The book kicks off with a daring escape from a Cairo prison where Elmore Lang rescues Ziad Malek, an American born to Egyptian immigrant parents. The crime scene is crude and dangerous, and it leaves behind many dead bodies. However, the victims - the guards and other prisoners - who are collateral damage during the escape, do not have any evidence of what killed them. Since March 2020, governments and populations the world over have struggled to cope with COVID-19, besides the other challenges that afflict the planet. One such challenge is the synthetic opioid crisis where Adam Hamdy uses it as a plot for Red Wolves.
Ex-MI6 Scott Pearce, Leila Nahum and the team have uncovered a chilling plot to unleash a terrifying new toxin on an unsuspecting world. They follow the trail of a formidable killer to Seattle where they discover an ambitious plan, with Chinese connection, to take over the West Coast drug trade. But the true nature of the product being smuggled is known only to a select few bent on reshaping the world.
As with much of the manipulation and street espionage we see in real life, the foot soldiers are kept in the dark by the people pulling the strings. In the process, Pearce faces unwitting gangs caught up in the struggle for power, a family in crisis, and an assassin who can kill with just a single touch.
Suspecting these events are related, Pearce deploys his team to fight the menace on two fronts. But when one undercover operation goes horribly wrong, he is left in a race against time to stop this deadly new threat.
To do that, Pearce has to forgo all the espionage rules. Now he is about to find out that he's not the only one who can light a fire, as his enemies are equally determined to see the world burn as well.
Red Wolves tells a story fraught with complications. Each character offers something to the story, and often, the readers will be left breathless, expecting the worst to come next.
Hamdy gives the reader something to think about in this thriller. The book is relentless, intelligent, disturbing, timely, and terrifying. It offers a frightening perspective on global control using synthetic chemicals.
