An audio book.
Connor's death (he was 13) in Scotland is classified as suicide. We know that he stumbled upon a lab experiment. His father Chris and mother Sam have just split (Chris's fault - unfaithful with a Chinese colleague) after having had a new child.
Dan (friend of Chris since childhood, ex MI5) lives in London with pregnant wife Jenny and daughter. His father Bill died recently in Germany playing golf. Visiting a friend of his father's, he's followed by 2 people. He pops up to Scotland to investigate Connor's death. He invites friend Lucy (UK detective with some mental issues) up there. Dr Grace Reevey (married to Ross, living in an old farmhouse, old friend) moved from London and is the local doctor where Connor died. Connor's grandfather is a retired pathologist. The local pathologist, Bryce, is his relative. It's a small community. Sam and Chris's car is bugged.
Dan returns to London, gets a hint that his father's death might not have been natural, and gets a post mortum done.
Dan, Chris, Gustav and Sophie (pretty, flirty) had been a close teenage gang. Sophie's (Lucy's?) dad is dying in a hospice, recently visited by Dan's dad
Chris and (ex-lover) Jasmine research into GM rice. Dan is followed by MI5 people who tell him to stop investigating. Dan's dad and Connor both died of the same poison. Dan goes to Germany to find out what his dad did in his missing hours. Sophie (married) is there with apparent lover Gustav.
Grace is offered a job in Edinburgh - much better than living in an old farmhouse waiting for Ross to get it improved.
Why are there so many sudden deaths in the village? 60 year olds, but more recently young people too. It turns out that Dan's father and several of his friends worked on Project Snowbank (once government-sponsored), producing a drug that made people die quickly soon after 60. The idea was that people would be paid for signing up to the drug, and would be spared a lingering, undignified death. The towns people were used as test-cases. Alas, it was discovered that their offspring died young. China is interested in the drug (hence Jasmine's interest).
Dan's detained in Germany, missing his son's birth. Meanwhile, Sirius tells his wife to stop Dan investigating otherwise her baby will die. Lucy's abducted. Chris finds her.
In the end, the goodies live.
I suspected it's part of a series when bizarre backstory details are inserted (e.g. Jenny had once been kidnapped to Russia!).
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