Winter book reviews
Jun 07, 2019
4 minutes
by Mark Laurie of South Seas Books, Port Elliot
Only to Sleep
by Lawrence Osborne
Published by Hogarth (an imprint of Vintage)
ISBN 9781781090572
$27.99
Raymond Chandler’s legacy is precious and so it’s natural that invitations to write a Philip Marlowe novel should be rare. Burdened by the possibility of hair-trigger critique and a weighty responsibility to both past and present, Lawrence Osborne’s reincarnation of Chandler’s most famous character vindicates the honour bestowed upon him. It is 1988 and Marlowe is in his early seventies, slowly running down in Baja ‘after a low near-decade of sloth and decay and Ronald Reagan.’
Recommended for an investigation by sceptical insurers into a suspicious
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days