Who can a girl with a broken heart rely on, if not her gay best friend?

Sara Sexton and Martin Blake are besties so it was natural for her to flee to him after breaking up with a Greek lover. But Martin has changed, preoccupied with his new business. In Hong Kong, he’s a high-profile, high-dollar interior designer.

When Sara meets Andy Harris, a romantic with a bodacious bubble-butt, Martin’s still on the market and not happy. Seems Martin’s only happy when Sara’s alone and miserable. Got any ‘friends’ like that? Now Sara has to juggle a consuming old friendship and a blossoming romance… And how does a girl do that? And what happens when she’s forced to choose between the past and the future?

 

“Intense. Martin Blake is like Hannibal Lecter in pink angora. Five stars.”

“The characters are so well written you will feel like you know them.”

“This novel was fantastic and gets my highest recommendation.”

 

Synopsis

In the dying days of British Hong Kong, Sara Sexton, upon breaking up with a Greek lover, visits her old friend Martin Blake, a high-profile, high-dollar interior designer. She finds him greatly changed since their playground days in Australia. His razor-edge wit is all but gone, and has been largely replaced by a fondness for designer shoes, cars and exotic house servants. Even though she can barely recognize him, she feels that the secret they shared in the past – the secret that led to Sara’s breakup – is still enough to bind the two together. Friendships, especially friendships as deep-running as theirs, are worth fighting for. Or are they?

This suspenseful story, set in Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia, shows the effects of a lifetime friendship going toxic as modern life pulls the once quasi-siblings in opposite directions. As Sara embarks on a simpler life, Martin becomes increasingly complex and erratic. Eventually Sara is forced to a terrible choice in the name of self-preservation, and choices can have terrible consequences.

In its witty dissection of middle-class ideals and aspirations, Greg Johnston’s CONSUMPTION is a heart-rending, provoking novel about the nature of long-term friendships. With beautiful prose, arresting characters, and intriguing setting, Johnston evokes the city of Hong Kong before, during, and after the hand-over and immerses the reader in a world that is as beautiful as it is painful.