Sign up for free stuff
She blows things up to keep people safe
The Chemical Detective
Jaq Silver spicy engineering thriller Book #1
Dr Jaq Silver. Skier, scientist, international jet-setter, explosives expert. She blows things up to keep people safe.
Working on avalanche control in Slovenia, Jaq stumbles across a problem with a consignment of explosives. After raising a complaint with the supplier, a multinational chemical company, her evidence disappears and she is framed for murder. Jaq must find the key to the mystery.
But can she uncover the truth before her time runs out?
Series: Jaq Silver Thrillers
Formats available: Hardback, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook
First published: 04/04/19
Reviews for The Chemical Detective
Other Editions
The Chemical Detective - North America e-book
The Chemical Detective - North America Hardback
Related posts
XIII – Chernobyl Accident 1986
Posted on August 13, 2024
Chernobyl Reactor 4 started up before the end of 1983 in order to meet a Soviet Union deadline for energy production targets. In the rush, an antiquated design was used …
Read more
XIV – Reflections
Posted on August 13, 2024
Flying home from Ukraine, I looked out of the airplane window at the Polissia – that vast, water rich forest that knows no national boundaries. Most debate about nuclear power …
Read more
X – New Safe Confinement
Posted on August 13, 2024
The protagonist in my debut thriller – The Chemical Detective – uses the cranes of the New Safe Confinement project as waymarks to guide her to safety. I have been …
Read more
VIII – Lunch in Chernobyl
Posted on August 13, 2024
I had expected us to leave the exclusion zone for lunch, but after a bus tour of the nuclear power plant (like all nuclear facilities visiting and photographs are restricted …
Read more
XI – Pripyat
Posted on August 13, 2024
I saw enough of the planned cities of the USSR before 1990 to know that I detest them. It’s the sport of dictators to dream up new, idealised models of …
Read more
IX – Power Plant
Posted on August 13, 2024
The V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Station at Chernobyl was all set to become the largest in the world. Construction started in 1972. Reactor 1 was commissioned in 1997. Reactors 2, …
Read more
I – Chernobyl or Chornobyl?
Posted on August 13, 2024
I had no burning desire to visit the site of the worst known nuclear accident. Not for fear of radiation – few places have better controls in place for visitors—and …
Read more
III – Early start
Posted on August 13, 2024
Tours to Chernobyl must be booked well in advance. There are several tour operators; I selected one (Chernobyl Tour®) based on their website. On the day of the tour, I …
Read more
VI – Russian Woodpecker
Posted on August 13, 2024
Remember the cold war? I do. I remember the drills at school, what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Even at the time I was sceptical of …
Read more
VII – Dogs of Chernobyl
Posted on August 13, 2024
The dogs of Chernobyl appear to be happy fellows. At check-points, at the monuments, anywhere visitors gather, small Alsatians or grey and white mongrels trot around with tails in the …
Read more
V – Geiger Counter
Posted on August 13, 2024
Geiger Counters For my visit to Chernobyl, I hired a Geiger counter. A neat little device about the size of a mobile phone, but thicker. When radioactive materials decay, they …
Read more
XII – Chernobyl Fairground
Posted on March 8, 2019
One of the most heavily contaminated areas in the exclusion zone is the Pripyat amusement park. In 1986, the helicopters flying missions over the stricken nuclear power plant landed in …
Read more
I swam 24km in 5 days. Hard work?
Try tuna canning, salt drying or sulphur mining…
https://fionaerskine.substack.com/p/sulphur-and-salt
Goodbye #egadiislands and thank you @swimtrek for an amazing week – 24 kilometres with wonderful guides, fellow swimmers and multicoloured fishes!
This week #PhosphateRocks e-book is only £0.99 in UK
Who doesn`t love a story about a demolition gone wrong? @raine_clouds_writes @lesleykellyauthor
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Phosphate-Rocks-Death-Ten-Objects-ebook/dp/B0CTRRXKNY
PS: The audio book narrated by @rain.goblin is pretty special too
August 8th is the 50th Anniversary of the Banqiao Dam disaster.
I went to visit.
https://fionaerskine.substack.com/p/beware-sleeping-giants
A quarter of my sales this month were overseas for the very first time!
