Instruments of Darkness

By Robert Wilson

‘First in a field of one’ (Literary Review) Robert Wilson’s first novel, a tense and powerful thriller set in the sultry heat of West Africa

Benin, West Africa. Englishman Bruce Medway operates as a ‘fixer’ for traders along the part of the coast they used to call the White Man’s Grave. It’s a tough existence, but Medway can handle it… until he crosses the formidable Madame Severnou. Warned off by his client, Jack Obuasi, his energies are redirected into the search for missing expat Steven Kershaw. Kershaw, though, is a man of mystery: trader, artist, womanizer… and sado-masochist.

Against background rumblings of political disturbance, in the face of official corruption, egged on by an enigmatic policeman, Medway pursues his elusive quarry across West Africa. Is Kershaw tied to Obuasi’s and Madame Severnou’s shady dealings? Is he a vicious murderer? Is he, indeed, alive or dead?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: May 27, 2010
• ISBN: 9780007379682

Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson was born in 1957. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping, advertising and trading in Africa. He has travelled in Asia and Africa and has lived in Greece and West Africa. He is married and writes from an isolated farmhouse in Portugal.

Reviews for Instruments of Darkness

[sus456 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is about Bruce Medway a European in West Africa working as a "fixer". His job is to find a missing expat, a trader in sheanut oil, who hasn't appeared for work with his local boss. The story follows Medway on his journey through Benin, Togo and Ghana where the author describes bustling cities and shady underworld dealings and politics. While the book is a good mystery it was at first a bit slow going. I personally, found the first 90 pages to have too much description and attempts to turn a clever phrase that I almost gave up reading on two separate attempts. Eventually, the story shifts into another gear and I felt the descriptions and characterizations fulfilled a purpose. the characters seemed less flat than in the first half and I could now feel more of a connection with them and the mystery that was unfolding on the page. Overall, if you like mysteries about shady business practices and shady people set in exotic locations it is worth a read.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[condorena · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If there is one series where heat envelops the reader it is in Robert Wilson’s West Africa series featuring Bruce Medway, a British expatriate who lives in Benin, but travels back and forth across the armpit of Africa, as it is called, because there are several counties nestling closely under the arm of the continent as it juts out into the Atlantic. Medway is a fixer; a facilitator who tries to make a living by helping people out, providing they are not criminals. Unfortunately, he doesn’t exactly have a good nose for scenting out who are the good guys.

The first in the series is Instruments of Darkness, and Bruce starts out simply trying to facilitate the sale of some rice, but ends up looking for another Englishman who was working in the shea butter trade and is missing. Benin, Ghana and Togo are in turmoil, and Medway has to stay on the right side of the law, which fluctuates day by day.

The stories in Wilson’s African quartet are fast-paced, occasionally violent, but there are flashes of humor to temper it. Wilson has a way with descriptions that resonated with me and I recall them from time to time because they are so apt, like the girl with the sputnik hair. Sometimes it is so hot, the people move at a slow pace, and the vultures look at each other as if to say "Dinner soon."

[storyjunkie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This first entry in a series of mysteries starring Bruce Medway is a fairly straight-forward hard-boiled mystery. Where "straight-forward" means a tangle of multiple cases that end up being all connected together, a number of dangerous women, lots of sex being talked about if not actually had, enough whiskey to poison a small village, and a hero who is more lucky than clever.I liked it more for how I know the characters are going to change over the following books, than for anything inherent in this one. Except the language. The language of Wilson's prose is marvelous.