The Fifth Vial [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Michael Palmer (Author), J. Charles (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 28, 2008

Get drawn into a novel of medical suspense that begins with these chilling questions: Who ends up with the blood samples you routinely give for tests? What else are they being used for? Why don’t you know? Take a Deep Breath.... From Boston, a disgraced medical student travels to South America to deliver a research paper that could save her career and becomes a victim of an unspeakable crime...Thousands of miles away, a brilliant, reclusive scientist, dying from an incurable disease that threatens to make each tortured breath his last, is on the verge of perfecting a serum that could save millions of lives, and bring others inestimable wealth....In Chicago, a disillusioned private detective, on the way to his third career, is hired to determine the identity of a John Doe, killed on a Florida highway, with mysterious marks on his body. Three seemingly disconnected lives, surging unrelentingly toward one another. Three lives becoming irrevocably intertwined. Three lives in mounting peril, moving ever closer to the ultimate confrontation against a deadly secret society with godlike aspirations and roots in antiquity. Medical student. Scientist. Private eye. Three people who will learn the deeper meanings of brilliance and madness, truth and deception, trust and betrayal. Three lives linked forever by a single vial of blood - the fifth vial.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Palmer (The Society) tackles the illegal transplant organ trade in his entertaining 12th medical suspense novel. What do three very different people—Harvard medical student Natalie Reyes, Chicago PI Ben Callahan and scientific genius Joe Anson—have in common? Natalie, in Brazil for a conference, is attacked, hospitalized and loses a lung; Ben gets hired to discover how a mutilated anonymous body died; Joe, the inventor of an untested medical breakthrough, is forced into an operation for his life-threatening pulmonary fibrosis. All three seek answers connected to the Whitestone Foundation, a conglomerate that's a front for the Guardians, a secret cabal of medical specialists. At a hidden hospital in the Brazilian rain forest, Natalie and Ben learn of the Guardians' insidious methods. Huge sums are at stake as the arrogant Guardians make medical decisions largely motivated by greed. The action, which begins plausibly, becomes less so as the tension builds. Still, Palmer, himself an M.D., does a good job of informing the reader on an important ethical issue. 225,000 printing; author tour. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Palmer is adept at tapping into people's natural fear of disease, doctors, and hospitals and converting that fear into unnerving suspense. In this, his twelfth medical thriller, Palmer plays with the phenomenon of organ donation, forcing the reader to ask nervously, "Where do donated organs come from?" The answer comes slowly, in the best medical-thriller tradition, by having three different characters, widely separated by space and circumstance, each play a role in tracking down a powerful conspiracy network. Natalie Reyes, a brilliant Harvard Medical School student, is summarily dismissed for disagreeing with a doctor. In one of the many wild stretches of the plot, Natalie goes to Rio de Janeiro to present a paper and is kidnapped and left for dead. In another stretch, a newly minted Chicago private eye is hired by a University of Chicago medical anthropologist to conduct an investigation into underworld organ trafficking. Meanwhile, in Yaounde, Cameroon, a doctor is refining a drug that can speed the formation of new blood vessels, but--slight problem--he's racing the clock against his own life-threatening illness. The sprawling plot lurches along toward the discovery of a conspiracy to obtain organs by any means and sell them at high prices. The characterization is wooden and the plotting clunky, but Palmer's fans know not to worry overmuch about such niceties. If medical thrills are what you're after, he delivers. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio Paperback Audiobooks (January 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597370606
• ISBN-13: 978-1597370608
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Michael Palmer, is the author of sixteen novels of medical and political suspense, all international bestsellers. His 17th medical and political thriller, OATH OF OFFICE will be released on February 14,2012. In addition to writing, Palmer is an associate director of the Massachusetts Medical Society Physician Health Services, devoted to helping physicians troubled by mental illness, physical illness, behavioral issues, and chemical dependency. He lives in eastern Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who decides?, April 15, 2007

By 

Gina Holmes "Author of DRY AS RAIN" (VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fifth Vial (Hardcover)

Michael Palmer addresses the bio-ethical issue of organ trafficking in his fast-paced medical thriller, The Fifth Vial.

Around the globe, people are unsuspectingly having their blood tested in a life and death lottery. If their number is picked, (ie. if they are a tissue match), elitists decide who is more worthy to have their beating heart, them, or the wealthy, influential patient who needs the transplant to live.


Three seemingly unrelated lives,(a medical student, a research physician and a private eye), intermingle in unexpected ways. All three are pushed to the limit of human endurance, as each must answer the call of their conscious, putting their lives on the line to stop an evil which leaves orphans and widows in its gluttonous and infinite wake.

This novel was fast-paced, contained fleshed-out characters, and an intriguing plot that had me on the edge of my seat until the exciting conclusion.

Mr. Palmer not only told a great story, but addresses the bio-ethical issue of organ trafficking, asking the hard questions of: Is one person more worthy to live than another? Who decides?

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE VILE TRUTH ABOUT ILLEGAL TRANSPLANT-ORGANS, February 22, 2007

By 

Red Rock Bookworm (St. George Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Fifth Vial (Hardcover)

Okay, so this is the year of novels about organ donation as big business and the horrors involved. Similar in some respects to Michael Crichton's Next, Palmer's latest explores the illegal transplant-organ trade. Three characters ( a brilliant Harvard Medical School student, a Chicago private investigator and a research doctor in Cameroon)each play a role in tracking down a powerful conspiracy network.

This book is better than Crichtons, but they are both exploring the same territory, so if you have to make a choice, this is the book to buy.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps Palmer's best medical thriller, February 27, 2007

By 

Richard Mabry "author, retired physician" (Frisco, TX, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Fifth Vial (Hardcover)

This may be Michael Palmer's best book yet. This master of medical suspense gives us medical details that are accurate and scenes that carry the ring of authenticity. The plot is tightly woven, and I found the characterization to be quite good. He carries the action forward through the eyes of two very different protagonists and brings them together in an ending that will have you on the edge of your seat. If you start this book in the afternoon, you'll want to read all night to finish it.