Against a tide of local economic disintegration and personal emotional turmoil, a facially disfigured and mentally fragile young athlete makes a series of medical breakthroughs. However, the amalgamation of his scientific achievements and troubled personal background give rise to horrific consequences. As desperate patients clamber for his cures and the inventor is left grappling with reality to prevent his own demise. Partly based on true life events, The Last of the Flying Finns follows the early life of Aston James. Disturbed by his past, embittered by the present, and dishevelled by his future prospects, James becomes yet another discontent along the Steel River. When by chance - following a recent tragedy - James is given a route out of his decaying hometown. He is quickly uncovered as a medical genius; but his brilliance is equally matched by his madness and James struggles with his success. Atmospheric, dark and moody, yet interspersed with black humour, the novel is set against the thirty year decline of Middlesbrough (the Ironopolis) as a subtext, and includes the closure of Redcar (the Town of Scars) steel works. The fading embers of such heavy industry, and the resultant social decay, are graphically described and contrasted by the author with a detailed and delicate depiction of the adjacent picturesque coast of North Yorkshire.