Kevin Wignall

Protagonists in Kevin Wignall's books are always pretty damaged people, either by events (like Conrad Hirst) or by their personality and nature (like JJ in this novel).

JJ is professional hitman working for the assassin network (for a lack of better term) that is hired by all sides - governments, criminal underground, basically whoever has the money. Everything works fine until by sheer accident JJ finds out that one of the intelligence agencies that his network works for began the cleanup of show more all witnesses (and all those linked to them) to one of the missions that took place a few years before.

JJ is a cold-blooded assassin and he steadily finds his way up the chain but in the process, he gets confronted with the results of his past actions.

A very interesting book. As one of the reviewers noted there is part were JJ develops a relationship with the teenage girl. What some found unsettling are JJ's thoughts at the beginning. My opinion is that JJ knows he is missing something, part of humanity he maybe never had (at one point he is surprised that people are ready to recognize him as a killer although he does not see himself as such) - call it empathy or guilt for killing so many - and he tries to find that in himself through relationship with this girl, by being simply a friend and staying in contact with someone who is outside his bloody trade (very much like attempts of the assassin in Kevin Wignall's other book [b: The Hunter's Prayer|25902505|The Hunter's Prayer|Kevin Wignall|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436805391s/25902505.jpg|44997239] to help a girl hunted by assassins).

Good thriller, highly recommended. show less

A black-ops trained killer is framed and imprisoned. Out to seek “justice” when he is released, he teams up with one of the quirkiest characters I’ve read in ages. It sounds quite rote, right? Nope, despite all the death, it’s an endearing and touching novel that’s very well written and hard to put down. Highly recommended.

Max Emerson appears to have it all, a financial whizz-kid whose success allows him the finer things in life. However Max has made his money by controlling investments for some of the shadier characters in society, and he is haunted by a deal made several years ago in which a corrupt Senator was paid off and a man died. When Max's parents are killed in a car crash he has to return to the Swiss family home and his estranged siblings but Max does not believe that the crash was an accident and show more revelations about his mother's past seem to back that up. Meanwhile the FBI are looking into the past deal.

To say that this is a thriller is to completely undersell the book. Wignall has a way of writing prose which lulls the reader into a sense of enjoyment and, even when the topic matter is spying or organised crime, it seems natural and not forced. There are none of the cliches of the genre, this is a story about a successful man who is lacking emotional balance rather than a story about international finance and dubious business. It is because of the slightly off-beat approach that I really loved this book. show less

“I’ve never looked at fire in the same way since that night, nor witches for that matter, or anybody else who’s apart. Perhaps apart is the wrong word, for I was apart even then, in that I was above the people and below God and the King, born into greatness.” (Loc. 10-16)
I love the idea of apart, not odd, weird, strange, or rude, but apart. What a great description of people who don’t “blend in” like the rest of us. Blood is about being apart, yet looking for a way to find a show more place where belonging brings completeness, closure, or satisfaction, not necessarily a happily ever after.

Blood is an unusual take on the vampire myth. Will doesn’t live the life of a mythical vampire. He prefers the term, undead, and has spent much of his “life” in hibernation. Now, 750 years after his “creation,” prophecies and portents are converging to give him answers to the questions he’s had for so long. Who created him? Why? Who prepared the chambers where he hides? Will doesn’t need to feed often, and uses the “life force” more than the actual blood to restore him after his periods of hibernation. His time asleep lasts longer than his time awake and he is amused by the stories we humans have told of his kind. Yet, the girl he likes is tempting to him and not in a good way. She is a part of the answers Will seeks, but the visions he has only confuse the issues for him. I am intrigued; I will look for the second one. show less