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Rating: 
Summary: A cesspool of criminality
Review: 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.
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