Dancing With Dr Kildare

by Jane Yardley

The day Nina's father dies, she discovers an old music manuscript written in his hand and locked away in a desk. Her father was no musical genius, so where did this symphony come from, and what compelled him to keep it hidden? The answer lies in a web of deceit that reaches back forty years.

Digging into her family's past, Nina is forced to reconsider her own traumatic childhood, when her father's chronic hypochondria nearly destroyed her family. Nina's sole refuge had been the home of her best friend, whose parents were world champions of ballroom dancing. There she had found relief in the glittering world of Argentinian tango.

But as the symphony forces her to confront difficult questions about her past and her father's dark secret, Nina soon begins to wish she had never unlocked that desk . . .

Paperback

First published January 22, 2008

About the author

Jane Yardley is an English author, raised in a village in 1960s Essex. She went to university in London and gained a Ph.D. degree from Charing Cross Hospital Medical School.

Although living in London she spends much of her time travelling around the world co-ordinating medical trials for a small Japanese pharmaceutical company,indeed she says that her first novel Painting Ruby Tuesday (2003) was written on aeroplanes.It concerns ten-year old Angharad (Annie) Craddock, whose neighbours are being brutally murdered; including Mrs. Clitheroe who shared Annies love of music and her synaesthesia, as Annie puts it "We see things in colour that aren’t. Not just music. Numbers. Letters. Days of the week. People’s names.". Jane Yardley herself experiences synaesthesia and it inspired her to write the book.
Her newesr novel Dancing with Dr Kildare was published by Doubleday on 2 January 2008.

Reviews

[Hilary G · Rating 3 out of 5]

June 2013
Having just re-read this book, I have downgraded it from 4 stars to 3. I am not sure why I enjoyed it so much less this time, it wasn't because I remembered the story because I only remembered it vaguely. For some reason, I found the book irritating this time. It was supposed to be about a mysterious manuscript found on the death of the heroine's father, but sometimes it seemed as if the author had forgotten all about it. Also, the involvement of the police was ridiculous - as if they would care about a lost symphony, they barely care about anything except speeding and hate crimes these days. The writer is quite articulate and some of the characters were engaging, but on reflection, it may have been better not to re-read the book and to remember it more affectionately than I feel about it now.

February 2011
Another lovely book by Jane Yardley. As I have only just joined Goodreads and I am entering a lot of books that I have read in the last couple of years, I am noticing a pattern. I seem to like books that explore the mysteries in families - Kate Atkinson, Barbara Vine, Jane Yardley and, to some extent Sophie Hannah, all seem to be in this business. Well, so be it. I enjoy all those writers. The unravelling of mysteries within families, usually by a member of the family and usually pertaining to the past is more intimate than the normal crime mysteries solved by the police or a detective. Dancing with Dr Kildare was a really enjoyable novel about a woman finding a mysterious document in her deceased father's desk and finding out more than she bargained for.

[Sainabou · Rating 2 out of 5]

i hate the writer's sytle of writing, to me it felt like i was reading something as old as T S Elliot's Silas Marner, i didnt even finish it and that never happens to me b ut this time, i could read it anymore. Even though, the lot was interesting, the writing style for me was just too terrible

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Make no mistake Jane Yardley is a considerable author. Not at all what you would expect from the cover.