The setting, as usual, is the picturesque, non-metropolitan region of Vigata in Sicily. And it’s hot –stiflingly hot. In August Heat, we are never allowed to forget the all-enveloping sultriness (the inspector — possessor of miniature fan, the only...

Baba Dunja is a Chernobyl returnee. Together with a motley bunch of former neighbours, they set off to create a new life for themselves in the radioactive no-man’s land. Geiger counter and irradiated forest fruits be damned, there in...

How far would you go? The murder of a promising footballer, son of Brighton’s highest-ranking police officer, means Detective Superintendent Jo Howe has a complicated and sensitive case on her hands. The situation becomes yet more desperate following devastating...

David Booker returns to Romney Marsh on the south coast of England for a holiday. He is expecting to spend time helping his aunt and uncle pack up the stock of their second-hand bookshop in preparation for a happy...

The First in the Bamboo Trilogy. Thailand, 1943: Thomas Ellis, captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore, is a prisoner-of-war on the Death Railway. In stifling heat he endures endless days of clearing jungle, breaking stone and...

‘Banco’ continues the adventures of Henri Charriere – nicknamed Papillon – in Venezuela, where he has finally won his freedom after thirteen years of escape and imprisonment. Despite his resolve to become an honest man, Charriere is soon involved...

Among these 25 profiles of amazing members of Bangkoks expatriate community who transformed themselves after leaving home are an advertising executive who photographs Bangkoks most beautiful bargirls, an insurance agent who became a modern bounty hunter, a Catholic priest...

An interesting reflection on the city, Osborne takes the reader to hidden corners of the city, introduces locals and foreigners, and generally writes a cohesive and well observed and well written, a must to have another dimension to understand...

Set on the eve of the financial crash of 2008, Barcelona Dreaming is made up of three stories that are linked by time and place, and also by the moving, unexpected interactions of a rich cast of characters. The...

A coming-of-age story set in modern day China centering on the friendship between an American and a Chinese boy who meet while training with Beijing’s Junior National Tennis Team. Chase Robertson arrives in Beijing as a fourteen-year-old boy still...