When the police find a girl's body in a fleabag motel in London they're not surprised - she's yet another junkie who overdosed. There's no foul plan involved, but her identity's a little surprising - the only daughter of movie mogul Robert Hellier. When he discovers that she was being supplied by local doctor and drug specialist Nicholas Warren he storms into Warren's rooms intent on taking him down. Warren quickly brings him down to earth, explaining the role Hellier played in his daughter's addiction and demise.
Spurred on by a comment Warren made, Hellier has his research team investigate him, and the London drug situation, and confirms that Warren's a renowned expert on the topic. He then offers Warren a proposition - unlimited funds, if he can manage to stop the flow of heroin into the UK. Although the task seems enormous, with the right team Warren thinks he may have a chance.
Bagley's second book builds on his first - the plot is significant, important, and the pace is just as fast. The main characters are revealed as much by what they say and do as by their descriptions, and once again exotic locales are described. Like all great writing (Lynn and I think, as we may have said before, that Kerry Greenwood is an example par excellence of this) the background has been meticulously researched without the author needing to hammer the reader over the head with it. I've never been to Iran, and have no doubt it's changed significantly in the forty-odd years since The Spoilers was written, but I feel as though I've got a good picture of it. I'm not usually an action/adventure novel reader, but Bagley's magnificent.
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