Political Suicide

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. (Dec.)