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. ( )

Spanien, Menorca, ca 1988
Indeholder delene "1. Thunderflash", "2. Malta-episoden", "3. Det beregnende menneske", "4. Bloody Island", "5. Søforhør".

Michael Steele (Mike) og hans højgravide maltesiske kone Soo (eller Suzanne) driver en lille virksomhed med udlejning og vedligehold af villaer. En dag bliver han opsøgt af en kaptajnløjtnant Gareth Lloyd Jones, der har et billede med af en Patrick Evans og spørger om Mike har set ham? Da Gareth er gået, viser Mike sin kone billedet og hun genkender manden, men da havde han ikke skæg. Det får Mike til at huske at han har set Evans i selskab med en mand, der lavede hærværk på en af villaerne, men slap væk uden at blive fastholdt.
En kvindelig arkæolog Petra Callis opsøger Mike for at få ham til at se på et hulemaleri. Det er Soo ikke begejstret for og hun viser til gengæld Lloyd lidt mere interesse. De tager alle fire ud til hulerne og Petra fortæller Mike at hun vil have ham med fordi nogle uvedkommende har gravet i hulen. De overrasker et par mænd, der flygter og på vejen væk skubber Soo ned ad en skrænt, så hun ender med at abortere.
Borgmesteren i Mahon hedder Jorge Martinez og har politiske ambitioner. Et par mænd ejer en katamaran Thunderflash og vil gerne handle den for Mikes kutter Santa Maria. Den ene mand er Patrick Evans og han virker ikke helt troværdig, men Mike går ind på handelen. Kort efter bliver Martinez skudt af en snigskytte ved et offentligt møde. Måske er en Ismail Fuxá bag? Mike tænker sig om og gætter på at Evans har beholdt en nøgle til Thunderflash og ja, han finder en snigskytte-udgave af en AK-47 gemt på båden. Efter lidt overvejelser gemmer han den i den villa, Evans fik med i bytte for katamaranen. Politiet kommer og ransager Thunderflash og beholder Mikes pas. De har helt åbenbart fået et tip om at der var noget at finde. Mike bliver presset af en kaptajnløjtnant Wade fra den britiske efterretningstjeneste til at hjælpe dem. En Antonio Barriago ser ud til at være snigmorderen, men han er for længst fløjet fra øen. Wade kender til nogle detaljer i Mikes fortid som ikke tåler dagens lys.
Mike tager en tur til Malta, skjult i sin egen katamaran. Undervejs støder de på Santa Maria og Patrick Evans. På Malta bliver de mødt af myndighederne, der ikke vil lade Mike gå i land. I stedet besøger han Gareth Lloyd Jones, som er kaptajn på fregatten Medusa og på vej til Menorca. Gareth føler sig ignoreret af de lokale myndigheder. Det varer ikke ved, for en flok skumle mænd samler sig på kajen og overfalder nogle af søfolkene, der har været på vinsmagning. Faktisk skyder de en løjtnant Kent, men han bliver kun såret og søfolkene kommer ombord. Fregatten letter anker og går til Malta i stedet. På vejen sætter de Mike af på et sejlbræt, så han kan undgå myndighederne. Det viser sig at Evans har flyttet geværet tilbage til Mikes hus, hvor det så er blevet "opdaget" af politiet. Fregatten går tilbage til Menorca og bliver vidne til et kup på den lille ø, der har en slags lokalstyre. Ismail Fuxá har taget magten vha et par hundrede lejetropper og en stor flok tilhængere. Han har taget Soo som gidsel og forsøger at true Medusa væk, så hans venner, dvs et par russiske orlogsfartøjer kan komme og hjælpe ham uhindret. Evans, der er halvbror til Gareth forsøger at true denne til at sejle væk med fregatten eller risikere angreb på fregatten og at Soo lider overlast.
Gareth går mellem hornene på dilemmaet ved at fingere maskinskade og sætte fregatten på grund. Det får folkene bag kuppet til at opgive, for russerne vil ikke angribe en nato-fregat.
En af Mikes bekendte bliver slået ihjel af Evans, en anden bliver hårdt såret og Soo undslipper kun med nød og næppe, men ellers ender historien lykkeligt og Gareth slipper for en krigsret, selv om han har bulet fregatten og han får endda en medalje af den spanske konge og et brev fra den britiske regering.

Endnu en thriller hvor russerne er den store trussel, men hvor det hele ender godt uden at der egentlig sker noget. ( )

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. ( )