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This page lists novels by Robert Wilson.

Cover images are, where possible, of the first UK edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

Instruments of Darkness

Robert Wilson

1995

A Bruce Medway novel.

"Bruce Medway's existence as a fixer and troubleshooter had been tough, but never life-threatening until he crossed paths with the mighty Madame Severnou. His life becomes even more complicated by his search for a missing fellow expat, Steven Kershaw. Against a backdrop of political disruption and endemic official corruption, Medway pursues the elusive phantom of Kershaw. Instruments of Darkness powerfully evokes the atmosphere, politics, and people of West Africa."

The Big Killing

Robert Wilson

1996

A Bruce Medway novel.

"Medway, go-between and fixer for traders in steamy West Africa, smells trouble when a porn merchant asks him to deliver a video at a secret location. Things look up, though, when he's hired to act as minder to Ron Collins, a spoiled playboy looking for diamonds in the Ivory Coast. Medway thinks 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, he wants out. Obligations keep Medway fixed in the Ivory Coast and he is soon caught up in a terrifying cycle of violence. Unless he can get to the bottom of the mystery, Medway knows that for the savage killer out there in the African night, he is the next target."

Blood Is Dirt

Robert Wilson

1997

A Bruce Medway novel.

"Bruce Medway, fixer and debt collector for anyone in a deeper hole than himself, has heard a few stories in his time. The one that Napier Briggs tells him is patchy, but it doesn’t exclude the vital fact that two million of his dollars have gone missing. Bruce is used to imperfect information – people get embarrassed at their own stupidity and criminality. But for the first time it leads to the gruesome and brutal death of a client. It would all have ended there but for Napier’s daughter, the sexy, sassy and sussed Selina Aguia, a canny commodities broker. She brings money to the game and launches Bruce into a savage world where a power-hungry Nigerian presidential candidate, a rich blow-loving American and a mafia capo are fighting a silent war in which pawns are badly needed."

A Darkening Stain

Robert Wilson

1998

A Bruce Medway novel.

"Bruce Medway, fixer for the great unfixed, does not see the disappearance of schoolgirls off the streets of Cotonou as any of his business. That is the domain of his ex-partner, police detective Bagado. Bruce has the more pressing matter of a visit from two mafiosi, employees of the Lagos-based capo, Roberto Franconelli. They want him to find Jean-Luc Marnier, a French businessman, who is definitely in for more than a wrist-slapping. In a night of brutal terror with Marnier, Bruce finds himself with a choice to make, followed by a life-saving lie that has to be told. Both choice and lie will rumble over the rest of his days like the interminable rainy season."

A Small Death in Lisbon

Robert Wilson

1999

"A Portuguese bank is founded on the back of Nazi wartime deals. Over half a century later a young girl is murdered in Lisbon. 1941. Klaus Felsen, SS, arrives in Lisbon and the strangest party in history where Nazis and Allies, refugees and entrepreneurs dance to the strains of opportunism and despair. Felsen’s war takes him to the bleak mountains of the north where a brutal battle is being fought for an element vital to Hitler’s blitzkrieg. Late 1990s, Lisbon. Inspector Ze Coelho is investigating the murder of a young girl with a disturbing sexual past. As Ze digs deeper he overturns the dark soil of history and unearths old bones. The 1974 revolution has left injustices of the old fascist regime unresolved. But there’s an older, greater injustice for which this small death in Lisbon is horrific compensation, and in his final push for the truth, Ze must face the most chilling opposition."

The Company of Strangers

Robert Wilson

2001

"Lisbon 1944. In the torrid summer heat, as the streets of the capital seethe with spies and informers, the endgame of the Intelligence war is being silently fought. Andrea Aspinall, mathematician and spy, enters this sophisticated world through a wealthy household in Estoril. Karl Voss, military attaché to the German Legation, has arrived embittered by his implication in the murder of a Reichsminister and traumatized by Stalingrad, on a mission to rescue Germany from annihilation. In the lethal tranquility of this corrupted paradise they meet and attempt to find love in a world where no-one can be believed. After a night of extreme violence, Andrea is left with a lifelong addiction to the clandestine world that leads her from the brutal Portuguese fascist régime to the paranoia of Cold War Germany, where she is forced to make the final and the hardest choice."

The Blind Man of Seville

Robert Wilson

2003

A Javier Falcón novel.

