The Names of the Dead

By: Kevin Wignall

Narrated by: Michael Braun

Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

They locked him up. Now he’s out--for revenge.

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.

©2020 by Kevin Wignall. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“...One of the spy genre’s most able modern proponents...” (Maxim Jakubowski, reviewer for Crimetime)

An excellent performance of an excellent book

This is the first book I've read by Kevin Wignall & Michael Braun. It will not be my last. This is a wonderful, well-written, and well-perform story. It is a very had book to put down. If you like a lot of action and an interesting cast of characters this is the book for you.

This guy can handle a spy story

I like the uniqueness of every book. The novel characters and the moral delimas faced by the protagonist are fresh, and the pace of the story are perfect. These books are often bargains with the optional Audible file.

I wish I could give it more stars!

Great story, a perfect performance. This was my first book by this author, but certainly won't be my last

Ending was lacking

I enjoyed listening to this. I felt bad for Wes as everything unfolded and we were made aware of everything that had been done to him.

I loved Mia.

But the ending was just... lacking. The ending, itself, was really bad, but aside from being bad, it didn't wrap anything up. It felt rushed. It left a lot to be desired.

When I was in grade school, I'd read a book about a kid who saw a king on the lookout for his bio son, who had been adopted at birth. The kid thought it was him, and he became more and more convinced the more he learned. Then when he was about to meet the king to find out, he realized he couldn't be his son because the king had an accent and he did not. This is exactly what the ending of The Names of the Dead reminded me of. I can't believe more people didn't comment on the disappointing ending.

A decent Audible ...

The plot is very good (3-4 stars); the writing is good (3 stars); and the narration is good (3 stars).

Great Read

Loved this book. The story was great. The narrator was an added plus for my enjoyment.

Entertaining.

Good story. Not the most amazing thing I have hear but it kept me entertained.

Names

This is my kind of book. I love the pace of the story. The narration was great.

Very good!

Enjoyed this book, it keeps a person's interest. The Narrator does a nice job of accents too. Enjoyed the descriptions of various European locations.

Baskerville Book Reviews

Everything about this story is predictable or familiar. I never knew how any specific scene was going to go down to the letter, but I had a pretty damn good idea. And I was almost always right.

The main character is one of those unstoppable force protagonists who will stop at nothing to get to his end goal. But he’s also merciful and doesn’t resort to violence if he doesn’t need to, which humanizes him to some degree.

I listened to this book two times in one weekend, trying to find anything to say about it. Yeah, it’s predictable as all hell, especially the ending. But for whatever reason, I still enjoyed it. It has some charm that kept it in the back of my mind. I’ve put off this review for a week and I still don’t know what to say about it.

If you’re a fan of mystery-thriller books, this has nothing new for you to discover. But the characters and story progression are interesting and believable. It’s more of the same with a new coat of paint. If you’re new to the genre, this is a great book to get you into the genre.

Much like my most recent review, Blue Madagascar; I think the modern tech mentions such as Gmail being namedropped will date the book. Imagine a book from 1930 talking about the local radio station and how that reference would be lost on every reader in the modern-day and you see the issue. My second issue with this book is the usage of the word “silencer” in reference to firearm suppressors. Suppressors don’t silence guns and the only way that misinformation is going to die is if people stop using the term and spreading it.

I don’t have much to say about the narration of the audiobook. The narration was well done, the narrator has a way of making everything feel tense when it needs to. Most of the character voices sound incredibly similar, but the dialogue makes it so this isn’t a problem.

This is definitely a book worth reading. Pick up a copy.