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Oath of Office by Michael Palmer

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
From the New York Times bestselling author of A Heartbeat Away and The Last Surgeon comes a shocking new novel at the crossroads of politics and medicine.

What if a well respected doctor inexplicably goes on a murderous rampage?

When Dr. John Meacham goes on a shooting spree the office, his business partner, staff, and two patients are killed in the bloodbath. Then Meacham turns the gun on himself.

The blame falls on Dr. Lou Welcome. Welcome worked with Meacham years before as a counselor after John's medical license had been revoked for drug addiction. Lou knew that John was an excellent doctor and deserved to be practicing medicine and fought hard for his license to be restored. After hearing the news of the violent outburst, Lou is in shock like everyone else, but mostly he's incredulous. And when he begins to look into it further, the terrifying evidence he finds takes him down a path to an unspeakable conspiracy that seems to lead directly to the White House and those in the highest positions of power.

Goodreads Summary

Dr. John Meacham appears to be going about business when something odd happens-he kills two patients, his business partner, and staff.  Dr. Welcome is blamed as he helped Dr. Meacham earn back his medical license after losing it to alcohol abuse.  Dr. Welcome believed in Dr. Meacham's capability as a doctor.  As a result, Dr. Welcome is under inspection himself.    Dr. Welcome still believes in Dr. Meacham even after the horrible shooting, he resolves to dig deeper into the occurrence and uncover the other possibilities-that maybe Dr. Meacham's shooting was something else entirely.  Dr. Welcome discovers that similar occurrences have can be found in the town itself as well as a suspicious termite mound with termites that are far from the norm.  The book takes off from there. 

Dr. Welcome is a character the reader will like.  He is inquisitive, intelligent, and caring.  He exudes integrity, the reader knows that what he is telling him/her is true, he holds nothing back.  The other characters the reader will have to decide his/her opinion of them, some are easy to relate to while others will make the reader want to shake him/her.  The events are fast-paced, the mystery does not lag or include extraneous information.  The transitions are smooth and the plot is easy to follow while still containing intricacies that will force the reader to think.  The plot develops over the course of the book and the reader will unlikely not be able to guess at the ending-there are plenty of surprises and twists that the reader will have to think twice about.  This book was exciting and fun to read, recommended to adult readers.

4 Stars


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This product or book may have been distributed for review, this in no way affects my opinions or reviews.

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