Under the title Acceptable Risk, The Fifth Phial was short-listed as one of the best new Australian novels in the HarperCollins Fiction Prize.
This fast-paced thriller, with its deceitful twists, turns and perplexity take readers on an exhilarating journey from Atlanta Georgia, Nairobi Kenya and then to the lush rainforests of Australia’s tropical north. Goaded by the need to quell the unmitigated greed of a coterie of evil willing to threaten humanity to get what they desire, the reader is challenged to ask how far is too far when it comes to righting a wrong.
Four very different investigators, an attractive FBI special agent, an underworld police inspector, a Special Air Services anti-terrorist sergeant and a tabloid journalist are all frustrated when their own investigations into horrendous crimes are stymied by betrayal and duplicity.
Unlikely collaborators from vastly different investigative worlds are drawn to each other by cryptic clues, finding that their new, apprehensive counterparts hold essential parts to a puzzle that they desperately need. What seemed so illogical beforehand now has purpose and there is the realisation that each of their investigations yields a much sought after part of a jigsaw that can only make sense if all the pieces are put together. Collectively they make progress, but knowing what the elusive pieces of the puzzle mean is as difficult as finding the pieces.
The investigators are all drawn to imminent danger in a steamy, tropical rainforest, following the spore of an insidious conspiracy driven by some of the most powerful people in the country. Not all investigators will survive the hunt for a brutal juggernaut that eliminates any perceived threat with impunity. With knowledge comes power and the investigative team gain enough knowledge to seek out the coterie’s Achilles’ heel.