Catherine Ling first made her appearance in an Eve Duncan book and stayed an active player ever since but was so compelling she deserved her own story. This is the first but should not be the last of those stories. This book focuses on her relationship with Hu Chang, a master pharmacologist, who has been the single biggest influence on her life. When he is attacked and the CIA is brought in to save him, the CIA and Venable, bring in Catherine. And then Venable brings John Gallo because Hu Chang has masterminded a poison so brilliant that the perfect murder has already happened and no one had a clue. As always, there are always things that don't make a lot of sense but it's pretty easy to willingly suspend disbelief when the characters are so likable. It was also nice to have a non-Eve Duncan story with this much creativity that wasn't centered around a child murder.