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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780385341578
ISBN number: 0385341571
Label: Delacorte Press
Manufacturer: Delacorte Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: June 24, 2008
Publishing house: Delacorte Press
Release Date: June 24, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 109276
Studio: Delacorte Press
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Product Description:
“Unputdownable.”* “Brilliant and heart-pounding.”** “A tightly written page-turner.”*** Brett Battles won rave reviews for his debut novel, The Cleaner, which introduced hero Jonathan Quinn. A freelance operative and professional “cleaner,” Quinn knows better than to get emotionally involved in any of his jobs. But in this superb powerhouse of suspense, Quinn’s latest job is different. A friend and old colleague has been murdered. A woman has gone missing. And for Jonathan Quinn, this time it’s personal.
Anonymity. Trust. Professionalism. In his world, Jonathan Quinn has a few rules. He’ll get rid of bodies that have to disappear; nothing ever gets traced back to him. But when Quinn is called to a busy Los Angeles port where a shipping container has just come in from the sea, it’s clear his rules have been violated. Inside the crate is a dead man—a man who once saved Quinn’s life. And while no one knows how CIA agent Steven Markoff died, Quinn has to do more than clean. He has to find Markoff’s girlfriend, Jenny. To tell her that Markoff is dead. To find out why—and why someone sent Markoff’s body to him.
Until a week ago, Jenny Fuentes was an assistant to an ambitious congressman. Now Jenny is missing, too, and a lot of man power is making sure she isn’t found. But Quinn has his own man power. He has tools that can pry into secrets held anywhere in the world. He has the skill to trade blows with killers and spies. And he has covert weapons: his eager and smart apprentice, Nate, and brilliant Orlando, his closest friend, who’s saved his life more than once.
Racing from the corridors of power in Washington to the bustling streets of Singapore, Quinn won’t stop until he uncovers the truth behind his friend’s violent death, the astounding reason Jenny has vanished—and what she knows about the most explosive deception of all.
*Tess Gerritsen
**Jeffery Deaver
***Booklist
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Rated by buyers 
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After reading Battles very first book in about 36 hours, I knew buying the second book was going to potentially throw my schedule into a tailspin. So I bought it and saved it for vacation week. It was a great read for sitting on the beach, on airplanes and before bedtime. It was equally hard to put down and I really had to ration it out so it would last me at least the very first week of my vacation.
As with his first, Battles' book was fast-moving, adventurous, technically-detailed and with just the right amount of heart and romance/passion. Battles characters continue to unfold and reveal themselves in new and interesting ways which make this reader look forward even more to their further adventures.
I'm waiting for book three...
KC
Rated by buyers -
I found this book to have a tight if slightly predictable plot. While no Elmore Leonard the dialogue was refreshingly concise and believable.
Rated by buyers -
I was very happy to see that Brett Battles has penned a second novel featuring his "cleaner," Jonathan Quinn. Quinn is hired to remove all traces of a crime or to make sure that there are no loose ends. If there is a murder, he makes sure that the body is not discovered and all traces of the deed are covered up. When he is done, nothing can be traced to either him or his client.
The Deceived opens with Quinn and his assistant being called to dispose of a body that was found in a transcontinental shipping container. While outwardly cool and professional, Quinn is shocked that the body is that of Steven Markoff, a man who once saved his life. After cleaning the scene and disposing of his friend's body, Quinn needs to find out who killed him. Adding to his stress, Markoff's girlfriend, Jenny, an assistant to a Congressman with presidential aspirations, has gone missing and Quinn believes that it is related to his dead friend. As he investigates these two events, he is pursued by some powerful people that want him dead before he discovers the truth.
Brett Battles has seem to have found his man in Jonathan Quinn. And Battles does an excellent job with the character, the supporting characters, and the plot. Quinn is supported by his assistant (Cleaner in training), Nate, and Orlando, a brilliant Cleaner in her own right. Both of those characters could stand on their own. The killers provide a good compliment to Quinn, as they are as focused and resourceful as he is. Unlike the very first book, The Cleaner, Battles benefits from tighter editing, which makes this novel a better, more enjoyable read. And what a read it is-fast paced, exciting, and with some wicked twists. Also, unlike his very first novel, Battles provides more background for Quinn, which allows the reader to better understand him.
If you are a fan of Lee Child, Stephen Hunter, or Barry Eisler, you will find a new author to add to your list - Brett Battles.
