Hunters in the Dark review – down and out in Cambodia

Lawrence Osborne goes to great – sometimes tiresome – lengths to inject verisimilitude into this tale of an Englishman abroad

I had enjoyed Lawrence Osborne’s The Forgiven, set mostly in Morocco, and particularly admired the tension and suspense to which the middle-aged couple, the Hennigers, were subjected after they had run over a young Moroccan in the Atlas mountains while on their way to a lavish party.

But Hunters in the Dark is very different; the central figure is 28, a teacher from the south of England, taking an indefinite time out. In the long-standing tradition of the naive traveller abroad, Robert Grieve is likely to run into trouble in Cambodia, and he duly meets an American who offers to help him in this unfamiliar country. It is clear that Simon is on the make, but young Robert seems to miss the obvious.

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