people die
People Die
People Die
"People Die" was Kevin Wignall's first novel, published by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK in 2001. Simon & Schuster published in the USA the following year.
The book opens with JJ, a freelance killer for various western governments, killing an American businessman called Bostridge in a Moscow hotel room. Two years later, the organization JJ works for is in meltdown, people are being killed and his own life is in danger. As JJ evades the people who've been sent to kill him and tries to piece together the explanation for why he's become a target, everything points to the murder of Bostridge two years before. And to find answers, JJ will have to do the one thing he's always avoided, get to know the friends and family of one of his victims...
"No! No one gets left out, not Viner, not my girlfriend, not me! Berg wants me dead. Well I have news - I've killed four people today and I'm nowhere near finished. I'll kill you and your kids and the nanny and your neighbours if I feel like it, and I'll keep killing people till they get the message, that they picked on the wrong guy!"
"People Die" was critically well-received, both in the UK ("black and filmic" - The Times) and in the USA ("subversively appealing" - The New York Times Book Review). In the two decades since first publication it has also attracted interest from a number of people in Hollywood, from Academy Award Winning directors to leading producers and actors, and from other film companies around the world - however, the plot throws up certain problems for the film-maker, and no one has, to date, found a suitable solution to those problems. It was most recently in development with Trademark Films, but is currently available again.
Sales in the UK were modest and the book is no longer in print there. However, it's still available in the USA and as a Kindle e-book in the UK and all other markets.