Book Reviews

This hardback is Anthony Horowitz' latest offering, and is a Sherlock Holmes story, written with the approval of the Conan Doyle Estate and the Sherlock Holmes society. I have to confess I'm a bit of a fan of Mr. Horowitz, as his work helped my offspring to appreciate books when he was an adolescent, and I like 'Foyles' War' for which he wrote the scripts.

The Book is published on decent paper, with an attractive dustjacket and with a feature you don't see on many modern books, a bookmark attached to the spine, so you don't lose your place or your bookmark when you drop the book and fall asleep.
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Poppy Day is a novel based on fiction. Set in the present day it tells the story of a young army wife, Poppy Day, and her husband. His decision to join-up to “better them” has cataclysmic consequences, of which Poppy Day feels only she can rectify.

The opening chapter struck a chord. Poppy Day’s husband, Martin Cricket, is deployed to Afghanistan. She receives a knock at the door whilst cooking fish fingers under the grill for a fish finger sandwich. When she looks through the spy-hole she see's two soldiers standing at her door. The author catches the mood perfectly. The feeling of dread seeing the soldiers knocking on her door, not wanting to open it, but knowing you have to. Being an army wife I could feel the emotion that the character would have felt, the dread, the terror, the panic. Knowing that you could not avoid it, that you had to answer the door at some point in the near future and hear the dreadful news that your husband had died, been seriously injured, or the worst of all had been taken. All the time worrying about the fact that you have a Major in your lounge, your house looks a mess and you’re burning your fish fingers!
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