Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! Good, quick read! the story is fast paced and keeps you wanting more. I rate it a 3.9

Fabulous plot which I could not put down. Brilliant characters, and twists and turns. Highly recommend to other fans of this genre!!

I love how well paced the plot moves in this book. The relationships among the main characters are well planned. Although Wes is an flawed character, he shined through as a likable fellow. This is a satisfying read to the end.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for approving my request to review this book.

Another great novel from the pen of the indomitable Mr Wignall - a spy thriller that is both addictive and quietly absorbing with an excellent main protagonist in Wes, who I totally engaged with.

When a terrorist attack kills his loved one and he discovers he has a son who is now missing, Wes sets off on a journey to the truth and takes the reader right along with him.

The writing is ever involving and I love how he manages the character dynamics- add to that a genuinely compelling plot and you have a winner.

Recommended.

Good easy read from Mr Wignall.
Great characters throughout and it was a joy to follow 'Wes' on his way back!

James 'Wes' Wesley is a CIA agent set up by his coworker and sent to prison. When his ex-wife dies in a terrorist attack and the son he he didn't know he had is missing, he is let out of prison early. Now Wes must find out what his ex was up to and where his son is all while trying to stay alive. Taking place throughout several countries Wes is joined by Mia, a most likely autistic young woman, who happens upon him when he is released from prison.

Espionage novels are not what I usually reach for when choosing what to read but I am glad I was given this one free from NetGalley for an honest review.

The pacing in this book is spot on and the relationship between Wes and Mia works well because it isn't instant friendship. They need each other to survive. Wes to be able to hide from the people after him and Mia needs the human connection that will keep her from falling back on self-harm habits. Their relationship grows though and becomes a friendship. Mia is an intriguing character and you want her to be ok.

While The Names of the Dead includes all the normal items in espionage novels such as revenge and killing it also includes a man who comes to see himself differently based on what he learns from others about how they perceived him. Wes has personal growth that leaves the book with an ending that was unexpected but honestly made the book that much better. A thoroughly enjoyable read I will be looking for more books by Kevin Wignall.

A very different and yet exciting spy thriller. The book opens with former CIA officer Wes in a French prison for shooting down the wrong helicopter. You find this out a little later as well as he was set up, by someone who he thought was a friend. Now years later after seeing a bomb go off in Spain that his ex-wife Rachel has been killed, she was one of the victims. He wonders what she was doing in Spain being that she worked for the State Department as an analyst. As if receiving that news does not set him back the next bit does for sure. He is told that her son is missing and that the son is also his child.
Suddenly he is given an early release and then you begin to get the sense of how the story will be taking place. His critical thinking comes back into play when men come to pick him up and speak about the person who set him being at the place where there going. Knowing that is false, he also knows he will not make it to said place if he does not do anything at all. He must though for he has a son, and he will find him and find out why his ex was killed.
A very good story and I like that it took you to different places. The author keeps you engaged with the Mia character and also the easy flow of the story. This is not one of those high off the charts spy books and that was very nice. You felt like this was an actual story someone was telling you. A very good book and very much worth the read.

and I thought to myself, ok another spy thriller style book, I will give it a try and from the first page I was so hooked with how his so called friends and co-workers could be so bad and such traders to him. I had to see where this story was going. Then his ex-wife gets blown up by a bomb plus several other people. I am not giving the story away here because from the reviews you already know this much about the book. What grabs you is Wes , the man has had a terrible time and to think in no time at all his life turns upside down and he is on the run to find a son he didn't even know he had. It really does grab you and never slows down just because you need to know how it ends!! That is the beauty of a good book! Recommend this one and keep them coming!! Thanks!

Another great read from Mr Wignall. It's a welcome sight to find new lead characters in each book and that they are able to pursue standalone storylines. Tight.

‘They didn’t even need to discuss it.’

James ‘Wes’ Wesley is a former CIA agent. He was part of an anti-terrorism operation that went awry: the wrong helicopter was shot down. Abandoned by the CIA, Wes has been locked up in a French prison for three years. Isolated from friends and family, Wes is devastated to learn that his ex-wife Rachel was killed in a terrorist attack in Spain. Wes also learns that he and Rachel had a son, Ethan, who is also missing. What he doesn’t know is why Rachel was in Spain, and why she’d not told him about their son.

