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OATH OF OFFICE is the first of Michael Palmer’s works I’ve read. I do like a good thriller and this one satisfies on all fronts. It sounds authoritative on subjects involved. That’s all I require. There’s way more subjects I’m ignorant of than of which I have working knowledge. But I am smart enough to know BS when I hear it. Mr. Palmer knows of what
he speaks. Or he disguises it well. In either case, I don’t care.
Doctor Lou Welcome is shocked when he learns of one of his patients from the Physician’s Wellness Office, Dr. John Meachum, goes on a shooting spree at his office, shouting “No Witnesses!”, killing seven, then turning the gun on himself. Lou had worked hard to get his license restored and the blame falls on him, getting him suspended, firing surely to follow.
Welcome starts looking into it and traces something odd to the small town of Kings Ridge. Meachum lived there and when he gets to the hospital, he finds a doctor carelessly probing for the bullet in Meachum’s head in Intensive Care instead of an operating theater, he begins to suspect something odd. Lapses of judgment are infecting people: Meachum’s wife, driving with Lou riding with her, nearly kills them while recklessly pursuing another car with a burnt out taillight, a young man gets a thumb severed while trying to snatch a piece of carrot from under a chef’s razor sharp knife.
As the mystery deepens, the conspiracy seems to rise to the highest offices of the government and Lou teams up with a most unusual ally to find out what’s going on here.
This was a fine read. A few reviewers on Amazon claim this was not the author’s best work. The only thing I can say to that is I’ve got some damn good books to look forward to tracking down.
Recommended and available HERE.
