A Darkening Stain [Paperback]

When schoolgirls begin to disappear on the West African coast, troubleshooter Bruce Medway tries to remain detached. Meanwhile, he reluctantly acquires a new job from former nemesis and mafia capo Franconelli. Franconelli gives Bruce forty-eight hours to find a French trader, Mariner, whom not even the mafia has been able to track. Yet as Bruce sets out on his assignment, he is unable to remain disconnected from the mysterious schoolgirl disappearances, and finds that girls, gold, and greed are all interconnected; corruption abounds everywhere. There are no safe havens for Bruce in this situation, and he must devise a scam that risks everything in order to stay alive.

A brilliant follow-up to Blood is Dirt, and the fourth novel in the Bruce Medway series, A Darkening Stain takes Bruce Medway into the darkest territory of West Africa yet.

A Harvest Original

PRAISE FOR A DARKENING STAIN
“Robert Wilson dissects the dark heart of Africa with an insight and
compassion that makes it so sleazily vivid you’d pay money not to go
there.”—VAL McDERMID, a u t h o r o f THE DISTANT ECHO
Tightly plotted and tautly written ... Perfectly attuned to the violent
wavelength of this unpredictable world.
—THE SUNDAY TIMES (LONDON)

Friday 19th July, Cotonou Port.

The thirty-five-ton Titan truck hissed and rocked on its suspension as it came to a halt. Shoulders hunched, it gave a dead-eyed stare over the line of scrimmage which was the chain across the opening of the port gates. On the wood panelling behind the cab were two hand-painted film posters of big men holding guns-Chuck Norris, Sly Stallone-the bandana boys. He handed down his papers to the customs officer who took them into the gatehouse and checked them off. Excitement rippled through the rollicking crowd of whippet-thin men and boys who'd gathered outside the gates in the afternoon's trampling heat, which stank of thel£|