Dear Reader,
I’m sure you will agree that this exclusive edition of The Chemist is a thing of beauty, and I feel privileged to have been selected as part of this book club.
This is a very personal novel, the idea for which was brewing inside my mind for years. I have worked as a pharmacist for over twenty years and loved my time caring for people, but it was the dreaded COVID pandemic which finally put the nail in my career.
I spent so much time looking after my patients and desperately keeping my pharmacy open, that I didn’t see COVID coming for my mother.
On that fateful evening, standing inside Bradford ICU and watching her pass, I knew my career was over.
I wrote this novel with rage, for a forgotten community and, indeed, a forgotten profession. We have all, at some point, entered a community pharmacy and accepted help from the most accessible healthcare professional on the high street. Yet, it is a profession which is dying because of the cruel cuts to NHS funding.
Idris Khan is, to a large extent, me.
Fortunately, I am not and never have been blackmailed by a drug kingpin, but I did spend a lot of time speaking to and, at times, hanging out with my blue scripts (otherwise known as drug addicts) and saw a side to them which was vulnerable and in need of salvation.
I immersed myself fully into this world, much like I did when writing the Harry Virdee series because I am a writer who is either all in or all out.
What I learned became the basis for this novel. It is a dark, gritty race through the underworld, a glimpse into communities we perhaps whisper about but very few of us have ever (thankfully) experienced. The Mews is loosely based on a real location however, for the purposes of fiction, I have brought it to life in a heightened manner.
My hope is that after reading The Chemist you will come to see community pharmacists as the saviours they are! But perhaps also view the communities described within the book slightly differently. For every vile character like Liam Reynolds, there is a shining ray of light like Al-Noor.
Much like the Virdee series, I bring the darkness and the drama through the plot and the characters, while Harry or Idris bring the light.
So, brace yourselves – this one isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Best wishes,
A. A. Dhand.
