This first collection of stories by Lawrence Osborne perfectly showcases his talent for tension, atmosphere – and characters out of their depth

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A deaf girl hired as a maid by a wealthy New York couple turns the tables on her obliviously abusive employers and answers blackmail with blackmail. A psychiatrist treating a girl in rural England becomes ensnared in a love affair that threatens to destroy her career. A naïve young linguist sent to the forests of Irian Jaya is manipulated into betraying her mission by a ruthless and disturbed pastor.

Lawrence Osborne’s stories explore characters lost in the shadowed borders between the mundane, the fantastical and the violence of the natural world.

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‘This is stylish, subversive fiction from a writer at the top of his game’ New Statesman, Books of the Year

‘If you appreciate stories with stings in the tail, you will enjoy this fiendishly cunning new collection’ Mail on Sunday

After twenty years as an ex-pat reporter in Hong Kong, Adrian Gyle has almost nothing to show for it. But now the streets are choked with students demanding democratic freedoms, and the old world is beginning to fall apart.

Adrian’s old friend Jimmy Tang, the scion of a wealthy Hong Kong family, has begun a reckless affair with Rebecca, a leading pro-democracy protestor. But when Rebecca disappears and Jimmy goes to ground, Adrian unearths the familiar old urge to investigate. Pursuing Rebecca’s ghost to Java Road where the city’s dead congregate, Adrian re-assembles her final hours – as he struggles to distinguish between delusion and reality.

‘Osborne’s whodunnit is wrapped in an atmospheric portrait both of a particular place and time, and of the creation and destruction of a friendship. Highly recommended’ GUARDIAN

‘Osborne goes from strength to strength’ LIONEL SHRIVER

‘If the purpose of a novel is to take you away from the everyday and show you something different, then Osborne is succeeding, and handsomely’ LEE CHILD, NEW YORK TIMES

The year is 1988. The place, Baja California. Private Investigator Philip Marlowe is living out his retirement sipping margaritas and playing cards when in saunter two men dressed like undertakers with a case that has his name written all over it.

His mission is to investigate Donald Zinn – supposedly drowned off his yacht, leaving a much younger and now very rich wife. Marlowe’s speciality. But is Zinn actually alive? And are the pair living off the spoils?

‘Osborne and Chandler are a perfect match’ William Boyd

Discover the rest of the inimitable Philip Marlowe series – nine classic Chandler adventures, from The Big Sleep to The Long Goodbye, available now in paperback and ebook from Penguin Books.

Soon to be a major film adaptation starring Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes

David and Jo Henniger are on their way to a party at their old friends’ home, deep in the Moroccan desert. But as a groggy David navigates the dark desert roads, two young men spring from the roadside, the car swerves and collides with one of the boys…

Meanwhile, festivities at the house are in full flow. Under the watchful eyes of their Moroccan staff, the extravagant hosts attend to the whims of their glittering, insatiable guests as the party rages on into a new day. The stage is set for a weekend in which David and Jo must come to terms with their fateful act and its shattering consequences.

‘As menacing and engrossing as the best McEwan’ Sunday Times

Osborne’s Bangkok is a vibrant, instinctual city full of contradictions. He wanders the streets, dining on insects, trawling through forgotten neighbourhoods, decayed temples and sleazy bars.

Far more than a travel book, Bangkok Days explores both the little-known, extraordinary city and the lives of a handful of doomed ex-patriates living there, ‘as vivid a set of liars and losers as was ever invented by Graham Greene’ (New York Times).