In this accomplished debut novel we meet Raymond, an alienated Belgian loner who goes to Thailand to get married and brings his new bride back to Belgium, where she continues her porn career - only to be murdered within months of arriving.

Her death merely hastens Raymond's nervous breakdown, something that was already under way, as we could see from his complete emotional disconnection from those around him. There are hints of JG Ballard floating around here, most easily seen in the way his characters engage in detached sex that's just an extension of their porn-watching habits. And the beach on which Raymond lives, the foundations of his beach-house being rapidly eaten away by erosion, awakens memories, intentionally or not, of Camus's L'Etranger. Parkinson nails the tone, telling his story in prose that's spare and functional but not short of style or rhythm either. In a very focused novel, he manages to sustain a bleak mood without it turning into a repetitive slog.