The Fifth Stage

By Richard Stachler

Book Overview

Dr. Jack Connor has recently moved from the Midwest to a small, southern coastal town in northwest Florida. His goals are straightforward and typical of any new doctor-professional and financial success, comfort and predictability. But while predictability failed to make an appointment, Kelly Moore has. Kelly, an EPA microbiologist working on Santa Rosa Island, is the breeze that steers Jack off his charted course. Stuck in the grieving process since the death of her mother Kelly comes to Dr. Connor for help. Dr. Connor treats Kelly with Remtoril, the first in a new line of antidepressants. And while the depression improves Kelly reports an unexpected side effect-wonderfully vivid dreams. Her lucid dreams are filled with profound insights and lead to a curious enlightenment. Rerouting and rewiring her neurochemistry, Kelly's unique "knowing dreams," come at a price. Frightening rebound episodes follow the insightful dreams and the findings of a subsequent sleep study are revealing. The rebound episodes worsen and threaten Kelly, the woman he has come to love and Jack is driven to find her cure. His search of the elusive fifth stage and Kelly's remedy lead them through a shadowy world of blackmail, corporate conspiracy, and covert military operations. As these forces bear down upon them with a lethal determination Jack comes to a tantalizing conclusion-Kelly's cure may very well exist, in the past. Journals written by Kelly's great ancestor nearly two centuries before, hint of a cure. To find this cure they must recover her ancestor's missing journal. Jack and Kelly's epic quest for the truth is a poignant and perilous journey, one that takes them to the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, the murky backwaters of Mississippi, and a barrier island where they discover the secret of a pre-Civil War fort. Intrigue. Mystery. Passion. Insight. THE FIFTH STAGE-the stuff that dreams are made of.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0615731902
• ISBN13: 9780615731902
• Release Date: November 2012
• Publisher: SIXofNINE
• Length: 486 Pages
• Weight: 1.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.2" x 5.5"