Blood Is Dirt

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 320 pages
• Published by: Harvest Books July 5, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0156011255
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0156011259
• Book Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 11.2 ounces

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 terrible 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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Literary Review
"An engrossing read. Gulp it down."

Reader Reviews
Private Investigator Bruce Medway's new client runs into an obstacle getting to the office: the neighbors are gutting a sheep in front of the building, a gruesome enough sight to almost run Napier Briggs off, but that's life on the coast of West Africa, at least in Medway's world. The prospective client makes it to the office Medway shares with his partner, the sage Bagado, a familiar character from previous books. West Africa, especially where Medway does his business, is the Wild West fast-forwarded to a futurescape scraped raw by poverty and advancing ecological disaster. There's money to be made on every illegitimate enterprise known to mankind, but on the average, life is worthless. But all this is familiar to Medway in his line of work. This time he muddles through toxic waste disposal, black market nuclear weapons, money scams, Mafia killings, bribery of government officials and assorted thugs who delight in a little obscene torture before murder. On the one hand, Medway and Bagado are investigating the existence of a toxic waste dump in Nigeria. At the same time, the intrepid PI is tentatively researching the gruesome death of his almost-client, Napier Briggs, for the man's surviving daughter. As luck would have it, the two issues are intertwined and it is in the unraveling that Medway skates along the edge of danger. This is the third in Wilson's West Africa/Medway detective series and each book offers up enough villains, creeps and criminals to intimidate all but the faint of heart. While Medway works his way through the clues, the reader learns about the criminal-ridden coast of Africa, the spoilers and exploiters who live to plunder the unwary. The contrast between the elite, the ultra-rich power brokers and the people who struggle to survive day to day in Africa is stunning, an enormous division between the classes and implied corruptibility in the pursuit of power. There is no shortage of stories or schemes on the African continent and Wilson proves, once again, that his witty hero loves this place in spite of the pitfalls, always ready for a new adventure and eager to make a buck. Wilson seduces with a plunge into the dark heart of violence, where conscience has no purchase; yet the often naive Medway, dodges through shadows, avoiding the lurking face of the Grim Reaper. Never a disappointment, Wilson has created a new mystery genre: African noir. Luan Gaines/2004. Comment | | (Report this)