It’s Christmas 1918, and Charlie Briggs has fled London to lie low for a while in the small town of Petersfield. There’s no reason why he can’t do some business while he waits for the heat to die down in the big city. When he sets his sights on stealing a rare book, Charlie has no idea how much the theft will change his life.
There is something so emotive about World War I. The horrors of the trenches, and all the new inventions that made killing people even easier and nastier, caused a wound that is still keenly felt to this day.
Added to the setting and subject matter of the Great War is a ghost story in the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmastime. The specter in this tale has an important message for Charlie, urging him to mend his ways in an almost Dickensian manner, but it also has a message for us, the reader. “Remember me,” the ghost tells Charlie, but he is also speaking to us, the reader, urging us to remember this terrible time in history and all the lives that were lost. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, as they say.
When I finished Williamson’s young adult science fiction novel, “Feast of Ashes”, I longed to read an adult horror novel written by the author. She writes about deep themes and complex characters, and I longed to read what she would write with the freedom to fully explore human nature and it’s darkness without the restrictions of writing for a younger audience.
Like a Christmas miracle, the author’s next book delivered on my wish. When I saw the WriteReads tour for “The Haunting Scent of Poppies”, I immediately signed up. While a short story or novelette rather than a full length novel, Williamson doesn’t stint on the horror or hold back from exploring the darkness within humanity. With deft strokes she paints the picture of a despicable, and all too believable, character in Charlie Briggs. It’s easy to imagine the people he encounters in Petersfield, and the horrors he is forced to confront are filled with historical accuracy.
There are a lot of layers and meaning packed into this slim volume. It’s a satisfying read, a great ghost story, and a thought provoking tale that will stay with me. I hope the author will write more adult speculative fiction, ideally a full length novel. Whatever she writes next, I am eager to read it.
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