A Death in Sweden by Kevin Wignall (Epub)

Description

Dan Hendricks is a man in need of a lifeline. A former CIA operative, he is now an agent for hire by foreign powers on the hunt for dangerous fugitives. It’s a lethal world at the best of times, and Dan knows his number is almost up. His next job could be his last—and his next job is his biggest yet.

The target sounds trackable enough: Jacques Fillon, who gave up his life trying to save a fellow passenger following a bus crash in northern Sweden. But the man was something of an enigma in this rural community, and his death exposes his greatest secret: Jacques Fillon never existed at all.

Dan is tasked with uncovering Fillon’s true identity—but can he do so before his own past catches up with him?

User’s Reviews

Review “This superior espionage thriller has all the moral ambiguity and heart-quickening action scenes you could ask for.” -Sunday Express “Clever, gripping and precise…Set in the dark Scandinavian forests, this is a tight and elegant novel, focusing on morality and identity.” -Catholic Herald From the Publisher I still remember the moment I received a call from a colleague at Thomas & Mercer about A Death in Sweden. He was holed up at his local coffee shop with the book in his hands and told me he couldn’t come into the office until he’d finished it—it was that good. He sent me the manuscript right away. I read it in one sitting and didn’t need further convincing. Within the first few pages, I realized I was in for something very special. I immediately fell under the spell of the author’s lean, cool prose and the mystery of a man who saves the life of a fellow passenger in a bus crash. This final act of heroism reveals a secret: our hero never existed. Set amid a world of political wrangling and murder, A Death in Sweden depicts the lives of men who carry out governments’ dirty work—the kind intelligence agencies can’t or don’t want to do themselves. This is no ordinary spy thriller: of course it is filled with action, intrigue, and suspense, but the emotionally complex characters and their motivations, murky pasts, and shaky futures are what give this book the heart and depth to make it a truly remarkable read. – Emilie Marneur, Editor

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ You know, sometimes I like a book, and I look at the bad reviews (1 or 2 stars), and I’m sort of shocked that people feel that way. Boring? I don’t know. If it’s boring, so is every other book like it. If you like the genre you accept that the hero is going to have a lot of physical prowess and courage, is going to score with a woman (or women) who is not only beautiful, but much younger than him, and will have some kind of sad history – drinking, brutal father, dead family, etc. And, you can expect that kind of thing here. Although the protagonist, Dan, here, claims he is merely above average and that is good enough to beat most opponents; he seemed pretty confident he could go 1 on 5 against a secure location and come away okay, and he bedded a beautiful woman pretty quick although you might think a normal person (and she is) would shy away from a professional kidnapper/killer.Basically, I liked Dan. I liked his gal. I liked his boss. And I like to like characters. We’ve gone from a time when the hero was always good to one where you might be surprised he is an anti-hero, to a time when they are almost all anti-heroes, and, in fact, their best quality is often that they are self-condemning. In so much fiction these days, more tv, I find it hard to like anyone.Though yes, as one commenter wrote, you know what was going to happen, maybe. I wasn’t sure the whole time about those supposedly on his side and you shouldn’t either. Or how everything will turn out.There was not a droning on about the various types of guns used, which has been overdone now, Dan made mistakes and there was even one out and out foul-up where you felt, how stupid was he. That makes the hero more believable. But, that’s not the main thing. I like Reacher books for example, and I call all books of this genre Reacher books now when the hero is a super-human. What matters most is – was it well written? I think he’s a good writer. I did not understand the really critical reviews. I have read many bad books in this genre, where I am one and done, and others where I read a good book, but one was enough. I expect I will be reading a lot of Wignall books. Glad I tried him.

⭐ Although I enjoyed the pace of the read and took it for what it was worth, nothing in the content was ever really developed enough to stir many emotions or make me think the author had many in writing it either. The inner dialogue of our protagonist was about as unimaginable as it comes, the settings were about as non descriptive as a tourist pamphlet and at no point did any other character surprise or act in any other way than to push the plot forward. I was dying for a twist or something to make me think our hero was actually in peril but not once did I think that the next page would give me a WTF moment and sadly it never did. Even the big reveal in the final pages was telegraphed from the first few paragraphs and since there was nothing to hint at this in between it felt as if the author put in an ah ha moment just for the sake of having one. Basically the whole story reads like a high school outline of how to write a fast paced spy thriller without the spying or the thrills. What you think is going to happen pretty much does and there isn’t enough character and setting development to distract from the fact that this book feels like it was written by some software algorithm not someone who actually cares about the words they are putting on the pages. I will say it kept me turning those pages, but only in search of a payoff that never came. A Death in Sweden was more of A Nap on the Couch for me.

