Wilson, Robert (1957 -) — The Big Killing ; [First Edition, First Printing]

New York Harper Collins Publishers First Edition, First Printing pp. 303. 8vo. Publisher's crisp original maroon boards with gilt lettering to the spine. One black-and-white map. Remarkably well-preserved with no detectable flaws to the extremities. Contents equally without blemish with bright, clean, and unmarked pages and tight, sound binding; fine and housed in fine dustjacket (now housed in protective mylar cover). An evocative and atmospheric thriller set along the part of the African coast they used to call the White Man’s Grave, The Big Killing is the second novel to feature Bruce Medway. Bruce Medway, go-between and fixer for traders in steamy West Africa, smells trouble when he’s approached by a porn merchant to deliver a video to a secret location. And just to add to his problems, BB, Medway’s rich Syrian patron, hires him to act as minder to Ron Collins – a spoilt playboy in Africa to buy diamonds – in the Ivory Coast. All this could be the answer to his cashflow crisis, but when the video delivery leads to a shootout and the discovery of a mutilated body, Medway is more inclined to retreat to his bolthole in Benin – especially as the manner of the victim’s death is too similar to a current notorious political murder for comfort. His obligations, though, keep him fixed in the Ivory Coast and he is soon caught up in a terrifying cycle of violence. But does it stem from the political upheavals in nearby Liberia, or from the cutthroat business of the diamonds? Unless Medway can get to the bottom of the mystery, he knows that for the savage killer out there in the African night, he is the next target...