The book is inspired by the Koh Tao murders in 2014 and features Dan Young, a guilt-ridden British journalist who's running away from a fatal accident he caused in the UK. When two backpackers are found dead on a Thai island, Dan becomes obsessed with the case, as he becomes embroiled in an intense and traitorous relationship with a local lad.

You only have to scratch the surface and the place was rotten underneath - the reality that most tourists never saw...

OutUK: Robin, you were a foreign correspondent in Thailand for quite some time. What made you choose a double murder that you found out about, as a theme for this book?
Robin: It's based on the murders of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller in Koh Tao in 2014. A very brutal murder of two young backpackers. And it kind of fed into two strands of my life. When I went to Thailand initially it was 1997, and I was a backpacker then. I was staying in Koh Samui, which is very similar to Koh Tao. You know, beautiful beaches, the old cliche. It does feel like paradise, but I did even then in 1997 when I was traveling around, sense this kind of dark side.

When I went back to live there as a journalist, that dark side became much clearer to me when digging into these stories. The dark side of paradise, just how corrupt it is, because I believe these two backpackers were murdered. There were two guys that were fitted up for the crime, these two Burmese fishermen. It feels to me and to most people that these guys were framed.

I thought there was a massive injustice here because not only do you have the two murders that remain unsolved, but you have these two young Burmese fishermen that are rotting away in prison. You know, they were going to be hanged, but then I believe the King pardoned them, but I think they're still in prison. So you've got a dual situation here going on with the two murders that remain unsolved and then the fishermen who are in prison.

OutUK: That's what comes across quite strongly in your book. The bribery, the corruption, the murder, everything else going on. Hardly Paradise Island...
Robin: No, exactly. I think there was a podcast and then an English journalist wrote a story about Koh Tao and she called it like the curse of Turtle Island. I believe the nickname of it is Turtle Island. It seems cursed because so many foreigners have gone there and ended up dying in mysterious circumstances. Not every death is suspicious, but quite a lot of these deaths have been. There have been many backpackers that have gone to Thailand and ended up coming a cropper. I find that it's really tragic because, as I said, I went there and had a wonderful time, and saw the good side. But I think there is something lurking in the shadows there. That's what I wanted to get across in the book.

OutUK: The main character Dan Young - he did get bashed about a bit to say the very least. Do you think that life there is really that hard?
Robin: Obviously that's a fictionalised account, but Dan Young is an amalgam of the kind of people I met. I think there is a potential there of going off the rails. I think a lot of the people going to Thailand are running away from something in their own country and they seek to reinvent themselves. It can be in a good way, but a lot of the people I met there were running away from something in their past.

OutUK: The Thai characters in your book seem to want to demean most of the visitors who come to Thailand, calling them "Farang" amongst other things. Was that your experience?
Robin: Well, I wanted to hit back at the cliche of it being the land of smiles. And it can be like that. And I actually do love Thailand. I go there quite often and my former partner was Thai. But I do feel that under the exterior there's something else there. A lot of people go there, foreigners go there and they're going off the rails. So I don't blame a lot of the local people for kind of railing against that. It's so six of one and half dozen the other. There is an element in Thailand where it is a bit like being in the Wild West. It can be quite lawless, and that might be a draw for some people. I do like some of the freedoms you get there, but on the flip side you can feel as though there's not much law and order there.

OutUK: There's a lovely quote in the book - You only have to scratch the surface, and the place was rotten underneath. That's the reality most tourists never see.
Robin: Yeah, I think it is a bit like that. I used to go to a gay bar on Silom Soi 4, it's a bit like Old Compton Street in London. I knew the guy who owned the bar, it's called The Telephone Bar. He told me he's having to pay the police like 50% of his takings. And why? He said, if we don't, then we get burnt down. So, these bars are all paying protection money to the police. That's just one example of how the corruption is pretty much endemic. And, you know, if you're there for two weeks on holiday, you don't really see that. You only see the fun side. But as you say, once you scratch the surface, there's something sinister underneath, definitely.

OutUK: In fact, the Police Chief in your book is really one of the most sinister characters, isn't he?
Robin: Yeah, exactly. I've met some people along the way and I've had some experience with the police. Some of the stories don't portray them in the best light. I mean, these policemen are earning, you know, pennies virtually per month. So they are going to turn to corruption to feather their nest. I mean, they're driving Mercs and BMWs. So you've got to question where this money is coming from?

"The Sealife Centre? I was expecting an aquarium, like the one in Brighton", as he looked around at the tanks lining the walls of the bar, tanks full of young men, with nothing but Speedos on...

OutUK: It's an interesting title, When the Darkness Swallowed the Sun. It's an old Thai saying about the solar eclipse, isn't it?
Robin: That's right, yeah.

OutUK: What made you choose that as a title?
Robin: That's a tricky one, but I just thought that imagery was really powerful. I like it because when you're there as well, I think one of my characters in the book says it, the sunset comes really quickly because you're close to the equator, one minute it's kind of sunny and then the next minute it's dark. So the title played into that side of things. And it was also metaphorical in terms of obviously the darkness lingering there all the time.

