Poppy

There are great whiffs of cordite and testosterone throughout this tale – Poppy. Packed to the brim with action, whether it’s in some shabby desert sheikhdom or in the boudoir, both are areas in which Harry Donaghue, a grizzled mercenary soldier, excels.

Harry has just completed one mission in the Kingdom of Buktar, when his domestic bliss in the UK is savagely interrupted: it’s back to the heat again to finish the job against some very nasty opposition. He has to face not just some fiercely unpleasant locals, there's a Mafia interest here too.

And why? Because suddenly there’s the potential for the biggest and most frightening break-through in drug manufacture the world has known.

Only Harry and his team can put a stop to it. As for that business in the boudoir? Suffice to say that Victoria Ashby-Smith is one of the sassiest, sexiest, most compelling pieces of femininity between the sheets (and between the pages of a book) that Harry is ever likely to meet.