The Last High
-
-
4.2 • 29 Ratings
-
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
In this riveting novel from international bestselling author Daniel Kalla, a Vancouver doctor and a detective face the deadly consequences of the opioid crisis as they track down the supplier of fentanyl that landed a group of teens in the ER with critical overdoses.
Deliberately or not, they must’ve been poisoned…And if it happened to them…
There will be others.
Dr. Julie Rees, a toxicologist and ER doctor, is stunned when her emergency room is flooded with teenagers from the same party, all on the verge of death. Julie knows the world of opioids inside and out, and she recognizes that there’s nothing typical about these cases. She suspects the teens took—or were given—fentanyl. But why did they succumb so quickly?
Detective Anson Chen is determined to find out. He and Julie race to track down the supplier of the deadly drugs. But the trail of suspects leads everywhere, from unscrupulous street dealers to ruthless gang leaders who hide behind legitimate business fronts and the walls of their mansions.
As Anson and Julie follow clues through the drug underworld, Julie finds herself haunted by memories of her troubled past—and the lover she lost to addiction. When other overdoses fill the ER—and the morgue—Julie realizes that something even more sinister than the ongoing fentanyl crisis is devastating the streets. And the body count is rapidly rising.
A gripping thriller, The Last High explores the perfect storm of greed, addiction, and crime behind the malignant spread of fentanyl, a deadly drug that is killing people faster than any known epidemic.
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.
Customer Reviews
Topical and engaging
An intelligent and interesting book that kept me engaged throughout. Read it in two sittings! Also learned a great deal about the opioid crisis without it ever getting preachy.
Addictive read
I liked this book because the message behind the book was so interesting. All of the chapters were addictive and kept me wanting to read more.