Coming Home to Liverpool

This is the fourth book in a series from this author. I haven’t read any of the others but found it easy enough to pick up the story line. It’s a good, easy read and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I guessed the story line.

Set in Liverpool towards the end of the 19th Century, Coming Home to Liverpool tells the story of Maud, Alice and Eddie who all work as nurses at the Liverpool Infirmary. As the story opens, Maud is on her way back to Liverpool from New York where she has been learning more modern medical practices and her two best friends, Alice and Eddie, are eagerly awaiting her arrival. The book tells the story of what happened during the next few months.

This book was an enjoyable and easy read. The characters were well developed and each had their own individual personality which made them believable. In terms of the lives of the people working in the medical profession, the book was written with a conviction that made me think this area had been well researched by the author and it was fascinating to see how things have changed. Nurses, for example, were not allowed to be married, smoking in the operating theatre was a commonplace practice and medical procedures were certainly very different from what we are used to nowadays.

There were a couple of issues which I had with the book, the first being that the plot did occasionally overstep the mark when it came to plausibility. For me, the most glaring example of this was the stereotypical “baddy” whose motives and demeanour I found less than convincing. This could be partly due to the fact that, unbeknown to me, this was the third book of a series. I did feel on numerous occasions that there was some kind of backstory (between two characters for example) which was driving their behaviour, but which hadn’t been adequately explained. Now I know why. The final problem was that I did not really feel that there was enough depth to the book to warrant a very high star rating.

This book is basically an easy holiday read and if you are looking for something in that genre then I would have no problem recommending it. However, although it does work as a standalone book, I would recommend that you read the series in chronological order.

Maud a trained nurse arrives back to Liverpool from NYC .She brings back amongst other things some modern work experiences . A fascinating insight into nursing in the 19thC . Good research by author makes for a moving story which draws you into the book of wonderful characters . You don’t necessarily to have read any of others in the series or have watched Call the Midwife to enjoy this. Well worth a read thank you to Michael Joseph Penguin Random House for copy in exchange for my review.