Wow, what a story! As usual, Robert Hough, in this, his fourth novel, does what he does best: tell a good story. Dr. Brinkley’s Tower takes place in a small Mexican pueblo, just south of the border with Texas in the early 1930’s. John Romulus Brinkley, our doctor, is more a con artist than a physician. With his “procedure” to help men in distress, a precursor to the little blue pill, he’s made a lot of money, but he is dreaming of more. So he decides to erect a radio tower in this little village to circumvent the FCC. This tower will help Brinkley promote his procedure across the United States, and apparently, on a good night, all the way to Russia. But the story is more than Brinkley’s story. It is about the unique characters that live in Corazón de la Fuente. It’s about Francisco Ramirez, a young man looking for love, or Madam Felix, the local operator of the House of Gentlemanly Pleasures, or also Antonio Garcia, a hacendero who lost almost everything during the Revolution. What Hough has done is build stories around all of these unique, colourful characters that try to survive the life around this town with the arrival of the tower. There are no heroes in this story. These people we meet are all flawed, they all want to improve their lives and do what they can to achieve that. Or maybe, there is a hero after all, and maybe that collection of individuals, the ones who survive, can all be considered heroes. There is a bit of everything in this tale: love, humour, violence, drinking, but oddly enough, very little sex! It keeps you entertained, and you can hardly wait to see what will happen next to this cast of characters. I highly recommend this. You won’t regret it. Oh, and by the way, if you buy this as an ebook, you get additional content, which gives you a bit more background on some of these stories.

This is a really good book; I call it a "station-misser", in that I got so engrossed in it, I missed my subway stop! It gave me the same feeling that I had when I read Louis de Berniere's "Corelli's Mandolin" - redolent with the smells and noise and chatter of a small Mexican village along the Rio Grande. You can almost taste the dust in the tacos. It will make a great movie - I see Selena Gomez as Violeta, and John Lithgow as Dr. B. But for now, get it, read it, savour it. And then go out for Mexican food, because you'll want some, believe me.