YOU CAN'T HIDE FROM THE PAST FOREVER 'Mike', an English expat, is a man with a hidden past. On a tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand, he ferries tourists on the back of his bike by night and dreams of being a writer by day. His only obligations are to Lily, his motherly landlady, and Captain Bandura, the corrupt local cop. Otherwise, his life is quiet and solitary. Until Laura arrives. She says she's a visiting speaker at a climate conference, but something about her story doesn't add up. As Mike is drawn into her orbit, questions multiply while the world burns, and his quiet life turns into a game of cat and mouse. But who's the cat and who's the mouse? Before the Gulf represents a new departure for the author of Amy and the Fox and the Leeds 6 trilogy. A tale of guilt, suspicion and double dealing set in the sweltering heat of the tropics.