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The cool, blue waters of the pools glistened and sparkled in the brilliant mid-day sun. There were one, two, or sometimes three pools set in the carefully landscaped grounds of the villas sitting high above the heat and humidity of the city.

João sat by the pool of the largest and most ostentatious villa in the neighbourhood.  He picked up his drink and beckoned to the blonde at the poolside. “You. Come to me.”

She slipped across and wrapped herself round him like a snake.  João blew a scented smoke ring that curled above his head.  As the girl lifted her nostrils to get a scent of the sweet smell of the dope, João slapped her so hard on her right cheek that an angry red mark appeared.

 “Hey, that’s not for you, it’s for the kids in Europe.” He laughed harshly …

 

The story is set in 1967 and starts in London, when Inspector Keane is called to Whitehall, to be given a briefing on a special assignment from the Minister, who Keane remembers from the events in Journey to Nowhere.

 

The Minister wants the case of his daughter’s death from a drug overdose re-opened. He does not accept the verdict that it was an accidental death from her drug use, and wants Keane to find and destroy those responsible.

 

Keane is sent to carry out a very private act of revenge as he descends into the world of drug producers, drug dealers and their victims. He travels from the quiet London suburbs to the academic surrounds of Oxford, across the Atlantic to California’s hippy paradise, then to the source of the drugs in South America.

 

‘Revenge is sweet’ so the saying goes. But Inspector John Keane discovers that the sweetness of revenge has a terrible and bitter aftertaste.