Anthony Malloy is a divorced, cocaine-addicted, alcoholic research scientist whose major project is the development of a single-use syringe. A highly patentable product, the syringe could greatly reduce the spread of blood-borne infections, revolutionise immunisation programs, and potentially slow the spread of HIV and hepatitis among intravenous drug users.

Set in the mid-1980s, the novel opens with Malloy coming out of rehab, desperate to break his addictions. Just as his invention proves viable, Malloy’s world implodes. His ex-wife has begun a relationship with another woman, while his musically gifted teenage daughter has all but abandoned him. Complications ensue when his radical sister is kidnapped by the IRA; she was the principal bomber in the plot to kill the Conservative cabinet holed up at a Brighton hotel, a historical event that did not happen in the way Power relates.

In Power’s story, the unnamed Conservative prime minister is on life support and the conspiracy behind the bomb is also linked to the British government, a Colombian drug cartel, and a multinational drug corporation. When Caitlin attempts to leave the IRA, she is held captive and Malloy is blackmailed into smuggling high-potency opium seeds from Vietnam through Thailand, Chicago, and into Colombia, all under the protection of diplomatic immunity and a shady conglomerate of world powers.

Power is an assured storyteller, and the novel is taut and compelling; with judicious editing it would be a first-rate thriller. Power’s insight into addiction is remarkable and works brilliantly as the running thread of the narrative.