Panacea: A Novel

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Macmillan, Jul 5, 2016 - Fiction - 384 pages

Two secret societies vie for control of the ultimate medical miracle—Panacea—in the latest novel by New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson, author of the Repairman Jack series.

Finalist in RT Reviewer's Choice Best Book Awards for Best Thriller

F. Paul Wilson is the winner of the Career Achievement in Thriller Fiction in the 2017 RT Reviewers' Choice Best Book Awards


Medical examiner Laura Fanning has two charred corpses and no answers. Both bear a mysterious tattoo but exhibit no known cause of death. Their only connection to one another is a string of puzzling miracle cures. Her preliminary investigation points to a cult in the possession of the fabled panacea—the substance that can cure all ills—but that's impossible.

Laura finds herself unknowingly enmeshed in an ancient conflict between the secretive keepers of the panacea and the equally secretive and far more deadly group known only as 536, a brotherhood that fervently believes God intended for humanity to suffer, not be cured. Laura doesn't believe in the panacea, but that doesn't prevent the agents of 536 from trying to kill her.

A reclusive, terminally ill billionaire hires Laura to research the possibility of the panacea. The billionaire's own body guard, Rick Hayden, a mercenary who isn't who he pretends to be, has to keep her alive as they race to find the legendary panacea before the agents of 536 can destroy it.

 

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About the author (2016)

Author F. Paul Wilson was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on May 17, 1946. He has written over forty books and short story collections. He is best known for the Repairman Jack series and the Sims series. He won the Prometheus Award in 1979 for Wheels Within Wheels and in 2004 for Sims. He also won a 1984 Progie Award from the West Coast Review of Books for The Tomb, the Hall of Fame Award from the Libertarian Futurist Society in 1990 for Healer and in 1991 for An Enemy of the State, and the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for short fiction for Aftershock. His book The Keep was made into a film in 1983. In 2012 his title Nightworld made The New York Times Bestseller List.

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