Dr Jaq Silver, industrial chemist specialising in explosives, and a keen skier, is in her element. Her new job with Snow Science is based in the snow-covered Slovenian mountains. Being far from England, and Teesside in particular, is a bonus, enabling unhappy memories to be left behind (though not for long). Alright, her boss is a dick, but aren’t they always? She’ll put up with that and enjoy the skiing and the party life that surrounds it.
But then a delivery from Teesside arrives at the Snow Science complex, and when Jaq takes the routine quality control samples, something doesn’t look right. From then on, an avalanche of events carries her on a breathless charge criss-crossing Europe, sometimes in pursuit of a lead, often fleeing a villain or two. Sexy men are involved, for good or ill. A back story begins to be revealed (but not in full – a sequel is likely) involving marital break-up and professional blame shifting.
In addition to Jaq’s point of view, the reader gets to see what the other characters are up to. To name but three: Boris, long haul lorry driver with villainous aspirations; Frank Good, the inappropriately named chief executive of Teesside based chemical firm, Zagrovyl; and Paul Polzin, international fixer nicknamed the Spider for his ability to spin webs of deceit.
Erskine peppers the narrative with scientific method and titbits, which works okay given her heroine’s occupation, but it is the exploits that stretch credibility. Any film adaptation would need Tom Cruise in drag to do them justice. The plot is complex, held together with coincidence, leaps of faith, and an alarming lack of common sense in Jaq. But we get there in the end.
And by the end I was
glad it was all over.
No comments:
Post a Comment