Blood Is Dirt » (First Harvest Edition)

ROBERT WILSON is the author of nine previous novels, including A Small Death in Lisbon and The Company of Strangers. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping, advertising, and trading in Africa, and has lived in Greece and West Africa.

Enter into a treacherous world in West Africa, where British expatriate Bruce Medway, a clandestine “troubleshooter” and debt collector, finds himself unexpectedly immersed in toxic waste scams and mafia crime when a job for his newest client turns out to involve more than the recovery of two million dollars. But Napier, the client, isn’t the worst of Bruce’s problems; that falls to Selina, Napier’s seductive daughter, who wants more than money—she is out for revenge. In his attempt to help Selina, Bruce delves into more danger than he bargained for.

Nothing is static in this intense plot-driven novel where truth is murky and motives are hidden.While Bruce is no stranger to lies, deceit, and crime, he has never met anyone like Selina and her cohorts. And even though Selina is alluring, not even love can change the fact that in this world, blood is dirt.

A Harvest Original

Publishers Weekly

In Wilson's third fine mystery (after 2003's The Big Killing) to feature Bruce Medway, the British expat/private investigator in West Africa, Medway is as fully realized as Chandler's Philip Marlowe or Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer-deeply human, aware of his limitations, a reluctant antihero. Equally well drawn are the many supporting roles, including Medway's African partner Bagado, his German girlfriend Heike and even the bad guys. Wilson also provides a palpable sense of place, here the dusty, impoverished port city of Cotonou in Benin. Alas, the labyrinthine plot sometimes veers close to incomprehensibility. A new client, another British expat, Napier Briggs, comes to Medway for help in recovering nearly $2 million stolen from him in an African confidence scheme, but that night he's brutally murdered, and the police express little interest in the case. His daughter, commodities broker Selina Aguia, comes to Cotonou to retrieve his body and hires Medway to help find his killer. Despite an overly complex plot that also involves a local Mafia Capo and some stolen plutonium, this elegantly written book provides an interesting glimpse into an unfamiliar world, with a compelling mixture of brutal violence and deadpan wit. Medway is far from perfect, but he's a perfect guide to the greed- and power-driven intrigues of a developing country.(July) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.