Review by Booklist Review
The Hippocratic oath, that is. At the center of this latest legal thriller by master yarn spinner Lescroart is Parnassus, San Francisco's largest HMO, which is on the brink of bankruptcy. The heart of Parnassus' problems is the now-classic struggle of financial realities versus patient needs. When Tim Markham, the CEO of the flailing HMO, is struck by a hit-and-run driver and subsequently dies at the hospital, it's an unfortunate but random act, just like every other hit-and-run. Or is it? The lovable, curmudgeonly detective Abe Glitzky, back at the Lescroart helm, doesn't think so. Glitzky consults his team of confidantes, including his new wife, an assistant DA, and his best pal, attorney Dismas Hardy. Glitzky is none too pleased that he also has to enlist the help of two new bumbling but politically connected rookies. When an autopsy reveals that Markham's death resulted not from the hit-and-run but from an overdose at the hospital, attending physician Eric Kensing becomes the suspect, as this death is not the first suspicious one under his watch. A classic Lescroart conflict develops when Kensing retains Hardy as his defense attorney, pitting buddy against buddy. True to the author's form, The Oath is gripping, timely, and extremely satisfying. But Lescroart's real strength here is his exploration of medical ethics in our insurance-dependent times. A stellar novel that will have broad appeal. --Mary Frances Wilkens
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
With their reputation for rolling up hefty profits while doling out penny-pinching care, HMOs have emerged as a favorite villain of crime writers. Lescroart gets in his licks with this scalpel-sharp thriller, the ninth in the Dismas Hardy line. This time around, the San Francisco attorney finds himself representing Dr. Eric Kensing, who stands accused of murdering his boss, Tim Markham, the CEO of the Parnassus Medical Group, a struggling HMO providing health services to all the city's employees. An autopsy shows that Markham, hospitalized in critical condition following a hit-and-run, died not of his injuries but of a potassium overdose. It doesn't look good for Kensing. Not only was he the doctor on duty, but he had plenty of motive; his wife was having an affair with Markham. As police investigators, led once again by Lt. Abe Glitsky, home in on Kensing, the case veers in another direction. The police discover that Markham is actually the 12th person to have been killed recently while under Parnassus's care. And Kensing can't be blamed for all of them. The investigation leads police and Hardy to a multitude of suspects, most connected to Parnassus's zeal for ruthless cost cutting. Burdened at times by Hardy's musings and a few awkwardly placed clues, Lescroart's latest featuring the cunning, self-effacing attorney and dedicated family man is still a skillfully researched and executed piece of work. The author wisely steers clear of taking cheap shots at the HMO industry, yet manages to direct a sharp beam into some of its darker crevices. Fans of the popular series should know that there are no courtroom scenes, unusual for the trial-prone Hardy, but Lescroart manages to squeeze in almost every member of his usual large and always entertaining cast. (Feb. 4) Forecast: The reliably excellent Lescroart carries on, delivering yet another winner. A massive ad/promo campaign including the simultaneous release of the paperback edition of The Hearing, a 10-city author tour and a one-day laydown should swell the already well-populated ranks of his fans. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The latest thriller from Lescroart examines the suspicious death of the CEO of a financially troubled San Francisco HMO while he is a patient in his own hospital. Circumstances point directly to Dr. Eric Kensing, the client of defense attorney Dismas Hardy, making Hardy the adversary of his best friend, Abe Glitsky, SFPD's chief of homicide. The story is well paced and well plotted, and the HMO/hospital setting and background are intriguing, but ultimately the package is not well served by narrator Robert Lawrence. His reading is occasionally halting and badly inflected, and some of his vocal characterizations are overdone and cartoonish. In short, a pretty good book, imperfectly read. Not recommended.-Kristen L. Smith, Loras Coll. Lib., Dubuque, IA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Skeletons leap from a San Francisco HMO's closet after its CEO is struck by a hit-and-run driver and dies in his company's own hospital: Lescroart's latest look at the sociology of murder. Before you start cheering the ironic aptness of Tim Markham's death, consider some of the complications. The unidentified jogger was so badly injured at the accident scene that the ambulance driver considered taking him to County Hospital lest Parnassus Health's cost-conscious Portola Hospital stabilize him and then ship him over to County anyway. Shortly after Markham checks out, his wife Carla, their three teenagers, and the family dog are shot to death in a transparently phony murder-suicide. Since Markham had been sleeping with Ann Kensing, her husband Eric, a Parnassus staff physician, leaps to the top of Lt. Abe Glitsky's suspect list. And when Glitsky's best friend Dismas Hardy, the lawyer Eric's retained to dispel the gathering clouds of suspicion, hears that Markham was murdered as well by a lethal injection of potassium, he starts seriously digging into Parnassus' finances. The results would gratify the most fervid HMO-basher. Parnassus, who insures the city's municipal employees, had just stuck the mayor's office with a whopping $13 million bill for additional services rendered over the past two years-a bill the city is sharply disputing, though it can't afford to sue Parnassus out of business. Now there are whispers of kickbacks for listing less-than-effective generic substitute drugs in the corporation's formulary, pending malpractice actions over a string of deaths in Portola's Intensive Care Unit, and the distinct possibility that a dozen of those deaths, maybe more, involved care-giving more baleful than careless. A depressingly thorough tour of managed-care malfeasance that's a whistleblower's pipe dream-though the skullduggery is so complete, so densely imagined, and so lacking in drama that Hardy and Glitsky (The Hearing, p. 132, etc.) come up short on both mystery and suspense.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
