The Back of Beyond

When an attractive young woman physician with a broken heart joins the all-male Flying Doctors Service in the Australian Outback just before the outbreak of WW II, she finds more than the usual possibilities for adventure, romance and heartache. Cassie Clarke has fought to be a respected medical professional in a male world. After her affair with a callous colleague ends disastrously, she swears off men forever and flees to the vast Outback, joining the ranks of the emergency doctors who travel ``the Back of Beyond'' by plane. Cassie's emotional defenses melt when she meets Outback rancher Blake Thompson, but he, too, breaks her heart--by marrying her best friend. Cassie responds by running headlong into an imperfect marriage. Bickmore ( The Moon Below ) makes Cassie a contemporary female role model: a woman who won't give up anything for a man, who enjoys her sexuality and who welcomes the chance to have children. Though an improbable number of accidents, illnesses and deaths befall the people in her life, Cassie remains appealing as she soldiers through each crisis. Bickmore's descriptions of Cassie's emergency medical procedures are unflinching and credible, her portrayal of the extreme landscape stark. (Apr.)