Hunters in the Dark

A bored English teacher, 28, leaves for Thailand on holiday and crosses the border into Cambodia. On his arrival he wins $2000 in a casino, which kicks off a series of events leading to trouble and misfortune.

An unusual noir-ish thriller. What’s in the characters’ heads takes precedent over what’s happening in the real world, and yet while the action seems to happen at its own pace Osborne sneaks in a compelling, page-turning narrative.

The plot folds around on itself in such a satisfying way it’s hard not to enjoy it in the moment, but admittedly in hindsight the level of coincidence required for it to all work out is laughable. They’ve got a film version of this planned and it’ll be interesting to see how this works out in a shorter format without Osborne’s prose to distract you from the clumsier broad strokes of the story.

Hunters in the Dark trades off mood, atmosphere and exotic adventure while actually peddling a bit of a shaggy dog story, and I’m all for it.