John Lathrop

Bach and The End of the Monsoon

Can music and spirituality have a place in a political thriller?  I think they can, if they’re sub-themes illuminating character.  In The End of the Monsoon, Mrs Ambler, an idealistic lawyer, is also an amateur musician and practicing Buddhist.  Her guilt over her illicit affair strengthens her desire for at least a breath of transcendence.

In 1983 I thought I had such a breath in the wee small hours of the morning, while playing the clavichord in my third world luxury apartment in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In my novel I transferred this experience to the character of Dr White, a no-nonsense, middle-aged expatriate English doctor in Phnom Penh.  read more »

I loved them when I was thirteen

Want a story to grab you by the neck–but tired of getting it in the neck?

How about a sexy, adult, political thriller?  No virginity.  No teenage angst.  Plenty of adult angst.  Setting?  No, not Utah.  The tropics.  The End of the Monsoon.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, today.  Hot, humid nights at the Foreign Correspondents Club overlooking the Mekong.  Businessmen and tourists, both a little on-the-make.  A cosmopolitan in your hand and frangipani on the air–with a whiff of sewage from an outfall by the National Theater down the quay.

A contemporary story.  The lovers: a British professional woman of Sudanese ancestry, and an American, formerly on Wall Street, now a diplomat. Their affair is illicit, as is his latest assignment: do what it takes to ensure an American oil company is granted a concession to drill in Cambodian waters.

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