Jaq Silver Thriller series: Book 1
Publication Date: August 22, 2024
Dr. Jaq Silver blows things up to keep people safe. An engineer and explosives expert, she’s also an excellent skier.
Working on avalanche control in Slovenia, Jaq stumbles across a problem with a consignment of explosives. After raising a complaint with the supplier, a multinational chemical company, her evidence disappears. Jaq is warned, threatened, accused of professional incompetence and suspended. Taking her complaint further, she narrowly escapes death only to be framed for murder. Absconding from police custody, she sets out to find the key to the mystery.
Racing between the snowy slopes of Slovenia and the ghostly ruins of Chernobyl, can she uncover the truth before her time runs out?
Jaq Silver’s job is to blow things up—on purpose. However, when a shipping mixup occurs, she stumbles on an explosive secret.
Author Fiona Erskine transports readers to Slovenia in The Chemical Detective. Jaq uses explosives to help control avalanches, which is a fascinating storyline in itself. However, when she discovers discrepancies in a shipment from a chemical company and reports it, a barrage of threatening events occurs.
While I know next to nothing about chemical engineering, the author meticulously breaks down the concepts to explain why Jaq’s discovery is alarming. Her efforts to stay alive and outrun her pursuers take her across Eastern Europe, even to the site of Chernobyl.
It takes a bit for the storyline to fully develop, but once Jaq discovers the incorrect shipment, things start to fall into place. The background information pertaining to the chemical company and its executives plays an important role.
The Chemical Detective kicks off what is expected to be a successful new series featuring a strong female character unafraid to take risks.
Engineer by day, writer by night.
Fiona Erskine is a professional engineer, born in Scotland and now based in the North-East of England. As a female engineer, she is often the lone representative of her gender in board meetings, cargo ships and night-time factories, and her fiction offers a fascinating insight into the traditionally male world of heavy industry.
Fiona’s stand-alone portrait of a factory Phosphate Rocks: A Death In Ten Objects, made the UK Literary Review’s top ten crime novels of 2021.
Her international thriller series is published (outside USA, Canada and The Philippines) by Point Blank, the literary crime imprint of Oneworld, and follows engineer protagonist Jaq Silver blowing things up to keep people safe. The Chemical Detective (2019) was shortlisted for the SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD at Crimefest, The Chemical Reaction (2020) was shortlisted for the STAUNCH Prize, The Chemical Cocktail (2022) was an FT Best Summer Book of 2022. Her latest novel is The Chemical Code (2023).
Fiona is passionate about music and outdoor swimming, though not generally at the same time.
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Woot woot!
Nice review. I loved this book! It was such a thrill ride!
Hi Amy – thanks so much for this review. So glad you enjoyed the adventure!