The Last High
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
THE BEST FEELING YOU EVER HAVE MIGHT KILL YOU.
'A thrilling front-line drama' KATHY REICHS
An ordinary day
Dr Julie Rees is working in the ER in downtown Vancouver when calls of an emergency come in – five teenagers have overdosed. Three died at the scene, two are in cardiac arrest and on their way to the hospital. It’s a race against time to try and save them, one that seems impossible to win.
A new drug
As Julie unpicks the harrowing events, she sees the unlikelihood of the kids’ deaths. How could they have all overdosed at once? How were none of them able to help each other? The answer is obvious – they must have died within seconds of each other. But how?
An epidemic in the making
The bloodwork from the patients confirms Julie’s worst fears – they were poisoned by an ultra-potent strand of the opioid fentanyl. When more and more people die from the same thing, the deaths begin to look deliberate, targeted – and the drugs are still out there, while the body count rises . . .
Fast-paced, tense and authentic, if you love the drama and tension of shows like Grey’s Anatomy and the skewed morality of Breaking Bad, then this is for you.
***PRAISE for THE LAST HIGH***
'Michael Crichton ought to be looking over his shoulder' The Chronicle Herald
'A riveting thriller, The Last High features the most evil and insidious of villains: opioids. This important, must-read book is not only well-researched and entirely realistic, it gives a human face to a devastating epidemic' ROBYN HARDING, internationally bestselling author of The Arrangement and The Party.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A rash of sudden deaths attributable to a potent new street drug plagues Vancouver, British Columbia, in this serviceable medical thriller from Kalla (We All Fall Down). Julie Rees, who has a checkered past, is holding down two vital jobs senior physician in a hospital emergency room and at the city's poison control center. Those responsibilities overlap after four unconscious teens are brought in after taking an unknown drug. Desperate to save the life of one brain-dead girl, Rees violates protocol by putting the patient on heart-lung bypass. That choice, influenced by her failure to save the life of a boyfriend years before, leads to an ethical review instigated by a doctor who happens to be the dead boyfriend's uncle. Meanwhile, she and her lover, Det. Constable Anson Chen, attempt to identify the poison, which is much more toxic than fentanyl, and its source, even as the body count continues to grow. The authenticity that Kalla, himself a Vancouver ER physician, brings to the hospital scenes compensates only in part for the thinly drawn lead. The upbeat closing twist that results from Rees's ill-advised decision will please some readers and strike others as too pat. Kalla has done better in the past.