Wes is released from prison on compassionate grounds and sets out to try to find out who killed Rachel and why. But nothing is straightforward: some of his former colleagues would rather see him dead.

Wes joins forces with Mia, the daughter of a fellow inmate who’d recently died. Together they try to stay ahead of those pursuing Wes while trying to find Ethan and to uncover the truth about why Rachel was killed.

Wes’s search for answers takes him into the past. Dangerous territory where he can’t be sure who he can trust.

This is the first of Mr Wignall’s novels I’ve read, and I’m keen to read more. The story moves at a rapid pace, travelling through several different European locations. Mia is an enigmatic character who complements Wes well on his quest. And the ending? I really wanted to know what would happen next.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This story has such a strong plot. I love that the author really did their research and made this book really believable. The character creation is very very strong in this story. It was a great thriller and I enjoyed it immensely.

The Names of the Dead by Kevin Wignall
I am a long time reader of Kevin Wignall going back to 2004 and People Die.  Over the years he has explored a number of genres and categories and I have enjoyed them to varying degrees.  His most recent novel, The Names of the Dead, was released today and it felt like a return to "classic" Wignall to me.

Publishers description:

Former CIA officer James ‘Wes’ Wesley paid the ultimate price for his patriotism when he was locked up in a French jail for an anti-terror operation gone wrong—abandoned by the Agency he served, shunned by his colleagues and friends, cut off from his family.

Now he is shattered by the news that his ex-wife, Rachel, a State Department analyst, has been killed in a terrorist attack in Spain. He also discovers that his young son, Ethan, is missing. But Wes didn’t know he had a son—until now.

Why was Rachel in Spain? And why did she keep his son secret from him?

Granted early release, Wes takes flight across Europe to search for the truth and exact his revenge. But can he catch the spies who betrayed him before they track him down? In order to find the answers and save his son, Wes realises he must confront the dark secrets in his own past—before it’s too late.

I was lucky enough to receive a review copy from NetGalley and found myself right back in the world and characters and situations of moral ambiguity, tension and violence.

Here is an exchange in a quick Q&A I did with Kevin in 2008:

I wrote that Conrad Hirst, as most of your books, was an exploration of identity, the nature of morality, and the dangers of self-deception. Is that fair? Accurate?

Yes to both. I’m interested in the fault lines between who we think we are and how others see us. And one of the inherent premises of all my work is that we live in a time of fluid morality, a time in which people are drawing their own boundaries, so I think it’s interesting to explore how people deal with that process, particularly people on the edges of society.

Well, "an exploration of identity, the nature of morality, and the dangers of self-deception" is a pretty good description of The Names of the Dead.  As with most Wignall novels there are a couple of threads.  One is the basic plot.  In this case it is Wes trying to stay alive, unravel the mystery of his wife and son, and bring closure somehow.  The other deals with the aforementioned issues of identity, morality, and self-deception. In this case, Wignall, via what feels like a unreliable narrator, leaves the reader constantly guessing whose perspective is "real" or accurate.  There is just enough doubt in Wes's perspective about the activities that led to his imprisonment and his relationship with his colleagues that you are never quite sure if he is deceiving himself or if he really is a basically good guy caught up in the ugly but necessary work of anti-terrorism.  Wes's traveling companion Mia, and closest friend in prison Patrice, and to this ambiguity and surrealism.

The question that lingers, and one that is very relevant for today, is whether people trained to excel in war and counter-terrorism are "monsters" or just have the necessary detachment and compartmentalization.  But also rolled up in that are questions about relationships, family, motherhood, faith, friendship, etc.

If you enjoy your thriller with a literary sensibility, Wignall is a great choice and The Names of the Dead is classic Wignall.

This is probably the best novel by the author so far, a tense thriller with great characters. Highly recommended!

Kevin Wignall does a great job not only with the pace and storyline, but also has a way of bringing the reader along in relating to the characters.

Really good book, that I would highly recommend to all those fans of his books, and also those who have not read any of his at all.

