Lately, reading for enjoyment seems to have become a thing of the past. It has been ages since I found time to relax with a good book. As a substitute for this relaxation, more and more I am listening to books on my infamous MP3 player. Before I go to sleep, I will insert the ear buds and relax with a good book. One warning though, it is hard to find your place when you fall asleep and wake up two hours later with the book still talking to you. Last night, as I listened to Michael Palmer’s "Fifth Vial", I suddenly realized that I had missed an important chapter from the previous night. I had not "rewound" the track to the correct dropping-off-to-sleep place. If it was a regular book, a bookmark would have saved my place.

As I said, the book I am currently "sleeping with" is "Fifth Vial" by Michael Palmer. For those of you who have not read Palmer previously, he writes medical thrillers a la Robin Cook. Like Cook, Palmer is a practicing physician. In fact, Robin Cook was two years ahead of Palmer at Case Western Reserve University Medical School in Cleveland, OH, and they both trained at Massachusetts General Hospital. It was Cook’s success with his first book "Coma" that prompted Palmer to try his hand at writing.

On his web site Palmer relates the following conversation with his sister:

"If Robin can write a book and has the same education as I do," I asked my younger sister one autumn day, "why can’t I write a book?"

"Because you’re dull," was her knee-jerk, sisterly response.

Palmer’s first book was "The Sisterhood" about a secret society of nurses, dedicated to mercy killing. "The Fifth Vial" is Palmer’s 12th book. He is currently working on book number 13, "The First Patient", about the president’s doctor.

"The Fifth Vial" is a gripping story although the reader’s interpretation sometimes grated on my nerves.

The plot revolves around three characters, separated by space and circumstance. Natalie Reyes is a medical student with an attitude. Suspended by her school for a disagreement with a doctor, she is sent to Rio de Janeiro to present an academic paper at a conference. This is one of several stretches in the plot that seem highly unlikely; however, just suspend belief and enjoy the story. Another stretch is that Natalie is kidnapped on the way from the airport and shot. Left for dead in a dark alley, she is discovered and taken to a Rio hospital where her lung, which was injured in the shooting, is removed. Meanwhile back in the old U.S.A., a University of Chicago professor hires Chicago Ben Callahan, a down on his luck P.I., to track down suspected organ trafficking. Half a world away in Yaounde, Cameroon, a brilliant scientist Joe Anson is dying from pulmonary fibrosis and needs a lung transplant.

All three seek answers and of course, all three stories will intersect. Their search for answers leads them to the secretive Whitestone Foundation, which serves as a front organization for a cabal of medical specialists, the Guardians, and a hidden hospital in a Brazilian rain forest. Don’t expect great character development, but it is a book you can’t put down. "The Fifth Vial" is available at the Scottsbluff Public Library as a hardback or as a downloadable audio book.

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