The Medicine Woman of Galveston

The Medicine Woman of Galveston (2024) is a novel by Amanda Skenandore. The story follows Dr. Tucia Hatherley, a doctor and single mother who is forced to join a traveling medicine show to provide for herself and her young son. The Medicine Woman of Galveston is Skenandore’s fifth book and explores themes of Examining and Dismantling Stereotypes and Prejudice, The Ethics of Survival, and The Workplace Challenges Faced by Women.

Skenandore is an award-winning author and a registered nurse, with her debut novel, Between Earth and Sky (2018), winning the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List award for Best Historical Fiction of the year. Her other works include the historical fiction novels The Undertaker’s Assistant (2019), The Second Life of Mirielle West (2021,) and The Nurse’s Secret (2022).

This guide uses the 2024 Kensington Books Kindle Edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of mental illness, substance use, illness, death, sexual content, physical abuse, sexual violence, rape, ableism, and racism.

Plot Summary

In the year 1900, Dr. Tucia Hatherley witnesses a colleague lose an arm, and subsequently her life, in a horrific accident at work in a clothing factory. Tucia is not a practicing doctor, having given up medicine years ago. During her internship, she was raped by one of the overseeing doctors, Dr. Archibald Addams. When she refused further advances from him, he forced her into a mistake in the operating theatre that cost a patient their life and earned Tucia an expulsion. Ever since, Tucia has experienced traumatic flashbacks that leave her unable to practice medicine.

The incident in the factory brings back flashbacks of Tucia’s past, causing her to be late for work the next few days; she subsequently loses her job. She frantically searches for fresh employment as she has debt and must provide for her seven-year-old son, Toby, who has Down syndrome. Toby is Dr. Addams’s son, though he does not know of his existence. Tucia is approached by a man named Hugh “Huey” Horn, who uses the alias “the Amazing Adolphus.” Huey runs a medicine show and needs a licensed physician to lend it some legitimacy. He offers to take on Tucia’s debt if she joins the show; a desperate Tucia accepts.

Huey, Tucia, and Toby travel to where the show is currently set up, on the outskirts of a faraway town. Tucia meets the rest of the company: Calvin Trout, or “Cal Crip Caboo,” a talented musician with bowlegs; Franziska “Fanny” Trout, or “Grazyna the Dancing Giant,” a ballet dancer with gigantism; and Lawrence Hiya, an Indigenous American man whom Huey calls “Chief Big Sky.” Cal and Fanny’s son, Al, also travels with the show, as does Darl, a man who helps set up and fix things but doesn’t perform with them.

Tucia and Toby watch the show on their first night with the group. Tucia is enthralled by the performances but entirely taken aback by Huey’s story of discovering a snake oil elixir that cures all ailments, which he peddles to the crowd for $1 a bottle. Tucia tries to talk Huey into selling something of value instead, like soap, but he reminds her of her debt and forces her to perform on stage as the mind-reading “Madame Zabelle.” Tucia experiences flashbacks and freezes on stage for a number of days, unable to perform. However, when Huey threatens to withhold her payment unless she finds a way to perform, Tucia asks Fanny for help. Fanny gives Tucia breathing exercises and sage advice on focusing on the present moment. Tucia overcomes her anxiety and successfully performs.

Along with Tucia’s performances as “Madame Zabelle,” Huey enlists her to aid him in “medical examinations.” He sets up a case-taking tent where he meets patients and gives them false diagnoses, selling them Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) marketed as healing powder. Tucia and Toby travel with the show for months, during which time Tucia learns each of the other performers’ stories. Each of them have troubled pasts that Huey uses to exploit them and keep them bound to the show.

Cal and Fanny were in a circus together, which they escaped along with Al, Fanny’s late friend Lena’s son, whose abusive boyfriend Fanny accidentally killed. Lawrence was arrested for revolting against the American government’s attempts to take over tribal land and leased out to traveling shows in lieu of serving his sentence in prison. Darl and Huey were in prison together, and they broke out and escaped on Huey’s insistence, with Huey killing a prison guard on the way out. They have been on the run ever since. With Tucia, Huey deceitfully manipulates her expenses to extend her debt constantly, keeping her tied to the show.

Troubled by the unethical farce of the medicine show, Tucia convinces Huey to let her set up a palmistry tent, where she secretly dispenses actual medical advice to her customers. She also grows closer to Darl, and the two begin a secret affair. Tucia tells him the truth about her past, including what Dr. Addams did and Toby’s true parentage.

Following the summer, Huey unexpectedly announces to the company that they will be overwintering in Galveston, where an acquaintance with a museum and an attached theatre has offered them the opportunity to perform in the theatre. Once they arrive in Galveston, however, Huey and Mr. Darby, the museum owner, tell Tucia that her sideshow will involve having to perform sex acts masquerading as genital examinations. Huey has discovered the truth about Tucia’s palmistry tent and also knows of her affair with Darl. He threatens to have Darl and all the others locked up in prison if Tucia doesn’t comply with the new plan.

Tucia resigns herself to her fate, but on the morning of their first scheduled show, a hurricane hits the island. A frantic Tucia searches for Toby, who has been missing since that morning. She and Fanny take shelter with strangers, where Fanny is injured in an accident. Overcoming her nerves, Tucia successfully tends to Fanny’s injuries and takes her to the hospital the next morning after the storm has passed. The doctor at the hospital is impressed with Tucia’s handiwork and asks her to help out there, and Tucia promises to return once she has found Toby.

As Tucia searches for Toby through the storm-ravaged streets, she comes across Huey looting from the dead. Huey attempts to coerce Tucia into doing his dirty work; in the scuffle, Tucia gets a hold of Huey’s gun and shoots him in self-defense. However, not wanting to be like Dr. Addams and let a person die in front of her, she tends to his wound immediately. The two of them are found by deputized lawmakers, who arrest Huey after hearing their stories. To Tucia’s relief, she eventually discovers Toby, safe and healthy, in one of the houses right next to their boarding house.

After Fanny recovers, Cal and Fanny leave Galveston with plans to start a music and dance troupe of their own, while Lawrence returns to his home territory. Huey is in jail, awaiting trial. Tucia stays on to help out in Galveston, with the doctor at the hospital working to find her a permanent job. Darl chooses to stay with her.