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The Chemical Reaction

Posted on July 8, 2025 in Jaq Silver

I’m delighted to confirm that the The Chemical Reaction is available once again as an e-book.

A prize to anyone who spots the subtle changes…(or indeed any formatting mistakes).

I felt quite nostalgic re-reading my second novel. It brought back floods of memories from my time working as an engineer in China – some challenging, some hilarious, always fascinating – and the wonderful colleagues who looked after me in – what I found to be – a totally alien culture.

This lovely review in FORBES by  grrlscientist gives you an idea of what to expect in Jaq Silver’s second adventure.

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This gripping novel … starts, literally, with a BOOM. It picks up where the first novel, The Chemical Detective (review here), 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 .., 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.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2020/10/26/the-chemical-reaction-by-fiona-erskine—review/

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The Chemical Reaction was published by Point Blank (Oneworld) during the first COVID lockdown in Spring 2020. Not the best timing – all the scheduled launches and festival events were cancelled but staying alive was more important than selling books.

Now, maybe with this reprint, I can do both.