The Fifth Vial (Mass Market Paperback)

by Michael Palmer (Author) "Go ahead and sew him up, Ms. Reyes..." (more)
Key Phrases: perfect tissue match, allocation score, antirejection drugs, Dom Angelo, Alice Gustafson, Madame Sonja (more...)

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.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (November 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312937741
• ISBN-13: 978-0312937744
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #53,032 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Gina L. Holmes "www.noveljourney.blogspot.com" (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?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I was SO disappointed...., December 12, 2007

By	T. Pribbenow "OSC fan" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had high hopes when I heard this book advertised, because I love medical thrillers (i.e. Robin Cook type); so I eagerly picked this up at the library.
What a disappointment!
Not only is the dialogue quite lame in many areas, and the characters do some exceedingly stupid things, but I also have a hard time believing this was written by someone who is an M.D., given the preposterous ending!
Instead of being spellbinding, as I had hoped, instead I would find myself putting the book down in disgust at times, saying out loud "Oh - come on! This is ridiculous!"
The forced "romance" between two major characters near the end was out-of-place and riddled with stilted, silly dialogue. The constant references to Plato, as well, just got dull by the end.
I can't believe I read the whole thing.
This was the first Michael Palmer book I have ever read, and most likely will be the last. I was glad I checked it out from the library first, instead of purchasing it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Bookworm (St. George Utah) - See all my reviews

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.