Globetrotting travel writer Lawrence Osborne has as many concepts for novels tucked away in his imagination as he has stamps on his passport. No stranger to the brutal recent history of Indochina, he has chosen Cambodia as the setting for this mesmerizing tale of intrigue, betrayal and deception.

Delivered in atmospheric prose, HUNTERS IN THE DARK breathes life into the sweltering heat, torrential downpours, fiery floods and choking dust of this ruined country. It is a land where ghosts of the murdered millions still walk the rice paddies, rusted tanks rest half-buried in riverbanks, and buried mines lie in wait for the unwary. Longtail boats ply the murky waters of the floodplains as the rainy season nears its end. Dark-eyed taxi drivers offer their carnival barker calls to rain-soaked tourists as they run through the pouring rain for cover and a ride to a hotel.

"HUNTERS IN THE DARK is a novel to be savored before a roaring fire with the blinds drawn. As the plot twists and turns to the breathtaking surprise ending, it is karma --- always karma --- that has its way."

Robert Grieve, a naïve young British school teacher on holiday in Thailand, crosses the border to try his luck at the casinos with his last $100 before returning to England for the start of the session. Not a gambler at heart, he scoops up his surprise windfall and, instead of heading home, decides to extend his stay to explore the Buddhist wats and teeming jungles in the land of Pol Pot. He hires Ouksa, a talkative taxi driver, as a guide and finds lodging at a rundown hotel. The superstitious Cambodian tells him of mysteries yet unsolved, Buddhist history and lore, and warns him of the ghosts that haunt the night as he leads him to the best local bars and restaurants in the squalid border town.

Robert soon meets Simon Beauchamp, a fellow barang (a Khmer word for “white foreigner”) and accepts an invitation to visit his more comfortable home along the river. Ouksa, ever wary of bad omens, warns Robert off. Glad to spend time with a fellow English-speaking barang, Robert ignores his driver and accepts the invitation.

As mushroom clouds swell in late afternoon, an ominous sign of the torrential rains to come, you sense the darkness that propels Robert to his fate. Simon muses to himself: “The Cambodian jungle had never made him feel at ease. It had a depth and velvety density that suggested something being concealed and withheld. The birds speaking to him but not saying anything he could find pleasurable. A realm of dinosaurs and reptiles, musical and lilting but also filled with ghosts.” Even Simon senses the ever-present destiny that awaits those who venture into a land once filled with promise, but now inhabited by a soulless people who are bereft of hope. 

Osborne’s writing has been compared to Patricia Highsmith and called Hitchcockian. His intricately crafted prose fairly crackles with intensity. He crawls into the heads of his many characters, who appear more fascinating than Robert, who stands by as an observer rather than a participant in his hollow life. The jolly Dr. Sar hires Robert as an English tutor for his medical student daughter, Sophal, who becomes entangled in his web.

HUNTERS IN THE DARK is a novel to be savored before a roaring fire with the blinds drawn. As the plot twists and turns to the breathtaking surprise ending, it is karma --- always karma --- that has its way.