The Oath

Rating:
Summary: Not his best
Review: I have read all of Lescroart's Dismas Hardy novels and this one is not up to his usual standards. The plot is weak and barely believable. The details of the interactions of the corporate leadership of the HMO and the physicians has no basis in reality. The assignments of the nursing employees and physicians to various departments of the hospital is not realistic - a highly trained nurse would not rotate his or her assignments in and out of an ICU nor would a physician spend time in an outpatient clinic, emergency room, operating room and ICU. These persons are too highly trained to work in several different areas each of which demands a high level of expertise and training. The conclusion likewise is almost an afterthought that would not occur in real life.
I have enjoyed Lescroart's other works. He should stick with those areas of which he has knowledge or do a better job of research before presenting his stories.

Rating:
Summary: Starts slow, ends strong.
Review: I love legal fiction. This one started slow; I tend to prefer the "hit the ground running" thrillers like those written by a Norm Harris, or a Nelson DeMille, or even some of Grisham's books. But "The Oath" did end strong. So I was eventually satisfied.

The opening scene is seen through the eyes of Mrs. Lopez, the worried mother of a sick child. Here John Lescroart makes a strong statement as we see a concerned mother manhandled by a less than caring HMO system. I have long held the opinion that the term "health care" has become an oxymoron.

In the next scene a man is killed by a hit and run driver. Enter Lescroart's protagonists Dismas Hardy and his best friend, homicide cop Abe Glitsky.

In this story we know whodunit early on. One of the early reviews of this book pointed this out, saying that knowing who the killer is "...cuts down the suspense." It was my understanding that when we know who the antagonist is from the onset of the story, that the story is a thriller. When we do not know who did the deed until the end of the story, then it is a mystery. This is a thriller, so I had no problem with knowing whodunit early on.

John Lescroart is a master of characterization and dialogue. From the book: (Luz tried to smile. She couldn't help but worry. Ramiro was no better. In fact, she knew that he was worse. Despite her resolve, a tear broke and rolled over her cheek. She quickly, angrily, wiped it away, but the doctor had seen it. "Are you really so worried?") That's great stuff.

If you love legal thrillers, as I do, then you will love this book. Highly recommended. Cammy Diaz, lawyer

Rating:
Summary: a powerful novel of lescroart
Review: I read this novel not too long ago. A family member of mine just introduced me to it and i had never heard of john lescroart before at all. But i have to say it was something of a book to read. One of the best that i think that I have read of this author in a while. I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a good book to read on one of those rainy days.
I am going to check out The first law from my local library and The second chair sound pretty good also.

Ryan Barry
[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Another great story from John Lescroart
Review: John Lescroart gets better and better with each book and so do his two main characters, Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky. I could probably read a book about Abe and Dismas mopping a kitchen floor and be entertained, but Lescroart always gives his readers so much more.

In this latest installment, we find Dismas, the defense attorney, and Abe, the homicide cop, butting heads as they try to solve the mystery of who killed Parnassus Healthcare CEO, Tim Markham. Unlike other reviewers, I wasn't certain who the killer was until the end of the novel. There were several crimes in the novel, ranging from hit and run to lethal injection to the murder of an entire family. Are these crimes connected? Were these crimes committed by the same person? Following the characters as they try to answer these questions pulls the reader into the action.

One of my favorite lines in the book was spoken by hospital administrator, Mike Andreotti, as he explained to Dismas and Abe "that even the lowliest GP has a self-image just a notch below God's". This book addresses ego, greed, and the good and bad sides of healthcare in the United States. Like Clarence Jackman's fortune cookie stated, "Don't get sick", if you can help it.

If you've not read the previous nine books in the series, you won't have any trouble following along. If you aren't new to the series, you'll be glad to see old favorites like Pico Morales, David Freeman, Jeff Elliot, and good old Wes Farrell, who I'd worried I might never see again. It was also nice to meet some new folks, like Bracco and Fisk.

Lescroart always manages to take a hot topic, like managed health care, and paint an exciting mystery around it, while still presenting characters his readers can enjoy getting to know along the way.

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book from Lescroart!!
Review: John Lescroart has once again written an intense book surround a murder investigation. With his usual characters, attorney Dismas Hardy and Homicide Investigator Abe Glitsky, Lescroart once again keeps the action coming nonstop.

This book involves some very real issues in the United States today. Issues surrounding health care and how we pay for it are discussed throughout the book within the story. The plot thickens as one of Hardy's clients is suspected of murder, and Glitsky thinks he has his man. But, as usual in a Lecroart novel, there are numerous twists and turns until there is finally a stunning ending. Did Hardy's client commit the crime? Will Hardy and Glitsky be able to maintain their friendship? What's going on behind the scenes at a San Francisco hospital? If you pick up this book, you won't put it down until you know the answers to all these questions.

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book from Lescroart!!
Review: John Lescroart has once again written an intense book surround a murder investigation. With his usual characters, attorney Dismas Hardy and Homicide Investigator Abe Glitsky, Lescroart once again keeps the action coming nonstop.

This book involves some very real issues in the United States today. Issues surrounding health care and how we pay for it are discussed throughout the book within the story. The plot thickens as one of Hardy's clients is suspected of murder, and Glitsky thinks he has his man. But, as usual in a Lecroart novel, there are numerous twists and turns until there is finally a stunning ending. Did Hardy's client commit the crime? Will Hardy and Glitsky be able to maintain their friendship? What's going on behind the scenes at a San Francisco hospital? If you pick up this book, you won't put it down until you know the answers to all these questions.

