THE LAST HIGH

4 stars out of 5

If I ever had the inclination to do street drugs, this book would set me straight fast (thankfully, what few painkillers I've been prescribed over the years by my dentist always upset my stomach and did nothing to ease the pain, so even if I get them offered to me in the future, I'll just say no). Alas, that's not true of many of the characters in this book, which puts an ugly spotlight on the widespread illicit drug trade in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Julie Rees, an emergency room physician and toxicology specialist, is thrown in the center of the action one night as several teenagers are brought in - some in cardiac arrest and others already dead. One boy has a chance of surviving, and one of the girls has been put on a ventilator in the slim hope she might pull through. Julie is sympathetic, in part because she once was an addict herself (some of the details are revealed throughout the book), but she's been clean for several years.

Julie is friends (without benefits, at least at the outset) with Anson Chen, a local police detective. Together with other experts, they conclude that an extremely deadly drug - pure carfentanil, said to be thousands of times stronger than fentanyl - has somehow found its way to the public. Their task? Finding the source, and, if at all possible, rounding up all of what's on the street that hasn't already been injested before hundreds more die.

There's not much else I can say without giving away too much, but the trail takes Anson and Julie from dealers on the street to gangs to wealthy "businessmen" who have a lucrative side job (in fact, there are so many characters that early on I quit trying to keep them straight). It still seems incredible that an ER physician with no police training is allowed to tag along on dangerous police business like raids (who you know counts, I guess), but the whole thing adds up to a fast-paced story that carries a strong message. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for letting me read and review an advance copy.

The Last High by Daniel Kalla (Simon & Schuster, May 2020); 320 pp.