Jakarta Shadows [Paperback]

'A sense of unease permeates this atmospheric thriller, set in unstable Indonesia, where nothing is what it seems, and no one can be trusted. The plot twists and turns, taking in murder, betrayal and corruption before reaching its unsettling conclusion.' Christopher Harris

Birmingham's excellent publishing house has unearthed a winner in Mr Brayne...Compelling and disturbing...a well-judged thriller.

Echoes of Graham Greene...stylish, thought-provoking thriller...reeks of the damp heat, violence and corruption of Indonesia

[Brayne] manages to deliver a stimulating and highly atmospheric thriller, reminiscent of Ambler and Greene ... An auspicious debut.

A stimulating and highly atmospheric thriller, reminiscent of both Ambler and Greene ... An auspicious debut ...

'I glanced at the heavy flesh slumped in the chair next to mine, too close for comfort. Something behind the eyes made my skin crawl.' Graham Young, disenchanted and rootless aid-worker, is seeking gin-fuelled oblivion in Jakarta's Hotel Platinum when a stranger intrudes into his comfortable ex-pat life. Jakarta is edgy after the fall of Soeharto, the country engulfed in religious strife and violence. And suddenly Graham's escape routes are cut off as he finds himself pursued by detectives investigating a rash of sex killings. Graham's attempts to sidestep sinister forces take him from glitzy malls buzzing with the would-be rich to the Moonbeam nightclub for games of pool with 'butterflies of the night'. But a thumbprint in blood, a student's unwelcome attentions and a malevolent interrogation ratchet up his paranoia. Terror follows him even to cloudless Bali. And around every corner lurk unease, corruption, dread. This stylish and gripping debut will appeal to readers of Alex Garland's The Tesseract and Timothy Mo's The Redundancy of Courage and Renegade.

Alan Brayne was born in the Black Country, and currently works in Indonesia where he has taught English since 1996. Jakarta Shadows is his first novel.