Rated by buyers -
Jonathan Quinn, the "cleaner" introduced in the book by that name released a year ago in hardcover but just recently in paperback, is back in a follow-up in this terrific new series. He is a freelancer whose job is to discreetly clean up crime scenes and the occasional body after the bloodshed. International in scope as was the very first book, it takes the reader from Los Angeles to Houston, Texas, to Washington, D.C., and finally to Singapore. This time, the job becomes personal when the body he is called in to dispose of is discovered to be that of Steven Markoff, an old friend and a man who had saved Quinn's life, who he hadn't spoken to in six months. The man had been CIA, but had recently taken early retirement. So why had he now become the target of an assassin? That becomes Quinn's obsession, believing in the rule that "the debt to someone who saved your life can never be repaid in full."
When Quinn decides that he must tell Markoff's girlfriend, Jenny, about Steven's death, he opens up a Pandora's box: Jenny, who had been working for the Majority Whip in the House of Representatives, has disappeared, and Quinn feels duty-bound to find her, an extension of his debt to Markoff. He is again assisted by his apprentice, Nate, and Orlando, a woman who has become his closest and most trusted friend. The plot becomes complex as Quinn explores secrets within secrets to a pulse-pounding conclusion.
This second book in the series goes into somewhat more detail on Quinn's training years during his apprenticeship, all of them engaging. There are twists and turns and James Bond-like action. Mr. Battles is a masterful storyteller, and the reader is kept on the edge of his [or her] seat throughout. "The Deceived," as its predecessor novel, is highly recommended.
Rated by buyers 
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Brett Battles's debut novel, 2007's THE CLEAN numER, introduced a unique character in Jonathan Quinn. Quinn is a "cleaner," who comes in to quickly, quietly and efficiently clean up a mess --- more often than not, one involving a body --- that someone else has made before it's discovered. Battles probably could have turned a number of interesting, even intriguing, scenarios along just these lines into several novels before appreciably varying his theme. That he has chosen to throw an early change-up into THE DECEIVED, his sophomore work, is but one reason that it's such a joy to read.
THE DECEIVED begins with Quinn on the scene of a rather grisly job. The setting is a busy Los Angeles shipping port, and the task is disposing of a body that has been in a shipping container for far too long. Accompanied by Nate, his apprentice, he takes the job in stride, at least until he discovers that the body he has been hired to get rid of is that of Steven Markoff, a man to whom he owes his life. Quinn is well aware that he cannot get emotionally involved in what he's doing, yet he feels a debt of honor to Markoff that he can never fully repay.
Compelled to balance the scales for his murdered friend, Quinn tries to contact Jenny Fuentes, a woman with whom Markoff had a relationship. Fuentes, who works for James Guerrero, a maverick U.S. Congressman, has mysteriously taken a leave of absence, and everyone seems markedly secretive about her whereabouts. When Quinn visits her home in Houston, he finds that she is gone and narrowly escapes losing his own life in the process. He also meets Tasha, who identifies herself as a friend of Jenny's and who believes that Jenny is in mortal danger as well.
Quinn's quest for closure on Markoff's behalf takes him to Washington, D.C. and then to Singapore, guided only by a series of numbers and letters that Markoff scrawled --- in his own blood --- on the inside of the shipping crate where he met his slow and painful end. Quinn and Nate are shadowed by a mysterious and deadly team who seems to have the ability to locate them at will, while they --- with assistance from Orlando, an enigmatic beauty from Quinn's past --- doggedly retrace Markoff's final days. What they discover, however, reaches far beyond Markoff's murder into a plot whose goal is so far-reaching that it has the potential to change the course of current events.
THE DECEIVED is full of plot twists and surprises --- many more than its predecessor --- with the result being that the promise that Battles exhibited in THE CLEAN numER is met and far surpassed. His plotting is complex yet extremely sure-footed, so that the action never gets bogged down by the details (or vice versa). Most of what you think you know about the book by the time you are halfway through it is wrong, but Battles plays fairly throughout, avoiding the type of "Scooby-Doo" ending that occasionally plagues the denouement of novels in which the identity of the prime mover is cloaked in mystery. He also neatly sets up a potential conflict for Quinn that can sustain the series for several books to come.
All of these elements --- and more --- combine to make THE DECEIVED a certain contender for 2008's Top Ten lists.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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