Last year, Brett Battles debuted as an author with his novel, The Cleaner. Jonathan Quinn is the protagonist. He won’t vacuum the leaves out of your pool, but he will make the dead body lying at the bottom of it disappear.
Brett has created a character whose profession is unique. He makes other people’s problems vanish. You have a dead body that needs to go away and never be seen again, hire Quinn. The Cleaner was a great read with enough high-speed action in the streets of Berlin and Saigon to leave you wanting more.
His second novel in the series is the Deceived. Quinn is hired to dispose of a body that’s in a shipping container at the port of Long Beach. When he discovers that it’s a former CIA agent, who was a good friend, he can’t just do the job and walk away. Brett takes you on a fast paced ride that goes from the streets of Washington to the exotic city of Singapore. The action is superb and makes you wonder if Brett had lived another life before he became an author. The twists and turns blindsided me and had me shaking my head, wondering how I missed the obvious that wasn’t so obvious. It’s hard for an author to crank it up a notch, but Brett has done just that. I expect to see Jonathan Quinn practicing his trade for a long time.
Brett, you kicked butt big time with the Deceived. I’m looking forward to next year when the third Jonathan Quinn novel comes out.
