Sea of Poppies
A ripping yarn involving a disparate cross-section of characters caught up in the opium trade. It definitely falls in the ‘adventure’ category; it clearly has the characters to root for and the ones to loathe. The book gives an excellent view on a personal level of how the opium trade affected colonial policy, and subsequently those colonized.I listened to it on tape, which I recommend. For the most part, Phil Gigante does an excellent job with the different accents and colorful slang, and hearing it spoken is half the fun.