Fiona Erskine brings us the welcome return of her fascinating chemical engineer, Dr Jacqueline 'Jaq' Silver, picking up on events straight after where The Chemical Detective ended on The Frankium yacht with Gio, sailing on the Black Sea. Jaq is forced to rely on her wits as she improvises an explosion to save Gio when the yacht breaks up and sinks. This series is unusual in that the narrative is delivered from a lens that sees the world through the eyes of a scientist, a chemical engineer, from Jaq's solutions to the dangers and challenges she finds herself facing, right through to the way a human being's hormones and chemicals kick in during sex. Jaq returns to Teeside with its dying chemical industry, in need of a job. The slime ball Frank Good wants her to compensate him for the loss of The Frankium, despite it being unseaworthy.

Trapped by a watertight punitive contract, Jaq faces further financial pressures in Portugal where she needs to pay the bills for the care of her aggressive, deluded and violent dementia suffering mother, Angie. So when she is offered a well paid job by Sophie Clark that entails a visit to China to Shanghai and Shingbo to look at the joint venture company, Krixo, she overcomes her reservations and goes. Only to find herself worried by the disappearance of a former student, the murders of a translator and her driver and the strange disappearance of a factory. A London art auction results in the sale of the rare jade Qianlong Lovers Cup, once the possession of Quinlong, the 18th century Qing dynasty emperor notorious for executing his enemies by slicing them with a thousand cuts, for £10 million pounds. When the auctioneer, and Professor John Tich are murdered with the same MO, and their pets dismembered, what is the connection? Who is behind the museum heists of Chinese treasures in Durham, Stockholm and Lisbon?

Fiona Erskine weaves a beguiling blend of fact and fiction, lending a strong sense of authenticity in her storytelling, like with her original action heroine protagonist, Jaq, she herself is a chemical engineer, illustrating her knowledge, experience, expertise and research, such as with the 17 rare earth metals required and central to green energy and technology in the narrative. Erskine makes wonderful use of actual Chinese history, such as the man-made Banqiao 1975 dam disaster, with a personal family mission of an elderly Russian in a hospice in Vladivostok. This is a superior and unique series, an intricately plotted, complex and exciting thriller for the discerning crime and thriller fan looking for something different within the genre. I can't wait for Jaq's next outing! Highly recommended. Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for an ARC.