Reader's review - Robert Wilson (The Ignorance of Blood)

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I am a little confused having read 'The Ignorance of Blood' by Robert Wilson. The book sets the stage at Costa del Sol, Spain. The Russian mafia are controlling extortion, prostitution and drug trafficking.
One should not many pages into the book before the action heats up, which is definitely a positive thing. A Russian courier chooses to switch to a rival Russian mafia family and with him he brings a little more than 8 million euros and a bunch of CDs containing incriminating material with various important and famous people as involuntary protagonists. Unfortunately, he dies in a car accident while both the money and the CDs are in his possession. The investigating police force are confiscating both part. Both the mafia families are ready to do whatever it takes to recover the blackmail material, and it proves to be very dangerous and difficult to get in their way.

This part of the story is very well written and it is an exciting and interesting reading. I found it a little difficult to keep up with the cast, mostly because people have Spanish names and I find it difficult to differentiate one from another. It was not something that disfigured my literary experience, though.

Where it really went wrong was when Robert Wilson, decided to bring Al Qaeda on the pitch. It's still a mystery to me why these insane terrorists are to be involved in this story. It seems to me, that Robert Wilson has had two stories he wanted to tell - a crime novel about the Russian mafia and a spy story about Al Qaeda's recruitment of young fanatics. It may have seemed like a good idea at the planning stage, but in practice it does't work out.

'The Ignorance of Blood' is definitely worth reading, if only you are able mentally to ignore the Al Qaeda part. My assessment is: Read the book, but be prepared for some unexpected and rather confusing twists in the plot.