Matt McAvoy Book Review

Another superb masterclass in storytelling by an author who has really stood out for me, twice now.  Every bit as good as the first book in the series, A Dangerous Time, Book 2 shifts the focus to Lebanon, but the narrative is pretty much the same: that of chemists and pharmacists in the latter-mid twentieth century lured by the irresistible temptation of the vast wealth and power to be made in the illicit drug trade.  Irina expertly weaves the connection to extremist militia warfare, the roots of fundamentalist terrorism, and how the introduction of amphetamine-based drugs brings a whole new dimension of savagery to the fighters’ conduct – something which we know happens all over the world, and appears to have become a staple of terrorism and guerrilla warfare to this day.

Irina is clearly a highly educated and informed authority on the subject matter.  She also writes in the perfect language for the subject: articulate and succinct, with an almost detached quality, which doesn’t judge her characters, but just simply states their actions; she allows us to draw our own conclusions about their amorality.  In a way, it is the perfect voice to explain these opportunists, clever businessmen as they are, expressing sheer apathy toward their behaviour and its consequences, which are often brutal.  Like the earlier book, at its heart this is an unemotive study into the levels of inhumanity people are capable of in pursuit of their own ends.

I won’t spoil anything, but while self-contained, there is something of a tempting strand to pull on at the end of this book.  We know there is another in the pipeline to conclude Irina’s planned trilogy, and I believe it is set in the States, so I do hope it picks up on that loose thread.  If it doesn’t, no matter, for like Sicario and Traffic, it is rather about the pandemic of drugs itself than any specifically character-focused narrative, and the patiently dormant consequences of failing to effectively regulate a social problem which turned out to be a timebomb in the making.  And, in that respect, this book must also be considered a cautionary tale; the problem of drugs and the corruption of chemists is not going to go away – more terrifying, as far as domestic “warfare” goes, I think the Western world is only just about to see the hideous dynamic substance abuse is going to add to the terrorist threat.  I look forward eagerly to the third book – though, I’ll admit, I’m rather fearful of what this fantastic author will reveal to us next.  An excellent book, bleak if only for its stone-cold approach.