Jim Hammond boldly explores one of the dominant medical conundrums of today in "The Phoenix Society" (Sunstone Press). This high-stakes biotech thriller chronicles the tale of a brilliant surgeon who takes matters in his own hands to save his patients - and to condemn others to a purgatory worthy of Dante. When an equally gifted research scientist is 'exposed' to his scheme through a medical mishap, the doctor's carefully disguised organ farm is destined for exposure - and ruin.

"The Phoenix Society" is Jim Hammond's second book. The idea for the book was generated by an intriguing sign that he saw along Highway 101 while driving through California's fabled wine region just north of San Francisco. Hammond's fertile imagination transformed a simple advertisement for cremation services into a sinister plot to create an abundant supply of organs for transplant from unwitting donors. The interaction of several victims - not quite deceased, the bereaved family of the protagonist, the evil owners of the crematorium and their collaborators, and the frustrated police who are confronting grisly murders that they cannot comprehend makes for a blood-pounding, spine-tingling adventure for the reader.

STORY SYNOPSIS
Jason Richards is a gifted research chemist seeking a cure for Alzheimer's disease. His first mistake is isolating himself from his wife and brother in his quest. His second, injecting himself with his experimental drug that almost kills him. Almost. When he wakes up on an operating table with an unknown substance pumping into his arm he has to ask himself if he really is alive. Welcome to the Phoenix Society, a crematorium with a difference. Their plans for Jason don't include incinerating him, but transforming him into a mindless creature from whom they can harvest organs.

The Society's head, Dr. Curt Wagner, is a gifted but unscrupulous doctor who may have a cure for organ rejection, the bane of all organ transplant operations, but is the cost too high? The Society is unaware that their drug cocktail, mixed with Jason's own experimental drug results in an entirely new kind of human being; one that will prove hard to kill. To make matters worse, one of the doctor's transplant patients goes berserk and kills several people. The doctor soon finds Lieutenant Brinkley, a tenacious detective from San Francisco, on his trail, even as Jason escapes the crematorium.

Jason must come to grips with what he has become, and elude the Society's security forces, as well as a phantom presence that shadows his every move. As the bodies stack up, Jason becomes a suspect and must elude the police. The odds become higher when Dr. Wagner kidnaps his wife. Jason must return to the crematorium to confront the evil doctor, save his wife, and restore his sanity.

Hammond is available for readings, book signings, and interviews by emailing jim@jim-hammond.com or calling 505-264-0123

ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: The Phoenix Society
Author: Jim Hammond
Publisher: Sunstone Press
Publication date: 2004
ISBN 0-86534-397-7
Hardover, 232 pp.
Cost: $26.95