Oath of Office
A physician with a history of behavioral issues shoots and kills several people in his office before trying to take his own life. It falls to Dr. Lou Welcome, the assailants friend and former colleague, to determine why the man went on his murderous rampage, but Welcome doesn’t bargain for a conspiracy that could lead directly to the Oval Office. This is a weaker novel than Palmer’s Last Surgeon (2010), but it’s stronger than A Heartbeat Away (2011), leaving it in the midrange of Palmer’s up-and-down swing. Its characters are sturdy, but the story doesn’t have the spark that made his early work such a treat. Palmer doesn’t seem all that interested in his plot. He seems content to let it be another frequently predictable conspiracy story, although there are places where it could have veered off in a new and surprising direction. This is one of those cases where there’s nothing especially wrong with the book, but it isn’t especially memorable, either. Not a complete misfire but, from an author with undeniable talent, a disappointment. --David Pitt