What do you think?
Ockham's Razor
2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA); Semi-Finalist Updated and Revised 2013 Dagney Hamilton, a pharmaceutical scientist, leads a team of researchers working to create a promising new drug therapy to stem the mounting tide of obesity. When her employer, in a sudden and unexplained announcement, cancels the project, she suspects foul play and finds herself swept up in a tornado of powerful, unseen forces. A rash of mysterious, but seemingly unrelated, deaths of those associated with the project soon follows. With billions of dollars and a presidential re-election at stake, big business, big politics, and big money will stop at nothing-including murder-to protect their interests. As a decorated police detective in a prior career, Dagney cannot be bribed, threatened or intimidated into silence or submission. Now, she must face her fears and her past as she gathers the courage to confront the people who want her dead. Dagney and her wisecracking detective buddy, Mark Stone, join forces with attorney Wendy Rothstein in a campaign against greed, corruption, and illicit influence. Together they must solve the mystery of why curing obesity and saving millions of lives from conditions like heart disease, stroke and diabetes is not an admirable accomplishment and might even get one killed. Dagney must use all of her wits and courage to stay alive, find the answers, bring those who would suppress the story to justice, and ultimately find a way to unleash the life saving benefits of Epiproxen. Ockham's Razor takes the reader on a rapid fire, page-turning journey through both the science and politics of a new drug therapy as well as the dark under belly of Wall Street avarice.
408 pages, Paperback
First published March 16, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 10, 2019
When the elephants are dancing, it's safer to leave the room!
The plot premise of OCKHAM'S RAZOR is simple to describe. Dagney Hamilton is an up and coming rising star with Infinitec, a major pharmaceutical company. For the past five years, she's been in charge of the development of Epipro, a drug that will reverse obesity. Wildly successful but carefully stringent clinical trials have shown that Epipro not only works but it does so with no side effects! When Epipro is approved for public consumption, three of the leading causes of death - heart attack, stroke and diabetes - will be significantly reduced at a sweep with the effective elimination of obesity as the leading contributor to the development of these ailments.
But Robert Long, Infinitec's brilliant CEO, has not only refused to sign off on the release of Epipro, he has given Hamilton a promotion and a million dollar bonus with the proviso (no ... let's call it a warning accompanied by very thinly veiled threats of legal action, or worse) that she disclose nothing, absolutely nothing, to the public about Epipro and the decision not to proceed. And here we have the makings of an excellent thriller based on political and corporate intrigue.
Burton's physically describes his characters well and skillfully crafts personalities to match. His dialogue which flows easily and naturally from the mouths of his characters is absolutely realistic and appropriate to both the characters and the situations in which they find themselves. Mark Stoner and Jeff Dunker, the robbery-homicide detectives from the Santa Clara police force are brought to life with a particular verve and an extra dash of humour. The tension he builds along the way is palpable and the legal drama in the final third of the novel is almost electric!
The cryptical meta-reference that the novel makes to itself in the final chapters is a clever, if somewhat less than credible, eyebrow-raising suggestion that the novel could be based in real-life events. The final chapter, perhaps somewhat predictably, leaves just one loose end untied that allows the author plenty of scope for a sequel that pleased readers can look forward to.
Four stars for the novel with one star deducted for the absolutely appalling editing. Spelling mistakes and even the most basic grammatical mistakes such as confusing "its" with "it's" or "your" with "you're" are peppered through the novel at an alarming and, quite frankly, positively distracting frequency. Legal rights are not "waved" and one does not shop in a "mal". Even if you choose to self-publish your novel, Mr Burton, there's simply no excuse for errors of this kind to occur so often. Next time around, surely you can find a selection of literate friends to proofread your manuscript.
Recommended in spite of the spelling!
Paul Weiss
The plot premise of OCKHAM'S RAZOR is simple to describe. Dagney Hamilton is an up and coming rising star with Infinitec, a major pharmaceutical company. For the past five years, she's been in charge of the development of Epipro, a drug that will reverse obesity. Wildly successful but carefully stringent clinical trials have shown that Epipro not only works but it does so with no side effects! When Epipro is approved for public consumption, three of the leading causes of death - heart attack, stroke and diabetes - will be significantly reduced at a sweep with the effective elimination of obesity as the leading contributor to the development of these ailments.
