The Steel Spring

'A vigorous and powerful mind...there is no doubt about the originality of his talent' Sunday Times Chief Inspector Jensen is a policeman in an unnamed European country where the government has criminalised being drunk, even in private, and where the city centres have been demolished to devote more space to gleaming new roads. Recovering in a hospital room abroad after a liver transplant, Jensen receives a note instructing him to return home immediately, but when he reaches the airport he discovers that all flights home have been cancelled and all communication from within his homeland has ceased. One of the last messages sent requested urgent medical help from abroad and when Jensen is piloted across the border it soon becomes clear that some kind of epidemic has ravaged the country.