Political Suicide

November 19, 2012
Bestseller Palmer soft-pedals his usual medical agenda in his disappointing second Dr. Lou Welcome thriller (after 2011’s Oath of Office). Lou, who was once in treatment for amphetamine and alcohol dependence, receives a distress call from a close doctor friend, Gary McHugh, whose struggles with alcohol Lou has been overseeing at the Washington, D.C., Physician Wellness Office. The police are about to arrest Gary for the shooting murder of Congressman Elias Colston, the chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services, with whose wife, Jeannine, Gary had been having an affair. Gary, drunk, had gone to Colston’s Maryland home to see Jeannine, but found Colston’s body instead. Lou, who sets out to exonerate his friend, even though Gary’s lawyer warns him off the case, stumbles into trouble and lucks his way out in an investigation that points to a supersecret mission known as Operation Talon. The unoriginal military action scenes will leave fans of that subgenre rolling their eyes. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency.

December 1, 2012
Political, legal, military and medical mayhem all rolled up into a bite-size package--well, for those who take big bites, anyway. The too-perfectly named Louis Francis Welcome, M.D., who figured in the prolific Palmer's last novel, Oath of Office (2012), has his work cut out for him. Formerly an emergency room doctor, his practice now involves leading addicted docs through the cure. "What I have is a handful of doctors who are in terrific, solid recovery," he proudly notes. But he hadn't reckoned with Gary McHugh, an M.D. determined to drink the Potomac dry and seemingly unconcerned with the whole business of healing himself before setting to work on the society dames of Washington. Alas, there's the rub: A congressman turns up dead, and McHugh has, well, been treating said congressman's wife with a little too much bedside manner. But there's more to it than that: There are Black Ops dudes crawling around everywhere, their tans freshly sprayed on to blend into the wilds of Afghanistan but not be out of place inside the well-groomed confines of the Beltway, either. Why would they want anyone but the Taliban dead? Well, that's just one question that resonates through this book, which is surely less formulaic than it could be while still honoring all the hard-boiled conventions of the political-thriller genre. Palmer is no Trevanian, but he handles his story with confidence, and he can write a sentence. Best of all, he has the good grace to let Welcome bow out here and there to let other players on the good-guy team shine, chief among them a legal beagle who won't take no for an answer, not even when Navy SEALs are on the issuing end. A competent entertainment; nothing to think about overmuch, but with plenty of chills and spills.

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December 1, 2012
Dr. Lou Welcome, who supervises other doctors through the Physician Wellness Office, is shocked to discover that a friend and colleague might be mixed up in the homicide of a U.S. congressman. Not willing to accept that his friend is a murderer, Lou starts digging only to uncover a deadly conspiracy. If this all sounds a bit familiar, it's because it's pretty much the same story, with minor variations, as Oath of Office (2012), which introduced Welcome, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, which explains why he's not supervising other doctors with troubled histories. It's not a bad book, but like its predecessor, it misses several opportunities for surprising plot twists and has the overall feeling of been-there, done-that (too many times). Palmer can be a talented and original storyteller, but of late his writing feels lethargic, and his stories repetitive and predictable. Devoted readers might enjoy this one, but it won't win him any new fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)