People Die Book

JJ is one of the smoothest hit men in the business, ruthless in his elimination of accidental witnesses and prepared to do whatever it takes to fulfil his contracts; when he killed businessman Bostridge in Moscow, it surprised him that he let Bostridge's female companion live at all, let alone that he watched her walk off with a small package. And then, suddenly, he is on the run; his civilian mistress is raped and murdered and his contacts eliminated--amid taking vengeance against all those who come up against him, he is anxious to find out why. His path to knowledge takes him to New England and the remote inn run by Bostridge's widow, to confrontations with a series of killers--and to a growing understanding of the complexities of his own moral situation. Wignall's elegantly affectless People Die succeeds because it makes us like JJ without softening even slightly his utter amoral ruthlessness--he is a bad man in a bad trade, and yet he has a grace and charm that somehow both preserve him and make him sympathetic. This is an impressive debut which combines some moments of social comedy with biting suspense and a systematic critique of its own moral assumptions. --Roz KaveneyRead More