But Robert Long, Infinitec's brilliant CEO, has not only refused to sign off on the release of Epipro, he has given Hamilton a promotion and a million dollar bonus with the proviso (no ... let's call it a warning accompanied by very thinly veiled threats of legal action, or worse) that she disclose nothing, absolutely nothing, to the public about Epipro and the decision not to proceed. And here we have the makings of an excellent thriller based on political and corporate intrigue.
Burton's physically describes his characters well and skillfully crafts personalities to match. His dialogue which flows easily and naturally from the mouths of his characters is absolutely realistic and appropriate to both the characters and the situations in which they find themselves. Mark Stoner and Jeff Dunker, the robbery-homicide detectives from the Santa Clara police force are brought to life with a particular verve and an extra dash of humour. The tension he builds along the way is palpable and the legal drama in the final third of the novel is almost electric!
The cryptical meta-reference that the novel makes to itself in the final chapters is a clever, if somewhat less than credible, eyebrow-raising suggestion that the novel could be based in real-life events. The final chapter, perhaps somewhat predictably, leaves just one loose end untied that allows the author plenty of scope for a sequel that pleased readers can look forward to.
Four stars for the novel with one star deducted for the absolutely appalling editing. Spelling mistakes and even the most basic grammatical mistakes such as confusing "its" with "it's" or "your" with "you're" are peppered through the novel at an alarming and, quite frankly, positively distracting frequency. Legal rights are not "waved" and one does not shop in a "mal". Even if you choose to self-publish your novel, Mr Burton, there's simply no excuse for errors of this kind to occur so often. Next time around, surely you can find a selection of literate friends to proofread your manuscript.
Recommended in spite of the spelling!
Paul Weiss
August 15, 2016
I really enjoyed this book -- more than I expected to. I am an acquaintance of the author and read the first chapter as a favor. But having read that, I had to buy the book (Kindle version) and was soon engaged. I have to say that I was surprised that a first novel would be this good.
It's a well-crafted, clever story with unexpected twists. A revolutionary drug is mysteriously cancelled by the company, its team paid off to be quiet. Something is fishy -- and when the employees in the know don't comply, there are coincidental deaths and heroic acts. As the conspiracy unravels, desperate people with enormous resources come into play and the adventure begins. I don't want to say much more as the twists and turns are best left for you to discover.
I'll echo what others said, that this is really well done for a first novel. The characters, actions, and locations are extremely well described. There is enough detail to make it real, not so much to slow the action. The author doesn't describe the obvious. He engaged my imagination. The background material was pretty amazing -- very realistic behind the scenes detail for the police work, aircraft and boat scenes, corporate security gone over-the-top-black-ops, political and corporate inside views. Even the science background about epigenetics was realistic.
The characters were a bit cartoonish at times, especially the smart aleck detective, but it didn't compromise the story. It reads easily, through to a satisfying finish.
It's a well-crafted, clever story with unexpected twists. A revolutionary drug is mysteriously cancelled by the company, its team paid off to be quiet. Something is fishy -- and when the employees in the know don't comply, there are coincidental deaths and heroic acts. As the conspiracy unravels, desperate people with enormous resources come into play and the adventure begins. I don't want to say much more as the twists and turns are best left for you to discover.
I'll echo what others said, that this is really well done for a first novel. The characters, actions, and locations are extremely well described. There is enough detail to make it real, not so much to slow the action. The author doesn't describe the obvious. He engaged my imagination. The background material was pretty amazing -- very realistic behind the scenes detail for the police work, aircraft and boat scenes, corporate security gone over-the-top-black-ops, political and corporate inside views. Even the science background about epigenetics was realistic.
The characters were a bit cartoonish at times, especially the smart aleck detective, but it didn't compromise the story. It reads easily, through to a satisfying finish.
October 14, 2012
Excellent new author and in the style of James Patterson. Very intriguing and a great read. Looking forward to seeing more by this author.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews