sourced biography, the truth about the man may never be known. There are a few facts: Holliday was a dentist, he became a gambler and a gunslinger, and he was involved in the infamous gunfight at the OK Corral. Roberts' role here is a bit like that of a judge, examining the testimonies and deciding which witnesses to believe and which to discard. The result is an engagingly written, persuasively argued, solidly documented work of scholarship that will surely take its place in the literature of the Old West. (amazon website)

The Fourth Horseman by Randy Lee Eickhoff (available in Toronto Public Library)
John Henry "Doc" Holliday first confronted death as an adolescent in Reconstruction Georgia in the mid-1860s. With Yankee carpetbaggers working diligently to strip what remained of southern dignity, young John shot a man when he bragged of molesting John's mother. After his father sent him away to protect him from the law, he gambled, drank, and immersed himself in the pleasures of the flesh. With the onset of tuberculosis, he went West, falling in with the Earp brothers and participating in the infamous shootout at the OK Corral. Although Eickhoff imbues Holliday with a mythic grandeur that--especially near the conclusion--becomes burdensome, this is still a great adventure, well told. (One cautionary note: southerner Holliday's attitude toward the black Union occupation troops is brutally racist.) (amazon site)

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