Only to Sleep

A highly distinctive writer who quickly becomes addictive… I loved it

John Gray, New Statesman, **Books of the Year**

Splendid

Mail on Sunday

A brilliant Raymond Chandler continuation novel with an ageing Philip Marlowe. Osborne and Chandler are a perfect match

William Boyd, Guardian

It's a joy to see Philip Marlowe lured back for one last job by the gleefully unsentimental Lawrence Osborne... If you like noir, pour yourself something cool and enjoy one final dark night of the soul

Joseph Knox, author of Sirens

The decayed grandeur of the setting, the mystery of an alluring femme fatale, an old man's tussle with his conscience and his ageing body, and a healthy number of spectacular set-pieces work a subtle magic... both a convincing Marlowe and a seedily satisfying thriller

Andrew Holgate, Sunday Times

This is the best Marlowe novel I have read apart from the master's own works... it's the only one I can imagine Chandler liking

Jake Kerridge, Daily Telegraph, **Books of the Year**

Osborne succeeds brilliantly... captures the dreamlike quality of the original Marlowe novels

Bruce deSilva, Daily Mail

Superb... Osborne's dialogue and description echo Chandler's wit and world-weariness with uncanny skill

Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard

An exhilarating talent...one of our finest writers

Francesca Angelini, Sunday Times

Lawrence Osborne, an accomplished writer of fiction and nonfiction, has been asked to imagine a new case for Philip Marlow and -- have a smell from the barrel, all you gunsels and able grables -- it crackles...brisk and disarming

Laura Lipman, New York Times Book Review

The tone here is elegiac, the pace relaxed. If you’ve missed Marlowe, you’ll find this a worthy addition to the canon

Barry Forshaw, Guardian

Philip Marlowe is back in a seedily satisfying thriller on the US-Mexican border

Sunday Times

Osborne does a fine job in giving Marlowe a fresh assignment in this evocative, melancholy homage… Only to Sleep is more than a detective story. It is also a meditation on ageing and how, even in the autumn of a man’s life, he still is driven to pit his skills and courage against dangerous adversaries

Adam LeBor, Financial Times

Osborne's brilliant innovation is to show us Philip Marlowe as an old man in the late eighties, retired to Mexico. Marlowe's got one last job: looking for a man called Zinn

Mail on Sunday

A gripping, elegantly written crime story about age and decline… with its blend of mystery and humanity it’s exactly the sort of novel [Raymond Chandler] would have been pleased to inspire

Tom Williams, Spectator

Obviously a lover of Chandler’s work, Osborne has written a novel of excellence, with a good, slightly chaotic plot (as, often, were Chandler’s) and some wonderful atmosphere

Marcel Berlins, The Times

The most enjoyable book I’ve read in a long time… I enjoyed it more than the original… it’s Lawrence Osborne being just brilliant

Katie Law, Monocle Culture Show

I’m lost in admiration for what Lawrence Osborne has done here… he’s created a brilliant standalone novel… it’s a wonderful book

John Mitchinson, Monocle Culture Show

A new Philip Marlowe story based on Raymond Chandler's creation. Marlowe is the man I want to be, both the book character and as played by Humphrey Bogart on film. Here is Marlowe at 72... which just happens to be my age

Terry Deary, Daily Mail

A valedictory investigation, complete with sinister bad guys and a memorable femme fatale

John Williams, Mail on Sunday

Osborne has mastered Chandler’s gift for metaphor…and deepens Marlowe’s psyche as he responds to “a sad summons from the depths of his own wasted past”

Publishers Weekly

Osborne’s continuation of Raymond Chandler feels like the real thing

i

[Only to Sleep] is compelling and Osborne often captures Marlowe’s voice

Paul Connolly, Metro

Osborne gets Chandler and his version of the enduring detective, Philip Marlowe, is the best I've read... This mystery is well plotted and plays out with a twist to satisfy the readers who figure things out for themselves but still like to be surprised… if Osborne were to write another Marlowe thriller… I will be there to read it

Nudge