⭐ This was a fast-paced an enjoyable thriller, with lots of danger, suspense, and intrigue. When we meet him, Dan’s colleagues are getting killed one-by-one, and it’s clear he’s on the target list. One of the fun mysteries of the story is whether or not he can trust Patrick, or Inger, or anyone else. The basic premise (that the CIA is now killing off the mercenary assassins that it used in the past for “plausible deniability”), while not strictly realistic, is an enjoyable set-up.Dan is an interesting character, who has done some unsavory things in the past, and we get some insights into his own wrestling with his past actions. We feel the danger he’s in, and actively root for him to one-up the bad guys and survive. We get to see him grow as a person now that he’s on the other side, and the author does a great job with this character development–until the end. After expressing admiration for a dead hero’s quest for justice for a murdered French girl, and even taking on that quest for himself for the bulk of the novel, Dan seems to forget that lesson all of a sudden and embraces revenge.There is a high body-count in this story, and most of them are not gratuitous (they give us a good flavor of the dark necessities of Black Ops work)…but in the final sequence in Berlin, I felt that a few of the people Dan killed didn’t need to die. I felt this especially strongly about the first killing in Berlin (an IT guy). This one death in particular left me with a bad taste, undoing much of my good-feeling for Dan. But in the end, the plot and relationships wrapped up nicely, and I was left with having enjoyed the ride.

⭐ In these surreal times, it’s mentally relieving to escape into a dream, and this novel presents an elaborate dream world of good guys and bad guys jumping back and forth between the dark side and the light. The main character, Dan, is an ex-CIA freelancer with a past and an ever-unfolding present. But he’s got a moral compass that directs him into deep waters, secret recesses, conflicted relationships, and close friendships that frequently end with a fatal bullet from the gun of a previous “friend.”Dan, Charlie, and a fellow operator, Inger, are the only characters here who are developed enough to be real people instead of cut-out devils or angels. Charlie, a likable close friend, unfortunately is just a brief presence. They are all interesting enough, though, along with clever plotting and good detailing, to keep the pages turning, and the loose ends are tied neatly together, particularly in the Epilogue. There is never a doubt that Dan will triumph, even as Wignall constructs elaborate mouse traps to try to get his neck snapped.This is a quick and satisfying read, though somewhat predictable. Wignall knows how to write tight sentences and constrains passion and violence well, but I’m not sure the publisher knows how to edit. For instance, outside scenes describe people and things dropping to the “floor” instead of the ground and the word “guy” is overused. Nonetheless, this work is well constructed and entertaining. If you want to forget the madness for a few hours, here’s a nice remedy.

⭐ A Death in Sweden is a very engaging book, on a par with recent works by Baldacci and Berry. Wignall’s writing is clear and concise. He must’ve had a great editor because the tempo is crisp. The book doesn’t lag anywhere, and the author ties everything together at the end.The characters are believable, although I’m tired of male thriller protagonists bedding every woman they encounter—and all of those women being beautiful. But until traditional publishing contacts with more female thriller writers I’ll just have to live with the chauvanistic stereotypes. That being written, I’m becoming more selective about what I purchase because horn-dog protagonists are boring me.A couple of reviewers mentioned the immorality of the crimes committed in this book, but I’ve yet to read a thriller that doesn’t contain murder and mayhem. The ending of A Death in Sweden is uplifting, a pleasant and unexected twist.I’ve ordered Wignall’s other books and look forward to reading them. Highly recommended.

⭐ Although fast-paced as expected of the genre, the overuse and misuse of punctuation was distracting (too many commas where they shouldn’t be). Also there was more introspection than necessary, especially since it wasn’t being told in the first person POV, but even that and the seemingly tacked-on backstory of the protagonist weren’t enough to make me like him when he arbitrarily decided which people he would kill or let live. By the end of the book I felt both Dan and Alex were simply sociopaths who ought to be taken out by Canale.The worst part, though, was how easily the key piece of evidence just fell into his lap. It was too easy, like the writer had cheated the game somehow. Not exactly deus ex machina but pretty darn close.The one thing I did like was how the Prologue and Epilogue were tied together. Even that could have been played up better if Luca hadn’t been such a superfluous character, but I was at least glad to have finished reading the book to get to that part. Nothing about this book made me want to read any of the author’s other books though.

