4.3 (117)

Smoking Poppy

Name: Smoking Poppy
Rating: 4.3 (117 reviews)
Author: Graham Joyce

by Graham Joyce

4.3 (117)

SMOKING POPPY is about the love between a father and his daughter; it is an extraordinarily evocative journey into the sights and sounds of Thailand; a chilling descent into the unknown. Dan Innes hasn’t seen his daughter for two years. Suddenly he receives the terrible news from the British Embassy in Bangkok that she has been arrested for drug smuggling. Angry and frightened, seething with guilt reprimands and questions he travels to Thailand hoping to secure her freedom.
But his visit to the prison is inconclusive and soon he is following the faintest of trails through the Thai jungle into the lawless mountain regions bordering Myanmar, where opium grows abundantly and the dangers of nature are second only to that of man. It is a place where the fearless and foolish wander and can disappear forever. Here Dan will discover his own limits and face his own temptations in his terrifying mission of self-discovery, blind faith and salvation

“Smoking Poppy is a book about all those things being a parent cannot fix. This is unquestionably Graham Joyce’s best novel too date” -The Guardian

“An author in full command of his considerable talents” -The Times

“Smartly written and filled with expertly drawn characters, a novel that will please Joyce fans and also the wider readership of thriller readers perhaps eager for something a bit unexpected, something even a bit… fantastic.” -Publishers Weekly”

Graham Joyce’s books are published around the world; they are elegantly written, full of brilliantly observed characters and always hugely readable.” Kirkus reviews’

“Graham Joyce has built us a bridge. Here is a deft, literate, suspenseful novel that has the potential to capture the imaginations of the masses. Rush out and buy a copy.” – Infinity Plus

‘Smoking Poppy’ offers high-quality tension, literary insight and a bracing dash of humor. It’s the kind of compact rocket-read that could hook a lot of readers. Graham Joyce may have turned in his most addictive novel yet.” -Trashotron

“There’s never been any question that Graham Joyce is a gifted writer, but with SMOKING POPPY he attains a new level.” DarkEcho

(Spoiler alert) Danny is approaching fifty, separated, lonely and bitter. He hasn’t spoken to his wife in years; he despises his born-again son and is alienated from Charlie, his twenty-two-year-old daughter. But his alienation is forgotten when he learns that she has been arrested in Thailand for smuggling heroin. He flies out to Bangkok and discovers that the girl being held in Chiang-Mai prison is not Charlie. What follows is a desperate journey into the remote hinterlands of Thailand, where the jungles are ruled by drug gangs and haunted by the spirits. And dogging Danny’s every step is a spectral figure, half glimpsed from the corner of his eye, brushing his sleeve in empty temples . . .