A Darkening Stain (Bruce Medway Mystery Series) [Paperback]

Robert Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2004

When schoolgirls begin to disappear on the West African coast, "troubleshooter" Bruce Medway tries to remain detached. Meanwhile, he reluctantly acquires a new job from former nemesis and mafia capo Franconelli. Franconelli gives Bruce forty-eight hours to find a French trader, Mariner, whom not even the mafia has been able to track. Yet as Bruce sets out on his assignment, he is unable to remain disconnected from the mysterious schoolgirl disappearances, and finds that girls, gold, and greed are all interconnected; corruption abounds everywhere. There are no safe havens for Bruce in this situation, and he must devise a scam that risks everything in order to stay alive.

A brilliant follow-up to Blood is Dirt, and the fourth novel in the Bruce Medway series, A Darkening Stain takes Bruce Medway into the darkest territory of West Africa yet.

A Harvest Original

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Best known for his Gold Dagger Award– winning A Small Death in Lisbon (2000), Wilson powerfully evokes West Africa in his fourth novel to feature PI Bruce Medway. An intricate web of intrigue, treachery and violence begins with five missing schoolgirls, ranging from age six to 10, and the request (i.e., demand) of a local Mafioso, Roberto Franconelli, to find a man named Marnier so he can kill him. Medway complies because he knows that if he doesn't, he'll wind up dead, too (he had run-ins with Franconelli in the third book in the series, Blood Is Dirt, reviewed above). The human trafficking is a particularly horrible story: the girls are sought by rich men in the mistaken belief that sex with a virgin will rid them of AIDS, and the plot broadens to include a large amount of stolen gold and an almost infinite stream of corruption. The expansive cast of sharply drawn characters includes good guys and bad, Europeans and Africans. The intricacy of motive—who's doing what to whom and why—can make the narrative difficult to follow, but the core drivers—sexual desire and greed—are all too powerfully portrayed.
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Review

"Exhilarating ... Unmissable ... Unflinchingly imagined and executed. No hint of competition."

(Literary Review )

"Tightly plotted and tautly written ... Perfectly attuned to the violent wavelength of this unpredictable world."

(The Sunday Times (London) )

"Robert Wilson dissects the dark heart of Africa with an insight and compassion ... Vivid."

(Val McDermid )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 287 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1st Harvest Ed 2004 edition (July 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015601131X
• ISBN-13: 978-0156011310
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,064,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A cesspool of criminality, June 28, 2004

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Darkening Stain (Bruce Medway Mystery Series) (Paperback)

Picking up where Blood is Dirt leaves off, PI Bruce Medway is saddled with the unwanted attentions of Mafioso Roberto Franconelli; no longer in the Capo's good graces, Medway is still trapped in extenuating circumstances, instructed simply to locate a Frenchman, Jean-Luc Marnier and then fade quietly from the scene.

Circumstantially, five men are found dead on a boat owned by Marnier, bringing the noble Detective Bagado into the picture, the pivotal moral center of the series. Then innocent schoolgirls begin to disappear, an issue that stirs up enormous public fear. Medway, as usual, has his hands full, juggling villains and thugs, one step ahead of their evil intentions. When Bagado's daughter is one of the targeted schoolgirls, the action heats up and moves in a more violent and graphic direction than any of the previous novels.

Medway trolls the late-night dens of concupiscence, opening up another fertile area of the West Africa coast, the flesh trade, the same low form of the human species found everywhere, where nothing is sacred and everyone is for sale. In order to survive this new dimension, Medway must betray himself in a manner that may destroy everything he values in life.

At this point in the series, Wilson's protagonist is faced with an acute moral dilemma, slithering along the dark side with some of humanity's most despicable characters. Inspector Bagado has been a moral compass, tipping Medway back into reality, saving him from ambiguous circumstances time after time. Meanwhile, Medway's personal life has turned increasingly, well, personal, perhaps to more obviously identify him with recognizable humanity. But Medway's mid-life passion with his now-pregnant girlfriend only adds to the desperate emotional edge of the hard-drinking PI. Perhaps it is time, after all, for Medway to consider a career change. Luan Gaines/2004.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First Rate African Noir, November 22, 2005

By 

Charles M. Jones "Chuckburger" (Danville, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Darkening Stain (Bruce Medway Mystery Series) (Paperback)

I think Wilson's Spain/Portugal novels are superior historical thrillers. I came to the Bruce Medway Africa series tentatively, but after reading one, I've consumed them all. Medway is a fixer in Nigeria, hacking his way through a series of ugly situations. From my point of view, Wilson has drawn a believable character who is hard charging without being omniscient, and who has plausible relationships with Africans & Europeans alike.

A Darkening Stain is one of the best pieces of noir fiction I've ever read - I'd compare it favorably to Chandler, Crumley, Cain, Ellroy. The plot is a little hyper, but never comes apart. The characters are well drawn and complex. The picture of western Africa is ugly, brutal; a toxic dump of greed. Medway works through the situation in the best hard boiled style, with a minimum of 'coincidences' to guide him.

But the keystone of this tale is the story which Medway is forced to concoct in order to cover his tracks, and then which he is forced to deliver under emotionally tortured circumstances. I was completely drawn into the wringer with this one, left feeling worked over when I finished the novel. The crowning touch is the line the bad guy delivers which sends Medway over the edge: "They're just blacks, Bruce..."

Good stuff. 4+

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Feel the Heat, May 10, 2007

By 

zorba (Bala Cynwyd, Pa USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Darkening Stain (Bruce Medway Mystery Series) (Paperback)

This novel of evil and intrigue in Nigeria and Benin reeks with authenticity. You can feel the African heat. But the protagonist, Bruce Medway, is cool -- cool and deliberate and focused. With foes stalking him he, nevertheless, pursues a noble cause -- solving the mystery of the disappearing schoolgirls. Wilson is a master of the organic plot which unfolds naturally, not relying on coincidence or heavy-handed serendipity to solve plot problems and, in so doing, insult the reader's intelligence. This was my first Africa book by this outstanding writer and I look forward to reading his others.