The Deceived by Brett Battles

The Deceived, by Brett Battles is the story of Jonathan Quinn, a professional "cleaner", who is called to a job one day to find the body of his friend, Steven Markoff is the problem that needs "cleaning". Markoff saved Quinn's life once and Quinn now takes it upon himself to find out both how Markoff was killed and why someone sent the body to Quinn. What follows is a great spy novel, filled with exotic locations, cool gadgets, clever plot twists and brave heroics, reminiscent of Robert Ludlum's best.

I was interested to read this book since I'm the type of person who loves series, and yet never reads them out of order. I hadn't read this first book in the series and I was wondering how the author would bring me up to speed. Battles does a superb job. He introduces a new reader to the characters with a deft and subtle hand, giving us enough background on each character with just a few well placed sentences. It is a fine line the author of a series must tread, allowing new readers to get to know the characters, without making loyal readers feel like they're re-reading the previous book, and this author does this very well.

The Deceived is a well done, engaging spy novel. I'll be going back and reading the first book in this series, The Cleaner. Brett Battles and his character Jonathan Quinn have just joined my "must read series" list.

(Posted on LibraryThing June10, 2008)