The Glass Kingdom

Starred review from June 1, 2020
Sarah leaves California to seek her fortune in New York. There, she lands her dream job as personal assistant to an author she's always admired. But when the author descends into dementia, Sarah steals $200,000 from her and flees to Bangkok, a city where it's easy to hide. She rents an apartment at the Kingdom, a building whose architectural style is as bizarre as its inhabitants. Still, it's a place to call home until Sarah decides what to do next. But, despite making a few friends and having enough money so she need not work, she's unhappy. When a series of increasingly unsettling events occurs, Sarah begins to unravel. As her life spirals out of control, she senses an uncertain future, brought about?in her mind?by a mixture of karma, fate, and angry Thai spirits. Osborne evokes the exciting, tawdry, thrumming danger of Bangkok in this riveting tale of a woman whose poor choices, lack of will, and desperation lead to disaster. There's an ominous sense of foreboding from the first page, and the tension ratchets up to a terrifying pitch before the horrifying and brutal conclusion. A gripping read but maybe not for the depressed or easily frightened.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

July 15, 2020
After fleecing a famous New York novelist while working as her personal assistant, Sarah Mullins is targeted by schemers on the other side of the world. Responding to overtures from a dealer in Hong Kong, Sarah flew there to sell a cache of her employer's letters, with the fading 85-year-old writer's approval. Having peeled off $200,000 in cash from the sale, Sarah is now hiding out in Bangkok in a decaying, once-glamorous apartment complex called the Kingdom. Power outages, seasonal flooding, and rumors of a military crackdown are causing occupants to leave. Though regarded as an oddity, the somber, withdrawn Sarah finds companionship in the extroverted but secretive Mali, a British-educated financial assistant; Ximena, a Chilean chef at a French restaurant; and Natalie, a hotel manager whose "eyes contained a strange hint of vendetta." It isn't long before word of the stash of money in Sarah's closet gets out. The maid, an opportunist like everyone else in this morally compromised world, has a passkey for all of the units and isn't shy about using it. Blackmailed, then implicated in an apparent murder, and finally deserted, Sarah loses all sense of identity. Can she be saved? Coming off his acclaimed Philip Marlowe novel, Only To Sleep (2018), the Bangkok-based Osborne here tilts toward Robert Stone and Graham Greene with his languorous portrayal of an ugly American--a farang, as the locals call White people--getting schooled in a foreign culture. It's a masterfully drawn, mesmerizing novel in which the ghosts of the past--like the bats, lizards, and geckos who gain free access to the Kingdom--refuse to vacate the premises. A seductive, darkly atmospheric thriller with a spine-tingling climax.

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