A small announcement in the evening news alerts a village in the South East of England to the threat of imminent fracking in its precious green fields. Locals come together to fight against chemical pollution of rivers and waterways but, as Dorothy, their matriarch says; ‘We need a water expert!” And this is where Anisha comes into the story. Sunning herself on a beach in Aqaba and heading for Petra to study the ancient water systems of the Nabateans, the phone call jolts her attention back to 21st century water affairs. Not everyone in the village is against fracking however and soon the locals split into two camps, while Anisha to finds herself torn apart in a different way as she gets to know the ambitious young Chief Exec of the would-be drilling company. This is the third in Gillian Jones’s ‘Water Trilogy’. We first met Anisha and Tom as they campaigned against the building of a dam in the rainforest of South America in Blade of Light. We followed Anisha through subterranean waterways in the Gulf States and further, into little-known enclaves of Central Asia, in The FARIS Affair. Now she is a professional and an expert in water affairs and, as battle lines are drawn in the Home Counties she finds herself in the middle of conflict in more ways than one.