The Last High

By Daniel Kalla

THE BEST FEELING YOU EVER HAVE MIGHT KILL YOU. 

'A thrilling front-line drama' KATHY REICHS

An ordinary day

Dr Julie Rees is working in the ER in downtown Vancouver when calls of an emergency come in – five teenagers have overdosed. Three died at the scene, two are in cardiac arrest and on their way to the hospital. It’s a race against time to try and save them, one that seems impossible to win.

A new drug

As Julie unpicks the harrowing events, she sees the unlikelihood of the kids’ deaths. How could they have all overdosed at once? How were none of them able to help each other? The answer is obvious – they must have died within seconds of each other. But how?

An epidemic in the making

The bloodwork from the patients confirms Julie’s worst fears – they were poisoned by an ultra-potent strand of the opioid fentanyl. When more and more people die from the same thing, the deaths begin to look deliberate, targeted – and the drugs are still out there, while the body count rises . . .

Fast-paced, tense and authentic, if you love the drama and tension of shows like Grey’s Anatomy and the skewed morality of Breaking Bad, then this is for you.

***PRAISE for THE LAST HIGH***

'Michael Crichton ought to be looking over his shoulder' The Chronicle Herald 

'A riveting thriller, The Last High features the most evil and insidious of villains: opioids. This important, must-read book is not only well-researched and entirely realistic, it gives a human face to a devastating epidemic'  ROBYN HARDING, internationally bestselling author of The Arrangement and The Party.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: May 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781471177736

Daniel Kalla

Daniel Kalla is an internationally bestselling author of many novels, including Fit to Die, The Darkness in the Light, Lost Immunity, The Last High, and We All Fall Down. Kalla practices emergency medicine in Vancouver, British Columbia. Visit him at DanielKalla.com or follow him on Twitter @DanielKalla.

Reviews for The Last High

[pgchuis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a quick read with short chapters and an unsophisticated writing style. It explained a lot of (too many?) medical terms and procedures, but otherwise moved at fast pace. The depiction of the whole array of people involved in the supply of opioids and the wide variety of customers, was well done and informative. However, I did struggle a bit with the enormous number of characters, many of whom died shortly after being introduced.A sad and gently hopeless book, which humanized addicts and even drug dealers and at least reminds the reader that there are people who care about the problem, even if they have no easy answers.

[jrlibrary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed the Last High for two reasons. Firstly, I’ve visited Vancouver and I enjoyed picturing areas of the city that I’d actually been to and secondly because my son is a paramedic in Toronto who speaks openly and often about the fentanyl crisis so I enjoyed reading about the seriousness of the problem written by an ER doctor. I know this is a work of fiction but a lot of it had the ring of truth.