"The man is bound, gagged and dead in front of his television.The terrible self-inflicted wounds tell of his violent struggle to avoid some unseen horror. On the screen? In his head? What could make a man do that to himself? It's Easter week in Seville, a time of passion and processions. But detective Javier Falcón is not celebrating. Appalled by the victim's staring eyes he is inexorably drawn into this disturbing, mystifying case. And when the investigation into the dead man's life sends Javier trawling though his own past and into the shocking journals of his late father, a famous artist, his unreliable memory begins to churn. Then there are more killings and Falcón finds himself pushed to the edge of a terrifying truth."

The Silent and the Damned

Robert Wilson

2004

A Javier Falcón novel.

"At seven years old, Mario Vega faces a terrible tragedy – his parents are dead in an apparent suicide pact. But Inspector Javier Falcon has his doubts. In the brutal heat of a Seville summer, he dissects the disturbing life of the boy’s father, Rafael Vega. His investigation draws threats from the Russian mafia whose corruption reaches deep into the city. He questions a creative American couple with a destructive past and uncovers the misery of a famous actor whose only son is in prison for an appalling crime. More suicides follow and one of them is a senior policeman. As a forest fire rages through the hills above the city Falcon must sweat out the truth that connects it all – and find the final secret in the dark heart of Vega’s life."

The Hidden Assassins

Robert Wilson

2006

A Javier Falcón novel.

"As Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon investigates a faceless corpse unearthed on a municipal dump, Seville is rocked by a massive explosion. An apartment block is destroyed, and when it's discovered that its basement housed a mosque everybody's terrorist fears are confirmed. Panic sweeps the city, more bodies are dragged from rubble, the climate of fear infects everyone and terror invades the domestic life of flamboyant judge Calderon and the troubled mind of Consuelo, Falcon's one-time lover. With the media and political pressure intensifying, Falcon realizes all is not as it appears. But as he comes close to cracking a conspiracy, he discovers an even more terrifying plot – and the race is on to prevent a catastrophe far beyond Spain's borders."

The Ignorance of Blood

Robert Wilson

2009

A Javier Falcón novel.

"A sweltering Seville is recovering from the shock of a terrorist attack and Inspector Jefe Javier Falcon is struggling to fulfil his promise to its citizens: that he would find the real perpetrators of the outrage. The death of a gangster in a spectacular car crash offers vital evidence implicating the Russian mafia in his investigation…but pitches Falcon into the heart of a turf war over prostitution and drugs. Now the target of vicious hoods, Falcon finds those closest to him are also coming under intolerable pressure: his best friend, who’s spying for the Spanish government, reveals that he is being blackmailed by Islamist extremists, and Falcon’s own lover suffers a mother’s worst nightmare. In the face of such fanaticism and brutality, their options seem limited and Falcon realizes that only the most ruthless retaliation will work."

Capital Punishment

Robert Wilson

2013

A Charles Boxer novel.

"Beautiful Alyshia D'Cruz has grown up in London and Mumbai wanting for nothing. But one night she takes the wrong cab home. Charles Boxer, expert in high-stakes kidnap resolution, teams up with his ex-partner, investigative cop Mercy Danquah, who's battling with their rebellious teenage daughter. Alyshia's father hires Boxer, who knows all about the tycoon's colourful career, which has made him plenty of enemies. But despite the vast D'Cruz fortune, the kidnappers don't want cash, instead favouring a cruel and lethal game . . . To save Alyshia, Boxer must dodge religious fanatics, Indian mobsters and London's home-grown crime lords."

You Will Never Find Me

Robert Wilson

2014

A Charles Boxer novel.

"When Charlie Boxer reads this note from his daughter in her empty room, the words only reinforce what he already knows: he's always got his priorities wrong. His ex-wife, DCI Mercy Danquah, and their daughter, Amy, have learned to live without him. Boxer's work in high-stakes kidnap and recovery has taken him to places from which no man returns unscathed. And Amy has been around enough police business to plan the perfect disappearing act. But what Amy doesn't realise - and Boxer knows only too well - is how quickly a life can fall apart when you're living under the radar. Charlie follows Amy's tracks from London to Madrid - but will the trail last long enough for him to face up to the true meaning of the sins of the fathers?"

Stealing People

Robert Wilson

2015

A Charles Boxer novel.

"In the space of 32 hours, the children of six billionaires are taken off the streets of London in a well-planned kidnapping. The perpetrators demand £25 million per hostage. For 'expenses'. Not ransom. And when your child goes missing, you need Charles Boxer. A man who will stop at nothing. The wealthy parents of the missing children know that Boxer will do more than the police can, but that doesn't mean the law will leave it to him. Soon the investigation goes beyond the corridors of power and into even darker corners. But still nobody knows what this mysterious kidnap gang ultimately want - and, if they have a cause, what the hell is it?"