Massive thanks to all those fine Canadians for topping the list. Say Hi if you see this.
https://fionaerskine.com/
On my way to Harrogate today
https://open.substack.com/pub/fionaerskine/p/harrogate
Say hello if you`ll be there
What makes the perfect handbag and how much is it worth?
https://fionaerskine.substack.com/p/the-perfect-handbag
https://fionaerskine.substack.com/p/i-have-some-news
Goodbye @oneworldpublications and thank you for everything – it was such an honour to be published by you and I loved working with the team.
Now, like #JaqSilver I`m going solo
Big thanks to @kidethic for my beautiful new covers
Such a treat to interview #TerryDeary about his first adult crime book #ActuallyImAMurderer (it’s great!) at @backofthebeyondbooks
Happy International Women in Engineering Day!
Thanks to @Chem_Processing for highlighting #TheChemicalDetective!
#INWED2025 #INWED25
https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/voices/women-in-chemistry/podcast/55298245/celebrating-international-women-in-engineering-day
More canine readers in @forumbookscorbridge #winter #losingcontrol
Fascinating article about a truly brilliant book!
Wow! 🤩Thank you @CumbriaLifeMag for this gorgeous spread in your November issue!! 💖 #RavenglassNovel #Cumbria #Carlisle #Jacobites
Oh @adrianmckinty - where have you been all my life? Loving Sean Duffy’s adventures read by Gerard Doyle
Huge thank you to every person and bookshop that's ordered Ravenglass and made it stonking success so far 😍
This gripping and powerful tale of gender-fluid Kit/Stella traversing the world in the 1700s is very relevant in today's climate!
Order here: https://share.google/i6inpiZ7vDgHK3mMh
Delighted to celebrate International Week of Happiness at Work with a 99p deal in UK. Jaq Silver has found the perfect job in Brazil. Or has she?
The Chemical Cocktail (Jaq Silver Thriller) eBook : Erskine, Fiona: : Kindle Store https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chemical-Cocktail-Silver-Thrillers-Book-ebook/dp/B0FG8X59MT
The Chemical Cocktail goes right back to Jaq’s childhood and can be read first - only £0.99
Trust me, you won’t regret reading this. Exquisite prose and a rollicking, propulsive, deeply moving story. @novelcarolyn is a fearless writer who wears her deep research so lightly that you are instantly immersed into the booming north of the 1720s
🚨PUBLICATION DAY🚨
Ravenglass is available everywhere now! A tender and powerful tale of a gender fluid character trying to make their way in the 1700s, we can't recommend this incredible adventure novel enough 🏳️🌈
Order yours here: https://share.google/bfWyYAWWNBHLr9rB6
I was today years old when I learned I’ve been eating my favourite biscuits all wrong
Chocolate digestives: How do you eat them? Choc side up or down? - CBBC Newsround https://www.bbc.com/newsround/articles/cvg7lnp19n0o
Last of the first editions - snap them up quick - a unique investment!
Look who I found in @blackwelloxford when I was there at the weekend?
Not one but two of @erskine_fiona's excellent Jaq Silver thrillers #thechemicalcode and #thechemicalcocktail just along the shelves from The Cure.
Nice facing, Fiona! You'll have to come to Oxford to sign them!
Ravenglass by @novelcarolyn is the most beautifully written exploration of how we once lived and worked and lived and loved and fought in the north. A cracking good read, I cannot recommend it strongly enough - a complete breath of fresh air.
🚨RELEASE WEEK🚨
One of the biggest and most ambitious Northodox books to date is out this Thursday!
Join Kit Ravenglass on his seafaring journey in this swashbuckling, gender fluid, historical fiction novel!
It is incredible 😍
Preorder now: https://share.google/9lT4pFxkL9DOMypUR
🚨RELEASE WEEK🚨
One of the biggest and most ambitious Northodox books to date is out this Thursday!
Join Kit Ravenglass on his seafaring journey in this swashbuckling, gender fluid, historical fiction novel!
It is incredible 😍
Preorder now: https://share.google/9lT4pFxkL9DOMypUR
Big and lusty! Spot on. #Ravenglass is my book of the year so far.
I'm so looking forward to talking with @novelcarolyn this week on her northern tour!
Who is coming along ?
6 days till #RavenglassNovel goes live and the first press review is a "big and lusty" 9/10!!! 🤩😁Thank you @peterboroughtel 😍
All my books
Sign up for exclusive content
Get instant access to the Subscribers Only section of my website with new work pre-publication, private musings and lashings of publishing stories and advice. I’ll update subscribers on new releases and in-person events AND run competitions with great give-aways.