Blood Is Dirt (Bruce Medway Mysteries, No. 3) (Paperback)

by Robert Wilson (Author) "The sheep stood in the car park looking at its African owner with interest but no concern, which was a mistake..." (more)
Key Phrases: motor park, red mercury, Napier Briggs, Ben Agu, Babba Seko (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From 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.
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Review
"An engrossing read. Gulp it down." -- Literary Review

"An excellent thriller ... A vivid and steamy stumble on the wild side." -- Val McDermid

"Tough-talking, hard-hitting characters." -- The Observer (London)

"Wilson is a class act. For once, a novelist influenced by Raymond Chandler is nnot shown up by the comparison." -- The Sunday Times (London)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: Harvest Books (July 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156011255
• ISBN-13: 978-0156011259
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,915 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 3 in The Bruce Medway Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why did it take me so long to discover Robert WIlson?, September 24, 2006

By	D. West "Bones" (Boise, Idaho United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My first taste of Wilson's writing was A Small Death in Lisbon! WOW!! Powerful but brutal. Since then, I've been reading everything I can get my hands on by this author.

Wilson draws on Africa for this tale and it is tautly written with complex characters. I can never see around the next corner, I am constantly amazed as Wilson pulls rabbit after rabbit out of the hat.

What I like about Wilson is that even when he's being brutal, he never forgets to be funny as well. Some of the better one liners I've read have come from his novels.

Always brutal, his characters flawed as we would expect, plots in keeping with today's drama, Wilson's novels are way ahead of the formulaic mystery writers in America. Though I ususally pass my books on to others, Wilson is one author I hate to part with.

Looking forward to the next novel.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If Chandler Lived in West Africa, July 6, 2004

By	Otto Zappatore "Finderman" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

If Raymond Chandler was an acerbic Brit living in Benin, well, okay, he wouldn't be Raymond Chandler, but Robert Wilson is a latter day Chandler, who describes the complexities of African corruption, gives us the flavor of heat and violence, and presents an expat private eye (Bruce Medway) who is smart, funny and about the only dry thing in West Africa.

This novel is interesting, smart about Africa, especially Nigeria, Benin, corporate fraud and political corruption. It's also funny and moves along at a good clip. Wilson is deft with characterization and complexity, and the writing is so evocative you'll feel by turns drunk, hot or terrified as you read.

A great example of what detective fiction should be: smart, original, funny and interesting.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average Effort by Wilson, February 23, 2008

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

Wilson's European-based novels are, without exception, excellent. But his Medway/African books, of which this is one, are lackluster. Granted, they paint a fascinating picture of life in Benin and Nigeria, but they lack coherence and compulsion, in my estimation. Of the books in this series, I have completed only one. The others, I just lost interest about half-way through the book. I'm not sure why. Probably because the plot seems to keep going around in circles, rarely moving forward. And there are so many characters and other names that I had to keep paging back to refresh my frame of reference. There are better books out there -- some written by Wilson. So, I'll just move on to those, and put the African works behind me.