People Die

March 18, 2002
A freelance hit man with MI6 and the CIA on his client roster lands on a hit list himself, without a clue as to why, in Wignall's smashing debut. JJ Hoffman has a lucrative life as a top assassin with a golden rep on both sides of the pond. His routine is disrupted when he finds his Paris handler in a sex-death frame-up, then discovers that his contact number has been disconnected. Cut loose and now a target, he races to his girlfriend's Geneva apartment too late to save her. American Ed Holden, who's also a target, says he has info that may save them both and arranges a meeting in Vermont through London-based CIA agent Tom Furst, the only one they both trust. When JJ learns the meeting is at a Vermont bed and breakfast run by Susan Bostridge, the wife of a rogue U.S. agent he shot two years ago, he balks, but soon finds that he has no other option. Arriving in Vermont days before Ed, he meets Susan and becomes attached to her and her two kids, who seem to forgive him for killing their dad. Things get stranger when Holden arrives and spills his plan to derail their pursuer, who is revealed to be a former client attempting to cover up an action gone wrong. Crisp, lean prose with assault rifle impact zips the reader across international borders and delineates quirky, engaging characters. The plot is worthy of the best British spymasters, making Wignall an author to watch. Agent, Jonny Gellar.

February 15, 2002
JJ is a freelance hitman for a CIA-like organization. He is meticulously professional, except for one uncharacteristic slip. Hired to kill an art dealer named Bostridge, he unexpectedly finds the purported family man in bed with a girl, and, surprising himself, lets her go after she has retrieved a small package from under the bed. Two years later, this assignment comes back to haunt him. JJ's contact with the company has been brutally murdered, and then they get JJ's girlfriend. It appears that a faction within the organization is trying to kill him. Key information about his assassins leads him to a New England bed-and-breakfast run by Bostridge's widow and an agent who has a plan to put JJ in the clear--if he's willing to engage in a face-to-face meeting with a Russian mobster. Wignall's first novel boasts crisp writing, a tense atmosphere, and, most surprisingly, a likable if ruthless hitman. In fact, Wignall's only misstep comes in the final chapter, when he tries to reconcile JJ's professional and personal lives. An impressive debut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)