Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Spy thrillers aren’t usually my preferred reading but I read the description for “A Death in Sweden” a month ago and loved it. After reading samples of the authors other books, I knew that this would be my pick if it was a Kindle First choice. So, yea! Amazon-good choice. The plot description given is a little over simplified- it is clear early on that Dan Hendricks, a sometime hired gun for the CIA- has become a target himself. The interest in the identity of “Jacques Fillon” is actually a result of that. This plot gets the pace going early on and I have to say that for the first half of the book I thought that this was one of the best Kindle First books that I had read. It was very engrossing and easy reading. My enthusiasm waned a little after that. Partly because the relationship between Dan and the female character as well as some of the speeches, reminded me a lot of John P. Marquand’s dated spy thriller “Stopover Tokyo” which I didn’t like at all. But, fortunately, although there were some stretches, this doesn’t have the massive logic failure of Marquand’s book. In addition, making a hero out of an assassin requires delicate handling and is usually better when the author doesn’t even try, like “The Butcher’s Boy”. In this case it seemed the author was trying too hard to convince us that Dan was a good guy. But all in all, this was a quick fun read. There is a LOT of violence but not graphic. Mild sex scenes and little, if any, foul language. There were a surprising number of proofreading errors that were a little distracting but not large enough to completely derail the story. I’m hardly a judge of spy thrillers but I think most mystery/thriller fans will enjoy this. I know that I am going to pick up some of Wignall’s earlier works.