A good fast paced easy read. I liked the characters and the plot and would read more books by this author. My only gripe is that I would have liked the book to be longer.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

With a death comes a second chance…

As an officer for the CIA James Wesley understood the gray areas between right and wrong. Decisions made could lead to collateral damage and friendly fire where it was not welcome. Success of planned missions depended upon the value of the intelligence received and the possibility of it being incorrect existed. Yet Wes never expected that someone in his own team would set him up on purpose and non-targeted individuals died as a result of the wrong information he was given. For three years he’s been imprisoned in France with other political criminals. His agency abandoned him; his wife divorced him.

Learning of the recent death of his ex-wife, Rachel, in Spain from a suicide bombing in a public area and that his son is missing, a son he never knew he had, Wes is granted early release. Rightfully believing his death warrant had been signed he barely escapes the agency’s assassination attempt and begins a journey to discover what really happened to Rachel and where is his son.

Wes learns many things along the way including perspectives he’d never considered about himself. He receives guidance from Patrice, a prisoner he called a friend in the form of underlined Bible passages that were oftentimes appropriate and made him ponder. His companion is the daughter of a political prisoner who had recently died in the prison he’d left. Mia’s a young woman with a unique outlook on life and surprising tolerance for the life a man like Wes has led but then her father was a general who taught her to survive in a dangerous world. The dynamics between these two were quite interesting.

This is a story of international intrigue and personal growth, this author humanized a spy who’d done questionable things in his career under the guise of patriotism yet managed to find a woman to marry, and he knew that losing her was in her best interests after his downfall. But did she ever lose faith in him? Wes sought the answers to many questions even ones he didn’t know needed answering.

Wes’ humanity showed in the search for those answers and how he handled things with Mia’s presence and passive influence. He wasn’t the same man who first went into that French prison or the same man who left it, his eyes were opened. This story had great descriptions of the places visited and intriguing supporting characters, I very much enjoyed this story, was quickly immersed into the storyline and invested in Wes’s outcome, I would love there to be a sequel.

An advanced reading copy was obtained from the publisher via NetGalley.

Kevin Wignall is a new author to me and OMG I loved the way he writes and will be looking out to read more from Kevin. The Names of the Dead was a brilliant fast pace read. I was hooked within the first few pages.

James Wesley nick named Wes was a former CIA Officer who is locked up in a French prison for anti-terrorism operation that went wrong, he shot down the wrong helicopter and he's being set up by a former colleague and friend Sam Garvey. He has been abandoned by his Agency he served with, his close friends and even his wife Rachel divorced him.

Whilst in Prison, several people are killed as a bomb goes off in a small court yard in Granada Spain. Several people are killed and one of the people killed is Rachel. James Wesley's has been informed of the death of his ex wife. Wes is granted early release from prison and his first thing he wants to do is find out who murdered his ex-wife! she was a a State Department analyst,
He know's he has to be very careful, as People are out to Kill him as well.........being in prison was the safest place for him!!!

Whilst Wes is investigating why Rachel was murdered he finds out some more shocking news......She had a small boy with her!

But the boy Ethan was not with her when the bomb went off?

Where was he?

Why was she in Spain?

Is it his son?

Why didn't Rachel tell him she was having their child!!! All these secrets!!!!

Will Wes get to the bottom of this?

What corruption lies at the heart of CIA operations in the Middle East that led to Wes’s incarceration? before someone kills him! first!!

Why so many secrets?

WoW.......What a brilliant read! I highly recommend this book.

Big Thank you to Kevin Wignall the author, NetGalley, and Amazon Publishing UK. for my early release copy, to review.

Very smooth and easy read with a great plot and great characters. Very little dead meat, and quite a few interesting points on spying and war crimes are touched.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Kevin Wignall for the opportunity to read this espionage thriller. This is the first book I've read by this author; judging by this book, I've missed some good reads!

CIA agent James "Wes" Wesley took the fall when a mission went badly. His team and country turned against him, his wife left him, and he ended up in a French prison. Wes is granted early release from prison when his ex-wife, Rachel, is killed in a terrorism event in Spain. His son is missing. But Wes didn't know he had a son, nor did he know why Rachel was in Spain. He sets off to find the people behind all these events before they find him. Along the way, he meets Mia, an autistic woman, who helps him along in his journey.

This was a thriller but made even better by these characters, especially Mia. Her honest way of looking at the world were so refreshing. I also loved how Mia communicated thoughts to Wes with Bible verses. The various places the pair traveled to were wonderfully written as well.