In Boston, a disgraced medical student is sent to deliver a research paper that could save her career… In a hospital four thousand miles away, a 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 detective 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—

and linked forever by THE FIFTH VIAL

From the Back Cover

From blockbuster author Michael Palmer comes a novel of medical suspense that raises chilling questions: Who ends up with the blood samples you routinely give? What else are they being used for? Why don’t you know?

In Boston, a disgraced medical student is sent to deliver a research paper that could save her career… In a hospital four thousand miles away, a 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 detective 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—

and linked forever by THE FIFTH VIAL

“A terrifying vision of the Hippocratic oath gone very wrong.”— Entertainment Weekly

“Palmer taps a real medical issue for storytelling thrills.”— Boston Magazine

“A tale set at the very edge of our medical knowledge. I loved it!”—Tess Gerritsen