Audiobooks by Lawrence Osborne

"A tense, Ripley-esque novel set in glittering Istanbul for readers of John le Carré and Patricia Highsmith At the Mexican border, Diana ditches her car and jumps on a bus. Adam walks out of his Athens hotel with just his passport and credit cards. Marco abandons his life in London, leaving no note. At an idyllic spot on the Turkish Riviera, their comrade Chana waits for them. Also waiting there is Tyler, a private investigator hired by an American billionaire to find his wayward, troubled daughter. Once the five meet, a train of events is set in motion that will play out along this glittering coast, in the backstreets and renovated palaces of Istanbul and all the way to Cairo. A clash of generations, civilisations and ideologies that will test the young friends’ theory that a handful of collaborators can tilt the axis of the world through a single, striking act. 'An unsettling, hypnotic meditation on violence and privilege' Charles Cumming © Lawrence Osborne 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026"

Lawrence Osborne (Author), Rupert Penry-Jones (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Ballad of a Small Player

"Brought to you by Penguin. SOON TO BE A MAJOR NETFLIX FILM, STARRING COLIN FARELL AND TILDA SWINTON ‘I waited patiently for the next hand to be played out, and I had a feeling it was going to be a Natural, a perfect nine.’ His name is Lord Doyle. His plan: to gamble away his last days in the dark and decadent casino halls of Macau. His game: baccarat punto blanco -- 'that slutty dirty queen of casino card games.' Though Doyle is not a Lord at all. He is a fake; a corrupt lawyer who has spent a career siphoning money from rich clients. And now he is on the run, determined to send the money – and himself – up in smoke. So begins a beguiling, elliptical velvet rope of a plot: a sharp suit, yellow kid gloves, another naughty lemonade and an endless loop of small wins and losses. When Lady Luck arrives in the form of Dao-Ming, a beautiful yet enigmatic lost soul, so begins a spectacular and unnatural winning streak in which millions come Doyle’s way. But in these shadowy dens of risk and compulsion, in a land governed by superstition, Doyle knows that when the bets are high, the stakes are even greater. The Ballad of a Small Player is a sleek, dark-hearted masterpiece: a ghost story set in the land of the living, and a decadent morality tale of a Faustian pact made, not with the devil, but with fortune’s fickle hand. © Lawrence Osborne 2014 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Lawrence Osborne (Author), Rupert Penry-Jones (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Glass Kingdom

"Brought to you by Penguin. Sarah Talbot Jennings, a young American living in New York, has fled to Bangkok to disappear. Arriving with a suitcase containing $200,000, she rents an apartment at the Kingdom, a glittering high-end complex slowly sinking into its own twilight - and run by conveniently discreet staff. In Bangkok's shocking heat Sarah meets the beguiling Mali, a half-Thai tenant who's strangely determined to bring the quiet American out of her shell. An invitation to Mali's poker nights soon follows, where - fuelled by shots of yadong, gossip of shady dealings in the city and the hit of marijuana - Sarah is drawn into the orbit of the Kingdom's glamorous ex-pat women. But when an attempted military coup wracks the streets below and Sarah witnesses something unspeakable through one of the Kingdom's windows, only to be followed by a series of strange disappearances, Sarah's safe haven begins to feel like a trap. From a master of atmosphere and suspense, The Glass Kingdom is a brilliantly unsettling story of cruelty and psychological unrest, and an enthralling glimpse into the shadowy crossroads of karma and human greed. 'Bangkok is the star of this accomplished novel. Its denizens are aliens to themselves, glittering on the horizon of their own lives, moving - restless and rootless and afraid - though a cityscape that has more stories than they know' HILARY MANTEL © Lawrence Osborne 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020"

Lawrence Osborne (Author), Sura Siu (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Forgiven

"Brought to you by Penguin. David and Jo Henniger are on their way to a party at their old friends' home, deep in the Moroccan desert. But as a groggy David navigates the dark desert roads, two young men spring from the roadside, the car swerves and collides with one of the boys... Meanwhile, festivities at the house are in full flow. Under the watchful eyes of their Moroccan staff, the extravagant hosts attend to the whims of their glittering, insatiable guests as the party rages on into a new day. The stage is set for a weekend in which David and Jo must come to terms with their fateful act and its shattering consequences. 'A modern Graham Greene' - Sunday Times © Lawrence Osborne 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020"

Lawrence Osborne (Author), Ralph Lister (Narrator)

Audiobook

Only to Sleep

"Random House presents the audiobook edition of Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne, read by Ray Porter. Wealthy dead American. Beautiful young widow. This case has PI Philip Marlowe’s name written all over it. Is it enough to bring him back for one last adventure? The year is 1988. The place, Baja California. Private Investigator Philip Marlowe – now in his seventy-second year – has been living out his retirement in the terrace bar of the La Fonda hotel. Sipping margaritas, playing cards, his silver-tipped cane at the ready. When in saunter two men dressed like undertakers. With a case that has his name written all over it. At last Marlowe is back where he belongs. His mission is to investigate Donald Zinn – supposedly drowned off his yacht, leaving a much younger and now very rich wife. Marlowe’s speciality. But is Zinn actually alive? Are the pair living off the spoils? Set between the border and badlands of Mexico and California, Lawrence Osborne’s resurrection of the iconic Marlowe is an unforgettable addition to the Raymond Chandler canon."

Lawrence Osborne (Author), Ray Porter (Narrator)

Audiobook

Hunters in the Dark

"From the novelist the New York Times compares to Paul Bowles, Evelyn Waugh and Ian McEwan, an evocative new work of literary suspense Adrift in Cambodia, Robert Grieve - pushing thirty and eager to side-step a life of quiet desperation as a small-town teacher - decides to go AWOL. As he crosses the border from Thailand, he tests the threshold of a new future. And on that first night, a small windfall precipitates a chain of events involving a bag of 'jinxed' money, a suave American, a trunk full of heroin, a hustler taxi driver, a corrupt policeman, and a rich doctor's daughter, in which Robert's life is changed forever. Hunters in the Dark is a sophisticated game of cat and mouse, where identities are blurred, greed trumps kindness, and karma is ruthless. Filled with Hitchcockian twists and turns, suffused with the steamy heat and pervasive superstition of the Cambodian jungle, and unafraid to confront uneasy questions about luck and the machinations of fate, this is a masterful novel that has the feel of an instant classic."

Lawrence Osborne (Author), Stephen Hogan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks by Lawrence Osborne

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