Good stories entertain. Exceptional story-telling transports you to new, unfamiliar worlds and gets you to care for its characters, their struggles inspiring you to overcome your own. If you’re after pure entertainment, Old Hickory Lane may at times disappoint. If you seek a smart, engaging story, you should read DL Keur‘s tale.

Set in Cedar Falls, Idaho, Old Hickory Lane shows us the life a veterinarian prodigy, Warren Jeffreys, as he kick-starts a career specializing in horses, while taking detours to serve other species of farm animals and their owners. Served as a string of tightly connected vignettes, one might note this story lacks a central conflict of the sort we might observe in a TV crime procedural. Missing will be the murder mystery, or the conspiracy to raise doped up, genetically engineer stallions. While some of those elements appear, they remain a sideshow to the real conflict we might miss when looking for simple entertainment.

Warren must grapple with a choice between his dream to become a big time veterinarian in world class horse show circles, or assume a simpler life among folk, some of whom dare dream of aspirations to that big show. In this world, he must also contend with his mixed heritage, the discrimination and prejudice from which he suffers, and the resentment he’s built which hinders how he relates to those with whom he interacts. If we were to demand action-based, linearly plotted story-telling, we might also miss the intricately researched details of Keur’s tale. She offers us medical accuracy and situations that could easily turn into dull narrative, but which sweeps us along with urgency and realism to show us Dr. Jeffreys expertise alongside his more dream-like inner ability to read animals from the inside out.

To congeal this story, DL Keur’s style and crisp prose draws us along with smooth, almost unassuming prose that I as a writer can only envy. If you’re looking for a rewarding story that will connect with you in a different way than the formulaic, genre-cliches out there, definitely give Old Hickory Lane a try.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.