Smoking Poppy : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A thriller with heart
Review: Dan Innes's little girl, Charlie, is now an adult with a mind of her own. And she's in a Thailand prison. Even though she never turns to her daddy for help anymore, when he hears she could get the death penalty it never occurs to him not to rush to her aid. Leaving behind his intellectual but empty life in London, Dan takes his pub buddy, Mick, and his fanatically Christian son, Phil, and sets out on the long journey to find his daughter. Instead, he finds the girl who stole her passport. Desperate now, he and his buddy and son hire guides to help them follow Charlie's trail in what turns out to be a grueling trek into the wilderness near Myanmar, where they encounter a wild, surreal world of spells and spirits and opium that will either split them apart forever ... or bring them back together.

In SMOKING POPPY, Graham Joyce has done an excellent job of handling both the psychological and spiritual issues mysteriously yet honestly. This book is a striking portrayal of a father's unconditional love for his children (and his children's unfailing desire to protect him). Nothing here is portrayed as right or wrong beyond the demands of loyalty. More than a thriller, more than a family novel, SMOKING POPPY seamlessly weaves the two genres together into a painful, amusing, and unnerving tale of love and violence in the exotically dangerous Asian jungle.

If you have trouble with slightly far-out spirituality, you may have trouble with this story, but if you're interested in a seriously disturbed literary trip, SMOKING POPPY will definitely deliver.

Rating:
Summary: Drugs, Thugs, Demons and Spirits
Review: Danny Innes is trying to put together a life without his wife and kids. Sheila has left him for someone else. His son Phil has moved out and become a fundamentalist Christian. His daughter Charlie went away to university. Then his wife calls to tell him Charlie is in jail in Chiang Mai on drug smuggling charges. Accompanied by his pushy friend Mick and his reluctant son, he makes the trek to Thailand. It is a journey during which he will be dogged by drug dealers, thugs of the worst kind, sorcerers and spirits.

This is a tense mystery filled with peril and exotic locations and though our heroes are in almost constant danger, we are not bombarded with action, just for action's sake. Joyce mixes just the right amount of tension, insight and humor in this book you won't want to put down.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane

Rating:
Summary: Joyce deserves to become better known
Review: I am a big fan of some of Joyce's dark fantasy novels, in particular THE TOOTH FAIRY and REQUIEM. SMOKING POPPY is being marketed as Joyce's second "suspense" novel (after last year's appalling INDIGO). Joyce makes a welcome comeback here in a suspenseful yet moving tale about family ties, self-discovery and the lengths to which parents will go for their children. Although the fantastical element is not present to the same extent as in the novels mentioned above, it still makes a subtle appearance. Joyce deserves greater recognition.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I've not read anything else by Joyce, and was introduced to him recently by a friend. Smoking Poppy is part travel-book and part fiction as it examines the effects of drug tourism on one family. Vividly written, it made me want to go to Thailand. I've always wanted to try opium, and this book will put even the most feverent holder of that desire off with it's graphic portrails of the drug's effects.

Rating:
Summary: A winning thriller
Review: London electrician Dan Innes is stunned when his estranged wife informs him that the British embassy in Bangkok called about their adult daughter. Neither Innes has heard from Charlie in two years, but now they learn she has been arrested as a drug smuggler in Thailand and languishes in Chiang Mai jail, probably awaiting death.

When Dan and Charlie last talked two years ago, they brawled and left their once close relationship strained and probably over. However, Dan realizes he still loves his rebellious Charlie and decides to go to Asia to free his daughter. Shockingly at least to Dan, his evangelical son Phil and a pub quiz teammate join him on the trek. The safe world of London vanishes almost from the moment the trio arrives at Chiang Mai jail. They begin to fight for their lives as well as that of Charlie along the perilous the Thai-Myanmar border where opium is king and vapid stray westerners are cannon fodder.

Though a non-stop adventure thriller that hammers home the atrocities along the Thai-Myanmar border, SMOKING POPPY stands way above the field because of the deep look at relationships. The story line is loaded with gripping action as the frightened but courageous Londoners fight to remain alive to rescue someone that they believe most likely gone over the mental edge. However, the key that makes this more than another thriller is the insightful look at love especially estranged and what is truly friendship (quiz teammates at a pub or someone willing to risk everything?). Even the title provides a double meaning to readers who will rejoice in award winning Graham Joyce's astounding tale.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Many rewards await the discerning reader
Review: SMOKING POPPY is a daedal novel, and the Booklist précis is all the plot summary a reader requires to 'take a whiff'. What that review does not share is how Graham Joyce has managed to update a familiar tale (Conrad's HEART of DARKNESS) and, in the process, completely and ravishingly made it his own.

The plot, the graceful (writerly) style, the characters - each a 'person in full', although Dan Innes, the novel's core protagonist, really shines. Moreover, there is the novel's sub-text: Graham Joyce has important insights to share about our relationships with each other -- parent:child(ren), child:parent, friend:friend, lover:lover, etc. And that is not the end of the treasure trove Joyce has gifted us; many rewards await the discerning reader.

SMOKING POPPY has so much to say and says it so well. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Many rewards await the discerning reader
Review: SMOKING POPPY is a daedal novel, and the Booklist précis is all the plot summary a reader requires to 'take a whiff'. What that review does not share is how Graham Joyce has managed to update a familiar tale (Conrad's HEART of DARKNESS) and, in the process, completely and ravishingly made it his own.

The plot, the graceful (writerly) style, the characters - each a 'person in full', although Dan Innes, the novel's core protagonist, really shines. Moreover, there is the novel's sub-text: Graham Joyce has important insights to share about our relationships with each other -- parent:child(ren), child:parent, friend:friend, lover:lover, etc. And that is not the end of the treasure trove Joyce has gifted us; many rewards await the discerning reader.

SMOKING POPPY has so much to say and says it so well. Recommended.