Rating:
Summary: Rather boring and sloppy
Review: John Lescroart has to be one of the most inconsistent writers around. You get such brilliant novels like A Certain Justice, Guilt, Hard Evidence, The Vig, and then it's followed up by The Hearing, and worse yet, this novel The Oath, or his earlier work, The Mercy Rule. I think it's the poor reader that needs the Mercy here.

First off, the subject matter of The Oath in of itself is old hat and boring. It's been done and overdone a hundred times over in TV dramas and full feature length movies. But I can certainly accept the fact that Lescroart wants to give us his own rendition. Yet the rendition adds nothing new and the characters are totally unconvincing. Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky seem to be frozen in time, never growing, never changing, something that does not happen with real like characters. And the players in this particular story seem to be forcibly drawn together into a story that lacks substance or interest. The only character that I can remotely sympathise with is Dr. Kensing, who due to his unfortunate past and rigid principles becomes ensnared in a drama that is outside his control.

This hopeless melange is such a contrast to the beautifully written and cast Hard Evidence. A novel that to this day I go back and re-read when I find nothing else on the store shelf to interest me.

Added to this is Lescroart's sloppiness. In The Hearing a character that was killed and buried in very beginning of the novel suddenly reappears near the end of the novel. This was not supposed to a surprise element, as some readers thought when they read my review of that novel, just plain old sloppy writing.

In The Oath, Dismas Hardy is clearly in John Strout's office visiting the coroner, when suddenly we are informed by John Lescroart that "Strout closed the stiletto again, then stood up and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf that lined Hardy's left hand wall". Hardly's ? I though he was in John Strout's office, where did we get Hardy's left hand wall ? And this type of sloppy writing appears right throughout the book.

This in of itself would not be such a big deal other than a clear indication that when Lescroart is bored with his story he gets sloppy. I think we can all understand that. Which obviously begs the question why are we the poor readers being foisted with a book that the author seems to have little use for ?

Rating:
Summary: Exciting and complex medical and legal thriller.
Review: John Lescroart's "The Oath," is the latest in a series of books featuring the San Francisco criminal defense attorney Dismas Hardy. Dis, as he is known to his friends, takes the case of Eric Kensing, a doctor who is suspected in the death of Tim Markham, the head of San Francisco's largest HMO, Parnassus.

Kensing had the motive, means and opportunity to kill Markham, who was having an affair with Kensing's wife, and who disagreed with Kensing on how an HMO should be run. Hardy and his best friend, Abe Glitsky, chief of homicide, are soon at loggerheads over the case, and their friendship is strained to the breaking point. The fallout from the Markham case is wide-ranging. The HMO that Markham ran is bleeding cash and is teetering towards bankruptcy. Have the administrators at Parnassus been involved in fiscal mismanagement? If so, could Parnassus's financial woes have some bearing on Markham's death?

The case becomes more complex as the investigation proceeds, and Hardy, a happily married man with two kids, strains his family's patience as he spends more and more time investigating on his own. Before the case is solved, Hardy risks his professional reputation and his personal relationships with his wife and with his best friend in his effort to get at the truth.

Lescroat does a fine job of balancing many disparate elements in "The Oath." He juggles a host of plot lines, including a series of unexplained deaths in Portola Hospital, where most of the medical action takes place, and the initiation of two rookie cops, who learn that police work is not an easy way to make a living. "The Oath" has a very large cast of characters, and Lescroart develops them well. We get to know a Salvadoran immigrant who watches her child die because of medical mismanagement as well as a greedy administrator who finds a way to make money at the expense of needy patients.

As always, Dismas Hardy is a engaging protagonist. He is a model of integrity and a loving husband and father; yet he is willing to risk everything that he has to make sure that justice is served. "The Oath" will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, since it is a legal, medical and crime thriller all wrapped up in one exciting and entertaining novel.

Rating:
Summary: Lescroart Rolls On!!!!
Review: John Lescroart's Dismas Hardy novels are among the most entertaining and well written of the lawyer-cop-mystery genre. The gang's all here in this story which does a number on the HMO industry and their ability or lack thereof to take proper care of the enrollees. The head of the HMO has been hit by a hit and run driver and brought, unfortunately for him, to the hospital which his HMO manages. While in the ICU, he succumbs to his injuries...or does he? ... An obvious suspect is being investigated, Dismas is representing him and it looks as though an arrest may be imminent. However, as the investigation proceeds, many stories within stories are discovered, not the least of which is that someone is murdering people in the ICU. This story, regretably never gets inside a courtroom, but the resolution and Dismas Hardy's involvement in it, nevertheless still makes this a compelling and interesting read.

Rating:
Summary: The Oath Leaves No Doubt
Review: John T. Lescroart is the master of this genre. This is the 10th outing for Dismas Hardy and Lescroart continues to excel at his craft.

This story revolves around fraud and mis-management in the world of HMO's but does so without being preachy or shrill. As in all of the Hardy books, there is plenty of backgroud detail, plenty of procedure and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing right to the end.

We also get the opportunity to observe a couple of rookie cops working under Abe Glitsky and see the way he works to develop their investigative instincts. As always, all of the characters are nicely fleshed out, we get to know something new about all of the regulars, re-visit a couple of characters from past books and meet a couple of new ones. All the dialogue cracks, the details are right, the sense of the city is right, this is just another knockout.

Many other serial writers could take a few pages from Lescroart's handbook on how to keep a series alive and changing.

In another twist for Lescroart, this entire story takes place without ever once setting foot in a courtroom, but the story holds up very well despite that.