Suspense

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13155315

I was in need of some escape reading and this book provided it. So much so that I was reading it everywhere until it was done. So I'd have to say it did its job.

I am not a big fan of thrillers in general but sometimes I find medical or legal thrillers interesting. This is a medical thriller.

Interestingly, the story is told through several different people. The primary characters are a private investigator, Ben Callahan, and a medical student, Natalie Reyes. The two are set on different journeys from different locations by different stimuli, and end up in the same place. Callahan is offered a job investigating the death of an unknown young man in Florida, while Reyes is attacked in a different country.

It all comes down to a group of persons from around the world who are arranging for or performing transplant operations for persons considered of great value. But from where are they getting the organs?

The story held my interest even though it wasn't that much of a mystery. One thing I wondered: if a high-level person obtains a transplant illegally, then goes home to his home country, how does he explain what has happened to him? ( )

I'm a sucker for Michael Palmer's books. This one was as engaging as the rest - about harvesting organs from morally not harvestable people for rich recipients. ( )

Review: The Fifth Vial by Michael Palmer.

I thought the novel was well written, suspenseful, medically accurate, and interesting. The theme centers on with medical specialists who work in the illegal trafficking and distributing of human organs for transportation for the largest medical labs in the world who are known as “The Guardians.” There is a lot of information provided by the author in order to enhance his plot. The primary bases were for one of the largest labs in the world, “Whitestone Labs”. The lab has unlimited access to many blood tests and tissue samples which they can control the unknowing organ donors for transplantation to wealthy recipients.

There are some crafty characters with medical background and three main characters working for Organ Guard investigating the Guardians. They are Natalie Reyes an Olympic runner and also a medical resident working in a lab for Dr. Berenguer a transplant surgeon. The third character is Ben Callahan, a struggling private detective who is from Chicago. Than we have Dr. Joseph Anson, a smart researcher working in remote Cameroon, Africa funded by Whitestone Foundation who is working on a brink of discovering a vast miracle drug but he has in illness that hinders his work and needs medical treatment.

The story moves at a fast pace with plenty of suspense and mystery which brings everything together at the end. ( )

Good read. Typical Palmer. ( )