Blog Tour: The Chemical Code – Fiona Erskine

Racing towards the dark heart of Brazil, explosives expert Jaq Silver has one goal – vengeance. When her enemies take what she treasures most, she resolves to make them pay. Unsure who to trust, alert to hidden agendas, Jaq is hunting solo. As summer temperatures rise, the web of danger and corruption tightens around her. What is in the mysterious box, Jaq has inherited from her grandmother? Can Jaq be sure she is chasing down the right target? And who is pursuing her?

An exhilarating tour around Brazil from the gold mines of Goiás to the glorious beaches of Rio, THE CHEMICAL CODE combines non-stop explosive action and Bond-style villainy with the scientific know-how that makes the Chemical Detective series so unique.

FIONA ERSKINE is a professional engineer based in Teesside, although her work has taken her around the globe. As a female engineer, she has often been the lone representative of her gender in board meetings, cargo ships and night-time factories, and her fiction offers a fascinating insight into this traditionally male world. She is the author of The Chemical Detective, The Chemical Reaction and The Chemical Cocktail, all published by Point Blank. The Chemical Detective was shortlisted for the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award and The Chemical Reaction was shortlisted for the Staunch Prize in 2020.

@erskine_fiona @PointBlankCrime #ChemicalDetective

My thoughts: Jaq Silver has inherited a gold mine somewhere deep in the Brazilian rainforest, only she’s not interested, but plenty of other people are. She just wants to find her son, given away and adopted at birth. He’s out here somewhere but the people chasing her will stop at nothing to get the mining rights and keep her away, they’ll destroy and kill in order to stop her.

On her trail is federal police officer Gracà Nunes, she’s new to the job but has good instincts, and something tells her Jaq is a woman to watch out for. As the women’s paths lead them to the same place, but from different angles, bodies pile up and they both face danger. But can Jaq outwit her enemies and find her son? Will Gracà catch up with her and get to keep her job by solving the big case?

There are subplots involving bank managers and environmental scientists, stolen moments with kitesurfers and daring ocean rescues. It’s all very high adrenaline stuff, Jaq’s a bit of an action hero as well as a clever engineer, but not necessarily a great detective. As she zigzags across Brazil searching for her son, doing the odd spot of actual work and plotting revenge, other things rumble on in the background and she seems to be connected to it all.

Intelligent and drawing on real events for inspiration, this will hook you and suck you into its fast paced tangled web of corruption, crime and crazed colonels.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.