A Heartbeat Away - Softcover

"When it comes to inventive plots for medical thrillers nobody does it better than Michael Palmer... This premise is explosive and compelling and grabs the readers from the very first page." --Huffington Post

"Palmer never fails to thrill when he presents a tautly constructed puzzle, with characters that make readers whiz through pages late at night." --RT Book Reviews (4.5 stars)

"A non stop action ride...Having made a career with medial thrillers, this latest adds political intrigue and terrorism into the mix. ...Palmer makes what Clancy writes look like the Boxcar Kids." --Crimespree magazine

"Perfect." --Marblehead Reporter

"Michael Palmer anchors his thrillers in high concept and steeps them in medicine. A Heartbeat Away opens with a prologue, and from the opening line, the reader knows things are not going to go well...This is the book for readers who wholeheartedly believe politicians are capable of anything." --Boston Globe

New York Times bestselling author Michael Palmer delivers
a novel at the crossroads of politics and medicine in this
shocker of a thriller.

On the night of the State of the Union address, President James Allaire expects to give the speech of his career. But no one foresees the horrific turn of events that leads him to quarantine everyone in the Capitol building.

"Exhilarating...breathtaking...stunning in its realism and truly terrifying."--Suspense Magazine

A terrorist group calling itself "Genesis" has unleashed a highly contagious virus into the building, and the only one who fully knows its deadly consequences is the president himself. Desperate, he turns to virologist Griffin Rhodes, whose alleged theft of the microbe landed him in a maximum-security federal prison. Griff knows he's innocent but is forced to barter with the government: his attempt at a cure in exchange for his release.

"If medical thrills are what you're after, Palmer delivers."--Booklist

Meanwhile, there's not a second to lose while everyone in line for presidential succession is trapped inside the building--except for the Director of Homeland Security, the so-called Designated Survivor for this event. Now, with enemies both named and unnamed closing in, and the security of the entire nation at stake, Griff must unravel the mysteries of this virus as one by one those imprisoned in the Capitol begin to die...