Kevin Wignall

Our protagonist - Wes - is CIA officer serving jail time in the International War Crime jail. Reason is simple - after one of the actions Wes conducted in the Middle East goes south and well known public persons get killed in process CIA abandons him and lets international public and police try him for war crimes and finally put him in jail.

Book starts with the bang - number of civilians ends up dead in Spain after terrorists execute the bomb attack. This would not worry Wes that much if it weren't the fact that his ex wife ends up dead. And considering that she is also a spy everything looks more and more as an intentional assassination attempt with huge collateral damage. So Wes starts the search and soon finds out that his own son (he knew nothing about) was traveling with his ex fiance when she was killed - so search for his wife's killers becomes a desperate search to find his son.

As is always case with Kevin Wignall protagonists is sort-of-a-anti-hero. He has a special set of skills and these were learned while doing unpopular things to people pointed to him by the government (that is now actively seeking to kill him).
Story is a page-turner, lots of action from Spain to USA and as story progresses it becomes obvious that reason for both Wes incarceration and his wife's death is nothing dramatic but just bureaucrats with guns deciding to do a clean up.

Only thing that seems a little bit deus-ex-machina-like is Wes' connection to the weird, socially awkward daughter of one of the other war-criminals serving time in the same jail with Wes. I know weird things can happen and some people act much differently than the others but this connection that grew in a couple of pages to a friendship was very very strange. But with this Wes ends up with a capable and fearless companion that proves invaluable in solving the puzzle.

All in all good story, excellent thriller. Only if it weren't for this weird "companion" thingy.… (more)

First I will say that what you would expect from this novel is not exactly what you will get. And here I will stop with potential spoilers.

Protagonist Max Emerson is wealthy financier who works with both legal and those not-so-legal businesses. He is very wealthy, rather young and capable. Makes you hate him already - right? :) Then it will come as no surprise that due to his links to underworld his own family keeps him at arms length for fear of possible scandal.

Being haunted by his past actions (that most definitely cost people lives indirectly) Max suddenly encounters family crisis and this will lead him to the unexpected revelations about his family but also about himself.

I truly did not expect the twist at the end.

I understand many wont like the people in this novel and especially wont like that nobody gets punished for their transgression at the end. But in my opinion ending is very realistic - I especially liked how the hacker hired to harass Max Emerson and his company (regarding links to the criminal underworld) ends up.

If you seek action, gunfights and assassins lurking around (aka usual Wignall story) you wont find it here. But you will find pretty good novel depicting relations between rather dysfunctional siblings, world of high finance (usually high also means very very low morals) and very interesting twist at the end.

Recommended to all thriller fans.… (more)