Entirely too formulaic. This Innes novel is one of his later ones, and while the plot is up to speed, the details of the novel fail to produce anything memorable. Not even Innes' usual description of an exotic locale does much to elevate Medusa. The entire effort is sluggish.

The worst part of it all, however, comes from the characterizations. Adventure/thriller novels need not carry too much characterization to achieve their aim, of course. But in the past, Innes had carried this off, in particular in The Wreck of the Mary Deare and Solomons Seal.

Solomons Seal is worth bringing up, especially, because its story is similar to that of Medusa, a coup carried out by mercenaries along with locals who feel they have been unfairly treated by the larger governmental authorities. The revolution, in both cases, is nasty in its action and aims. And the foreigners involved at the head of things reprehensible and soulless people.

Whereas Solomons Seal produced some interesting characters, however, Medusa only yields cardboard cutouts of people whose actions are cliched and whose motivations too pat. In fact, they're unbelievable. Mike Steele fears, justly it turns out, his wife is attracted to a Royal Navy Lt. Commander the pair have just met. This tortures Steele, although not enough too keep his own eye from wondering to a buxom archaeologist, where his fantasies ultimately become realized. It's all a bit like an episode of Swingers on Parade, or some such, set among the Balearic Isle of Menorca. Some of the situations, quite frankly, are laughable.

Innes does do one thing in this novel I'm happy to see. He has dispensed with all the uses of "whilst," which tended to clutter up his earlier novels. I wonder if a copy editor finally drew the line? Anyway, the word only comes up once and that is in a line of dialog. "Whilst" sounds all to affected to my ear, and I swear it is something that has only begun to crop up in latter day British novelists. I don't remember seeing it in Amis, Wain, Sillitoe, and Storey. But maybe I'm wrong. Still, the word has come to irritate me, and I was happy to see it all but disappear from Medusa. ( )

Innes can tell a nautical tale with the fine detritus you see in a moving wave. The island of Menorca had strategic significance during the Cold War. The Medusa was an ageing British frigate called to perform naval service in an adventure involving archeology and assassination. The murder of the small-town mayor involves Moscow and the narrator is accused.

A curious little tale almost victorian melodrama set in the late 80's Med. How the world has moved on, the novel feels much older than that. The general background is that of Cold War europe - many boderline states are socialist and the small island of Minorca is technically part of Spain, but has been increasingly self governing, and the close-knit local communities resent the influx of predominately britsh ex-pats building villas and hotel complexes.

Our hero, Michael runs a small chandlry and villa maintenance business with his heavily pregnant wife Soo. And in true melodrama style Mike has his bit on the side a passing archeologist named Petra - a complete contrast to Soo. The a naval officer on leave Gareth comes by looking for his half-brother Pat. Soo falls in love with Gareth, while Mike has business dealings with Pat. Then as Pat's dealings turn out to have sinister undertones, Gareth's ship is ordered to Minorca and the situation comes to boil with Gareth forced to choose between love, honour and duty with Miek sniping on the sides.

The first half of the book is almost dull, very slowly moving with some character development, but mostly just hand wringing. Howevre as the situation hots up and the political tensions rise the pace also picks up and it becomes more entertaining. The writing is far tighter than actual melodramas but is still very laid back for a thriller.The point of View sticks solely to Mike so we are only perepherially aware of Gareth's actions and his history with Pat but the connection between the two men is at times very strong - surprising considering the tensions between them. The ending is disapointing in that it leaves many threads open.

Overall enjoyable enough to pass the time with, but not one of Innes' best works, and the vast gulf in modern politics means the whole thing is somewhat unbelivable unless you grew up in the age when contol of one minor Med island really was of global significance. ( )