Journal Entry 1 by gypsysmom from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Sunday, January 22, 2006

I haven't read this author before but I couldn't resist a book that Val McDermid describes as 'An atmospheric and absorbing debut'. Purchased at the Children's Hospital Book Market paperback sale. 

Journal Entry 2 by gypsysmom from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Val McDermid was right. This was an absorbing book.

Bruce Medway is English but left England some years before and crossed the Sahara desert to the coast of Africa in Benin. There he works as a fixer, helping people with problems that pop up. As the book opens he is at the port waiting for a buyer to bring money for a shipment of rice. Wilson's description of the heat and dirt virtually put you at the port. When the buyer does show up she has a sheet filled with bills to pay for the rice. Medway invokes her ire by refusing to give her the original bill of lading until he has counted the money. He and his driver then have to get home with all this cash and evade the tail on him. When they get home, Medway's lover, a German woman who works in the north of Benin, is waiting for him. Medway, Heide and Moses, the driver, work all night counting the money. Then Medway realizes they were in fact followed and they have to make a quick getaway.

The action moves from Benin to Togo to Cote d'Ivoire to Nigeria and thankfully there is a map at the beginning so you can keep these places straight. Medway is hired to find a missing Englishman and realizes people are being killed to hide details about some huge deal. On top of that, the political situation in these countries is in a state of flux and Medway has to try to avoid getting involved in that.

Wilson has a deft hand at describing the country and the people so that I learned a lot about living in this part of the world. He also has a dry sense of humour and throws out one-line phrases that made me snort with laughter. For example:
"The fridge opened on to a grapefruit and a soggy pawpaw. The pawpaw didn't hold out both hands and I took the grapefruit, which had more pith on it than an Oscar Wilde aphorism."

There were some first book problems, such as trying to work in too many different story lines and dropping characters along the way. But, it was so good in other ways that I can forgive it that. And from reviews of later books it appears that Wilson learns to deal with those problems.

I'll be looking for more books by this author and I'll be recommending him to other people who enjoy gritty, atmospheric thrillers. I think this book will be going to my sister for her post-surgery reading collection. 

Journal Entry 3 by judysh from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Tuesday, January 08, 2008

This book was brought to our monthly meetup group of the Wpgbookxing, at e OBCZ, Le Garage cafe. 

Journal Entry 4 by judysh at U of W - details in notes in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Released 4 yrs ago (2/26/2008 UTC) at U of W - details in notes in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

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University of Winnipeg library