In an English Village and an American City life goes on as normal. It is summer and the sun shines down on people going about their business and enjoying themselves. Then a choking, yellowish smog begins to creep along the ground. A car crashes, with the driver incapacitated by the eye-stinging, killing miasma. Dr. Palfrey and Z5 deploy and hunt the mysterious Professor Storr across the world in order to head off the threat. One mystery follows another and a fantastic, yet disturbing light is shined on a problem that is all too real …
John Creasey (September 17, 1908 - June 9, 1973) was born in Southfields, Surrey, England and died in New Hall, Bodenham, Salisbury Wiltshire, England. He was the seventh of nine children in a working class home. He became an English author of crime thrillers, published in excess of 600 books under 20+ different pseudonyms. He invented many famous characters who would appear in a whole series of novels. Probably the most famous of these is Gideon of Scotland Yard, the basis for the television program Gideon's Way but others include Department Z, Dr. Palfrey, The Toff, Inspector Roger West, and The Baron (which was also made into a television series). In 1962, Creasey won an Edgar Award for Best Novel, from the Mystery Writers of America, for Gideon's Fire, written under the pen name J. J. Marric. And in 1969 he was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.