Kevin Wignall is one of those authors whose books I liked the look of, I go off and buy them and then never actually get around to reading them.
After ten years of ignoring them, I recently got around to reading For the Dogs (aka The Hunter's Prayer) - thoughts on the blog yesterday. Pretty amazing and more fool me for taking so long to get to him.
Hopefully I won't leave it so long next time.
Wignall has about nine novels to his name and a number of short stories.
People Die (2001)
Among the Dead (2002)
For the Dogs (2004)
Who Is Conrad Hirst? (2007)
Dark Flag (2013)
The Hunter's Prayer (2015)
A Death in Sweden (2016)
The Traitor's Story (2016)
A Fragile Thing (2017)
To Die in Vienna (2018)
His website is here.
Among the Dead (2002)
Alex Stratton is haunted by the past, by the part he played in the accidental death of a fellow student. Now, with the death of two of the other people involved, that past is brought back to the surface. Is someone else eliminating all the witnesses?
Who is Conrad Hirst? (2007)
Who is Conrad Hirst? Knowing the answer could get you killed. Not knowing could get him killed.
Conrad Hirst is a hired killer working for a German crime boss. Disturbed by the death of his girlfriend ten years earlier and still bearing the scars of post-traumatic stress after serving as a mercenary, he's valued precisely because of how broken he is, by how coldly he kills, by the solitary existence he leads.
But something has happened on Conrad's most recent job that's shattered his equilibrium and left him determined to quit. Fortunately for him, there's a simple way to leave the business and begin life anew: Only four people know who he is and what he's done -- kill those four people, and Conrad is a free man.
A simple plan, but life is never that simple, and as Conrad's scheme unravels, he quickly realizes he isn't the only one doing the killing. With the certainties of his life crumbling around him, he's no longer sure whom he's been working for, or why, or what they want of him now. In fact, he can't even answer the ever-looming and ominous question: Who is Conrad Hirst?
Fast-paced, dark, and disturbing, Kevin Wignall's newest page-turner is the story of a broken young man seeking retribution against those who have used him for their own gain, and of the devastating secret that fuels his anger. It is a story of identity and loss, of missed opportunities and the cruelty of fate.
They do sound like potent stories, Col. I know what you mean, too, about thinking I'm going to try one or another author...and just not getting to it for a while. Hope you'll like these as you did the other one you read.
ReplyDeleteThanks Margot. I do think I'll enjoy these when I get to them.
DeleteThe covers are definitely striking. I will look out for some books by this author.
ReplyDeleteI love the Conrad Hirst cover. Roll on the book sale!
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