Oath of Office

By: Michael Palmer

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling 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, 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 Welcome worked with Meacham years before as a counselor after John's medical license had been revoked for drug addiction.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. 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.

©2012 Michael Palmer (P)2012 Macmillan Audio

Flat As Imitation Cola

You've drunk the stuff... Looks like Coke, Pepsi, or Dr. Pepper, maybe smells like one of them - and then you taste it. Ewwwww! There's no there - there. And that's the problem with "Oath of Office". Palmer is an imitator, good enough to get published, even good enough to have an audience of franken-writing people guzzle it, But for folks like me who've ingested the Pepsi, Cokes, and Dr. Ps for years, the book is like a sugar-free doughnut with all the gluten, trans-fats, and most of its taste excised. Think of it as say... Robin Cook's med-thriller plotting and narrative after lipo-suctioning away too much muscle.

Palmer's frank in the ending interview in explaining that his knowledge of politics is Google-grazing thin. And yet, this is supposed to be a political thriller. Instead it's an off brand of Hubris Cola, all looks and smell but a gassy tease that leaves my taste buds really frustrated. Ditto the pointless action sequences sufficient to create the weight of a novel.

I cared about no one in this cast in spite of Robert Petkoff's journeyman voices. The only one surprised over who-dunnit, or why-dunnit is Dr. Lou Welcome the novel's half-dimensional hero. This book stirs at ideas with an itsy-bitsy swizzle stick. Perhaps doctors should keep to doctoring, or at least write about doctoring and leave geo-political existentialism to people who do that? Or, as Dr. Palmer admits in his interview, he's careened around through extra-curricular interests a lot and has settled upon political thriller writing because some of his best friends do it.

Judging by all the books he's had published, well, he's found an audience. And maybe there's such an appetite among people who like Robin Cook's medical thrillers that they're easily sated between Cook's books?

Dunno... But just as I've learned to pass when a server offers me Milly's Cola instead of Coke, Pepsi, or Dr. P... This experience with Michael Palmer's flat characters and clattering action scenes... leaves me yearning for the truthiness of writers who either know what they are writing about, or have learned to fake it.

Beware, this book's the Milly's Cola of franken-novels.

wish I could get refund

What disappointed you about Oath of Office?

the story was not good at all. why was it printed or in audio beats me!!!!

Would you ever listen to anything by Michael Palmer again?

nope, would not do that again.

What didn’t you like about Robert Petkoff’s performance?

n/a

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

none

Any additional comments?

would love a refund, or a better book.

Oath of Office

Any additional comments?

Audiobook. For the first half of this book, the reader is wondering how the two disparate stories unfolding can possibly be connected. A first lady weaving through a mystery involving a disgraced cabinet member and a seemingly unrelated emergency room doctor dealing with mysterious and murderous behaviors. I suppose this should be an endorsement to the author ability to outline and create an intriguing plot. The problem, in my opinion, is credibility and elements brought into the story that add little to what is fundamentally, and interesting tale.

Personally, I’d have eliminated the first lady and protagonist romance, gimme a break … it blows the credibility of the story completely and makes it comical. I’ve read a few Michael Palmer stories and this one doesn’t measure up.

Corny!!

If you listen to this book you will know why I said it is corny! and it really is. Not only that, it is terrible. I agree with the previous review, that it is disjointed. It is also not really a medical mystery, although characters are MD's. Also a forced romantic part and a silly politcal angle. I can't believe Palmer wrote this.

Very disappointed

This story was so predictable and simplistic I couldn't even finish it. Michael Connelly has written some good stories, so I really was not expecting such a terrible plot, but this is what I would expect from a mid-level high school kid.

Okay, who really wrote this book?

I enjoy Michael Palmer's stories a lot, but this is just too bizarre. It sounds like a science fiction novel.