Graham Young is a disenchanted, gin-raddled ex-pat whose life working for an NGO in turbulent Jakarta seems increasingly meaningless. The steamy Indonesian city is volatile after the fall of Soeharto, religious strife abounds and frequent outbreaks of violence have forced many westerners to flee. After an unsettling encounter in the Hotel Platinum with a drunken stranger who is full of loathing, Graham becomes caught up in an investigation into a series of sex murders headed by Detective Suprianto and becomes the target for a series of perplexing and threatening encounters. In a world rife with corruption it is impossible to know who he can trust and who is behind the cat and mouse game that is being played but before long Graham doubts whether they will let him leave the place alive. An edgy thriller which effectively sustains an air of menace punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Jakarta Shadows paints a picture of a hot, damp, colourful, dirty, poverty ridden Indonesia which is more purgatory than paradise. A superior debut from Brayne with penetrating insight into the uncomfortable dynamics of a post-colonial society and the mercurial relationship of the westerner to the country.