Customer Reviews

The Fifth Vial

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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?

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.

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.

Michael Palmer's medical background provided a fertile ground of information in concocting the plot in his medical thriller "The Fifth Vial". The theme revolves around a cabal of elite medical practitioners who deal in the illegal trafficking and dispersement of organs for transplantation. This group known as the "Guardians" are also conveniently the principals for the one of largest medical labs in the world, Whitestone Labs. This gives them unfettered access to countless blood and tissue samples which they can use to select and kidnap unwitting organ donors for transplantation to wealthy recipients.

Three main characters are drawn into a drama pitting them against the actions of the "Guardians", attempting to unveil and then quash their nefarious scheme. One time Olympic track hopeful Natalie Reyes is a medical resident working in the lab of noted Boston transplant surgeon Dr. Berenguer. Ben Callahan, a down on his luck private detective hailing from Chicago, has been hired by a group called Organ Guard to investigate the plot of the Guardians. Dr. Joseph Anson, a brilliant researcher working in remote Cameroon funded by the Whitestone Foundation is on the precipice of discovering a ground breaking miracle drug.

Each character is touched individually by the Guardian's conspiracy. With albeit questionable and overly embellished motivations established by author Palmer, they go on a crusade which funnels them into the jungles of Brazil to smash the machinations of the Guardians.

The Fifth Vial is a compelling, frightening and thought-provoking novel (although it's written with such intelligence and authority that one can almost believe it is true) about the dangers in our society of greed and arrogance concerning organ donation. Palmer's characters -- his protagonist Natalie Reyes, a medical student, Ben Callahan, a disillusioned detective, and Dr. Joe Anson, a passionate scientist -- are sensitively written and realistic.

This fast-paced story takes place in Boston, Chicago, Brazil and Africa, with a Machiavellian plot full of hidden twists and turns. As a physician, Michael Palmer's expertise in the field of medicine makes The Fifth Vial a stimulating and highly enjoyable read. Highly recommended!

I illustrate books under deadlines so I read when I am on the road and away from my studio. I initially started reading The Fifth Vial while I was in airports, but became so engrossed in the lives and suffering of the main characters that I returned home, put my art work aside and finished it. Wow! I was looking over my shoulder while I was in crowds, pondering on my organs safety....

Medical thrillers is my favorite genre, I usually listen to them, as many as time allows, on audio tape while I am painting. But somewhere along the line I actually stopped listening to Michael Palmer's books and started to read them. They are not background noise keeping me company, they make me 'think'. With The Fifth Vial, Palmer is at his best. The characters were so believable, I found detective Ben to be a lovable character - I actually worried about him as he traveled, and Natalie, you can really feel her emotions as she falls from grace, fights her way back, only to get injured - again.

My favorite part of the book was hanging out with Natalie in Boston (my favorite city), running track, going grocery shopping, eating hot fudged sundaes... This character became my friend - I believed in her from the beginning and I wanted to stick by her until the end, I wanted her to get her lung back....

If you love a good book that will not only entertain, chill you to the bones, and make you 'think', then I highly recommend that you pick up The Fifth Vial. You are going to love it!

This book is an excellent read. The characters are all very human, the story is eye-opening and believable. If you like medical thrillers, you will love this book. If you don't like medical thrillers, you will after you read this book. It's a brilliant story. The story keeps you in it's grip from page one, and it does not disappoint.

Remember the email hoax that circulated a few years ago about someone waking up in a hotel in Houston or Saudi Arabia or somewhere in a bathtub full of ice and finding that his kidneys had been removed? it was pretty scary and just possible enough to send many readers, myself included, scurrying to Snopes to see if it was really true.

Well Michael Palmer, who is both a physician and a mystery writer, knows how to take a scary story and make it even better. Palmer took that basic plot line and enhanced it with some replacement organ allocation policy considerations, He ended up creating a brave new world run by a medical-industrial establishment which owes more to Dr. Mengele than to Hippocrates.

Natalie Greco, athlete and medical student is banished to the sidelines of her chosen profession for daring to question the clinical judgment of a senior resident during grand rounds. It is a fateful moment which results not only in her suspension from medical school and the loss of her promised surgical residency, but inadvertently puts her in harms way. Natalie and a few others working independently of each other doggedly traverse the globe seeking to learn what is really happening,

The result is lots of thrills and chills, and a foreboding sense that this new world may be nearly at hand.

I have read all of M. Palmer's books and found this to be one of the most complex in character and plot. The twists and turns were intriguing.The conclusion was unexpected, honorable yet tragic. It combines a spectrum of good, evil, power, manipulation and altruism with riveting action. (I don't want to give it all away.) By all means a great read. Although this subject has been approached in other thrillers Palmer's Fifth Vial gives a very different personal, in-your-face twist to the matter. It includes snappy dialogue and gripping scenes along with a great variety of characters. The best kind of thriller. I hope all who read it immediately sign up to be organ donors.

While the story was entertaining, the plot was completely translucent. I saw the "surprise ending" coming after the first few chapters. In fact, I was not surprised at any point in the book. It became a game of waiting for all of the characters to catch up to me, not exactly what you want when reading a thriller. Still, it was a fun read and I enjoyed the higher moral purpose. The writing was fast-paced if not incredibly cheesy at points. But what do you want? I bought it at the supermarket check-out line.