OutUK: The main character, Dan Young, is tough and very determined, but he also had quite a lot of self-loathing about him, didn't he? Particularly about him being gay.
Robin: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I can't speak for everyone, but I think a lot of people growing up gay may have experienced that. The way you're brought up, your parents or whoever, many people sense some form of rejection because of who they are. I think that's quite a universal feeling among a lot of gay people. I experienced a little bit of it myself, as I said, about this kind of self-loathing. So it is really about Dan Young coming to terms with who he is. I think that's part of the narrative arc in the story, the character development. At the beginning he is self-loathing, but I hope towards the end he kind of gets to grips with himself and hopefully goes on to be a happy person. Maybe that's the next book. I was going to say, maybe that's the next book.

OutUK: And what's Thailand like if you're gay?
Robin: A lot of the stuff you see in the media is very kind of happy, clappy, and I was living there in the early 2000s, so I think things have changed for the better since then. But one of the messages I got from speaking to people, and even myself as an out gay person there, I think you're tolerated, but it's not really fully accepted. I still think a lot of people are very conservative and particularly the people in power. They've just had a military government in charge. The military has a hell of a lot of sway in the country still. There's the dual kind of forces of the Buddhist religion which is very liberal and all the rest of it, but you have a monarchy in Thailand that is very powerful. You have the military that's very powerful.

So there's those two opposing forces. It's borne out in some of the everyday experiences of people where it's open and tolerant. But as I said, I think you're tolerated and you're not 100% accepted still. That's changed somewhat over the years for the better, for example two or three years ago gay marriage was written into the legislation. So it's going in the right direction. I must say, my husband and I go there a lot and we find it one of the most comfortable places in the world to visit, to be honest.

OutUK: And obviously there are a lot of guys there who are selling their charms. I was amused in the book by one venue, the Sealife Centre, which is obviously nothing to do with a wildlife aquarium. Is that sort of bar a common occurrence there?
Robin: I used to go to a place in Pattaya, which is based on that. I can't quite remember the name. I don't think it's still there. But yeah, that was based on a real life experience where these guys were all swimming around in tanks only wearing Speedos. It was a human aquarium really. You could fish a guy out if you wanted to get to know him. Extraordinary and quite interesting.

OutUK: It does come across in the book that if you have money, you have power. If you don't have money, you're almost a nobody. Is that the stark reality of Thailand?
Robin: Yes, that's definitely the case. And the Dan character, I think he was part of that whole thing because he could see what Lerm, for instance, the main antagonist in the book had or supposedly had, and Dan felt at the bottom of the pile. You see a lot of these expats walking around and they're on big packages with their banks or whatever. They stay in gated communities. They have drivers, and they don't really experience the real Thailand, as they're kind of gliding above the surface serenely.

Then there's someone like myself who was not there on an expat package, and you're kind of always kind of looking up. And sometimes you feel as though they're looking down at you. And obviously the local people, that's even more of an extreme because you get the mega rich and then you get the people living in shanty towns, with this small middle class in between.

"The Beach with a queer twist" - Another noted description of this gay romance/thriller by Robin Newbold, highlighting LGBTQ+ elements within a crime narrative.

OutUK: Obviously it's quite a thriller, a very exciting end which we won't give away. So what's your next project going to be?
Robin: I'm thinking of moving away from Southeast Asia because I've featured that in my last two novels. Obviously Bangkok Burning was the one before that I'm very pleased you gave me airtime for that too as well. But the next one I'm thinking of is set in a US summer camp, because I had experience working as a camp counsellor there. I think that's quite an interesting ground for me to cover in the next book.

OutUK: And a completely different experience from Thailand.
Robin: Yeah, exactly. But it's very early days. I'm still in the process of marketing this one, but it's something I'm thinking about.

OutUK: So it was three or four years since Bangkok Burning.
Robin: Yeah 2021, so goodness, it's five years now.

OutUK: So that works for you in terms of how long it takes to write something. What's the process that you go through?
Robin: I did let things fester for a bit, with Bangkok Burning, and I didn't really get cracking on this new one until the end of 2023. It took me about a year, I think, to write. So that was a faster one for me. With the latest one, When the Darkness Swallowed the Sun, I think I would spend at least an hour every day after work writing it. So that was a way of speeding up the process. With Bangkok Burning, I only wrote at the weekends. So with this I've found a better way of writing, getting a bit done each day and then you get the thread in your mind working quicker, getting into the habit of writing something every day.

OutUK: What's the feeling like when you get it published?
Robin: Well it's brilliant. I think Spectrum Books have been really good because they are an out and out gay publisher. They've been very good. My book has definitely found the right home there and it's a great feeling. I don't write these books to be rich, but I also don't write them to just put under the bed. It is nice to actually get it out there and know that people are reading it. Getting feedback from readers and some reviews from critics is wonderful.

OutUK: And a Top 30 listing at Amazon.
Robin: Yes, in the gay category, but it's something special, it's really great. I was very pleased with that, and I'm definitely trying to keep that going at the moment. I'm enjoying publicising the book.

OutUK: Well Robin we wish you all the best with it.
Robin: Well, thanks very much - great talking with you again.

Robin Newbold is a journalist who's recently returned to the UK after living in Asia for six years and has had a number of lifestyle and travel features published by the likes of The Times, Time Out, the South China Morning Post, Asia Times, Bangkok Metro and Traveller.

When The Darkness Swallowed The Sun and Robin's previous books: Bangkok Burning, Vacuum-Packed & Bloody Summer, are available from Amazon. You can find out more about Robin's writing at robinmnewbold.com and on Spectrum Books or by going to facebook or Instagram.