The Chemical Reaction By Fiona Erskine — Review
By: 𝐆𝐫𝐫𝐥𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭, Scientist
Tags: Mystery Thriller, Books, Science, Book Review, Fiction

A gripping fast-paced mystery where our hero is seeking one of her students that disappeared in China, and quickly becomes involved with the theft of ancient Chinese jade sculptures

by GrrlScientist for Forbes | Twitter

This gripping novel, The Chemical Reaction (Point Blank, 2020: Amazon US / Amazon UK) by Fiona Erskine is the second instalment in the Jaqueline “Jaq” Silver series and it starts, literally, with a BOOM. It picks up where the first novel, The Chemical Detective (my review), ended with our fearless hero, globe-trotting chemical engineer, Dr Jaqueline Silver, sailing the yacht, Good Ship Frankium, on the Black Sea with her lover, Giovanni. That yacht, which promptly sinks, was owned by her former boss, Frank Good, a ruthless corporate player who has trapped Jaq in a watertight contract that demands repayment for the cost of the boat, regardless of the fact — a minor detail? — that it was not seaworthy. At the same time, Jaq is already strapped for cash because she is paying hospice bills for her aging mother who is suffering from dementia.

Predictably, events escalate from there. Jaq, who is unemployed, is suddenly offered a high-paying contract that will solve her financial woes. Her potential benefactor, Sophie Clark, is the managing director of the joint venture company, Krixo. This company, which uses rare earth elements to develop superstrong magnets for wind turbines, batteries and other green energy technologies, is located in Shingbo, a mythical coastal town that lies south of Shanghai in Zhejiang province, China. Because tensions have recently arisen between Krixo’s joint venture partners, Sophie wants an expert to secretly investigate. Despite her money problems, Jaq is very reluctant to get involved with what appears to be corporate espionage.

“I’ve had enough of investigating dodgy companies. I’ve put my friends in danger, and I’m not doing it again. Give me a technical problem and I’ll solve it, give me a project and I’ll manage it, give me a team and I’ll lead it, but no more mysteries”, Jaq later complains privately (p. 89).

But someone has already been put in danger, as Jaq discovers, after one of her former students, who is Chinese, disappears shortly after she sent him a brief email query about Krixo.

So of course, Jaq accepts Sophie’s contract and goes to China. But things do not go well: not only can she not find her former student, but her translator and driver also disappear — as does the entire Krixo factory. Whoa, whaaa..? How can an entire factory and all of its large and expensive equipment just … disappear? In just a few days?

Meanwhile, at roughly the same time in London, the rare jade Lovers Cup, once the possession of Quinlong, the 18th century Qing dynasty emperor who was infamous for executing his enemies by slicing them to death with a thousand cuts, is sold for £10 million. When both the art auctioneer and a retired professor are murdered and their pets dismembered, these two eerily similar crimes raise troubling questions about potential connections. Further, is all this connected to the recent heists of Chinese treasures from museums in Durham, Stockholm and Lisbon? And what is the connection between ancient Chinese works of art and a joint venture green tech company located in China?

These questions and more are addressed by an intricate but plausible plot that skilfully weaves together fact and fiction — along with plenty of high-octane action and mystery. I was especially impressed by the author’s use of a character to provide a personal view of the 1975 Banqiao dam disaster as well as a glimpse into the tragically misguided “Smash Sparrows” campaign, which lasted from 1958 to 1962 — both of which devastated farming communities and led to catastrophic famines in China. (You can even read a little more about the Chinese history mentioned in this novel in the 6-page Author’s Note at the end.)

In addition to having a healthy imagination and a love of history, the author also relies on her real-life expertise as a chemical engineer to share some science with her readers, including some information about the 17 rare Earth elements (which really aren’t very rare) used by green energy technologies, and even venturing into describing a little human endocrinology.

As I read the book, I became intrigued by the chapter pages because each featured a different rare earth element. What could this possibly mean? After puzzling over this for a few hours, I tweeted my question to the author, and she replied:

Mystery solved. Both I and my many tiny color-coded post-it tabs peeking out from pages throughout the book were satisfied.

Overall, this unique and entertaining novel is a lot of fun. The plot is complex, intelligent and carefully developed and features just the right blend of suspense and mystery, explosions and gorgeous male strippers, theft of multi-million dollar artworks and five-star dining in interesting locations that will especially satisfy those suffering from cabin-fever. But be careful if you have a meeting in the morning: you may not be able to put this book down once you’ve started reading it!