Anna has never met anyone like the enigmatic Loll: a British hostess at the Moonglow bar, in the Japanese city of Osaka. While Anna teaches bored students by day, Loll passes the nights in smoky, dim-lit rooms where she pours men’s drinks, lights their cigarettes and laughs playfully at their jokes. With her blonde wigs, shimmering dresses and bejewelled nails, she cuts a mesmerising figure; but her skin bears unexplained bruises beneath its glittering facade.
Unlike Anna who has come to Osaka to learn more about her Japanese heritage, Loll seems to have no clear reason for being there and no easily discernible past. And so when she suddenly disappears, there are only the barest of clues as to where she might have gone. But, desperate to find her friend, Anna refuses to give up. Soon she is thrown onto a trail that will take her into the darkest corners of the neon-choked metropolis – hidden, forbidden places from which those who know the city best warn her to stay away.
Emily’s debut novel, A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing will be published by Manilla Press in July 2026, and is available for preordering now.
Advance praise for A Tiny Speck of Black and then Nothing
‘Exquisitely written and utterly compelling’ – Susan Barker, author of Old Soul
‘The soul of a stylish mystery and the pace of an old-fashioned thriller’ – Mohammed Hanif, author of Rebel English Academy
‘Elegant, edgy and cinematic’ – Emma Claire Sweeney, author of Owl Song at Dawn
Emily Midorikawa 