The Destroyed by Brett Battles

Why couldn't Mila Voss just stay dead?

Quinn ID'd the corpse and disposed of her remains in the Nevada desert 6 years ago. But when a CIA operative makes an unscheduled trip only to fall/jump from a hotel in Dar es Salaam and the hotel security camera footage shows Voss checking out the jumper, the people who hired Quinn to do his usually first rate job as a cleaner want to ask Quinn some pretty hard questions.

But Quinn is on sort of a self-imposed sabbatical helping repair a temple in remote jungles of Thailand. So Quinn's employers call on Quinn's protege, Nate, to find him and bring him in for questioning. 

Quinn and Nate take off for Paris, London, Rome, DC, Las Vegas (obviously on a no-limit credit card) to not only find Mila, but also what they will do if/when they find her and how to deal with the people who hired Quinn and also wanted Mila erased. 

To say more would spoil a thrilling, fast paced thriller about a very interesting character in a complex convoluted plot. Rather than detail what happened 6 years ago and what is happening now, I'll just say that Quinn the Cleaner is a very interesting character and Battles presents (so far) terrific plots presented in a spartan and uncomplicated manner. I would suspect if one of my favored authors falters and gets dropped from my much-desired 'power rotation' status, Battles will be on the short list for consideration.

East Coast Don

Becoming Quinn by Brett Battles

I was reading a review of one of the Dave Buschi books recently posted here. One person said something like, "If you like Vince Flynn, Brad Thor . . . (add your favorite thriller author here) . . . and Brett Battles . . ." Brett Battles? Never heard of him.

So, I went to his website and learned he has a dozen of so novels published in 3 separate series. The one that caught my eye was The Quinn Series, which follows Jonathon Quinn, a professional 'cleaner' - the guy who goes in after the fact to clean up the mess so that no one knows what happened, or even if anything happened. This most recent title (a novella) is the backstory on how Quinn became Quinn.

Jake Oliver is a rookie cop in Phoenix. He and his senior are on patrol when the call goes out about a barn fire outside of town. When they get there, the barn is a total loss. While the fire department is cleaning up, Oliver wanders around and notices what appears to be kicked up dirt and a crease in the dirt that might have been made by a cable or something. The fire department finds a body in the barn with a bullet hole in his head.

Jake goes back the next day and wanders around a little more. Away from the crime scene, he notices a hotel matchbook, pockets it (a definite no-no), wonders about it and heads off for the hotel where he bluffs the hotel security into showing him the video footage from the previous day. Something about 2 guys gnaws at his gut, and a slight nod of recognition towards a third raises his eyebrows.

Some dogged detective work traces the 2 guys through the day of the fire/murder and when he thinks he has enough, he takes it to the detectives in charge only to end up getting suspended for a month, then summarily fired.

His ingenious detective work may have been lost on his superiors in the police, but not by the cleaner connected with this killing. The actual hitter had gone off plan and now they have to watch Jake to see how he puts the clues together. Jake is so good, that Durrie (the cleaner) thinks that Jake may have the right instincts for their group. So he kidnaps Jake to Colorado to see just how this rook kid beat a group of seasoned pros.

The hitter, Larsen, has pretty much had enough of this kid and decides to sanction him on his own and heads for Colorado where now we have to see just how good Jake is and whether he might really be a candidate for recruitment.

Given that there are 4 Quinn books (Jake had to change his name), it's obvious that Jake/Quinn joins up, thus the beginning of a new series. It didn't take many clicks of the Kindle to see why that reviewer I mentioned lumped Battles with other notable current crime writers. No matter what stage Jake was in, as rookie cop, rogue investigator, reluctant recruit, or deadly when necessary, I couldn't take his eyes off the screen. A short novella that can easily be read in a day or two.

Bottom line? The Quinn series is now in my crosshairs.

East Coast Don