⭐ I’ve read a few other books by this author and enjoyed them, but after this one I don’t think I’ll be buying any more ever. The characters are simplistic and generic in all of his books I’ve read, but I found the plot and action interesting enough to overlook that before. Not this time.This time he pulled out the tired, bigoted ‘woman claims to be a lesbian to discourage a guy’s advances, then realizes she likes him… tada, no more lesbian!’ trope. It’s only made worse by the guy thinking she didn’t seem like a lesbian initially either. Plays into the gross straight male fantasy that lesbians just need the right guy to ‘fix’ them. If she’d just been cold to him, pretended to have a boyfriend, or some other excuse until she warmed to him, I would have been fine with it. But this just smacks of homophobic prejudice and I couldn’t get past it.

⭐ “A Death in Sweden” is a quick and easy read. At 278 pages long, there isn’t room for complex plots and subplots. There are two principal stories. That of Jacques Fillon, the man who gave up his life to save a fellow passenger and whose death is the subject of the book’s title. And, that of Dan Hendricks who, in order to save his own life, is tasked with learning who Jacques Fillon was and what he knew. Since Jacques dies in the beginning, the action naturally centers around Dan and we learn about Jacques along the way.As in a typical story in this genre, you know the protagonist is going to prevail. You just don’t know beforehand how he is going to do that. However, the principal antagonist is obvious fairly early on and I found Dan’s necessary steps to be fairly predictable. Jacques, on the other hand, was more of a mystery. I had a feeling that there was more to him than was being uncovered. But, it took a while before I figured out for sure just what that was. All was revealed in the end, and it was satisfying to have my suspicions confirmed.The story was written in an easy flowing style. I did find the editing to be a little sketchy. There were obvious errors and omissions that should have been caught prior to publication. But, it was only a minor distraction. Violence is a necessary part of this genre, but the author took care to not make it excessively graphic. I also appreciated that he also avoided both foul language and graphic explicit sex.

⭐ I’ve read a number of the 5, 4, and 3 star reviews, as well as a few 1 and 2 star ones. I found a lot to agree with in the top reviews, and several things to disagree with in the lower ones.There were quite a few errors that should have been identified and corrected in editing, but not so many or so egregious as to be more than minor distractions.I liked the story and the main characters. The pace is slower than most thrillers, but I liked the introspection of Dan. The mystery surrounding the bad guys kept the suspense alive.This will not be one of my favorite authors, but I will read more of his books.

⭐ I am easily distracted by poor writing at the level of words, sentences, or paragraphs. This book was very well written in all those ways. However, at a higher level, I ended up distracted by how the characters, particularly the protagonist, acted in this otherwise classic spy-type thriller.Dan Hendricks has had a tough life that has recently become even worse as his spook colleagues are getting rubbed out all over the world in quick succession. Everyone who reads this genre knows that Dan should trust nobody, should go underground, should suspect all his longtime friends and mentors, and will nevertheless suffer many attempts on his life by those he still thought he could rely on. Hendricks apparently hasn’t read these rules and decides to act in his own way. He vacillates over the abduction of his assigned target as he worries about what it will do to the man’s family life to be whisked off to an uncertain (but certainly unpleasant) fate in South America. He shares his secrets with a beautiful woman he’s only just met, oblivious to the stark reality that, if she has read the rulebook, she’ll come out of the bathroom and put two slugs into his sleeping form. In general, he simply doesn’t take the threat as seriously as he should.Reading this book did make me question somewhat the stereotypical behavior of characters in books like this. I suppose that there may be an audience for a man who grapples more with his socio-biological clock than he does with shadowy adversaries in a back alley. Surely the stock stress and violence in this genre is not particularly uplifting. But do I really want a sensitive spy? In the end, I decided not, and I won’t be seeking out other books by this author. But perhaps you should give it a try. Just read in private, in case you need to shed a tear along with Dan.

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