The Deceived (Hardcover)

by Brett Battles (Author)
Key Phrases: hawker center, Quayside Villas, Maxwell Food Centre, Jennifer Fuentes (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In Battles's strong sequel to The Cleaner—which introduced Jonathan Quinn, an ex-CIA agent who cleans up crime scenes for a shadowy U.S. government intelligence agency—Quinn determines to find the murderer of his CIA friend Steven Markoff. Quinn and his team must also locate Steven's missing girlfriend, Jenny Fuentes, to notify her of Steven's death. The search for Jenny hopscotches from Los Angeles to Houston to the Washington, D.C., offices of Jenny's boss, an ambitious politician. Along the way, Quinn and his compatriots contend with villains who appear to be linked to an international conspiracy. The chase ends in Singapore, where Quinn enlists a former underworld contact to help identify the plot's nefarious mastermind. Breakneck pacing, colorful locales and dizzying plot twists make the Quinn series a welcome addition to the political thriller genre. (July)
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From Booklist
Jonathan Quinn is a “cleaner;” he tidies up after lethal events so that the locals don’t suspect that anything unusual has happened. When this one begins, Quinn discovers that he’s disposing of the remains of a friend, CIA agent Steven Markoff. Very much a loner, Quinn feels honor bound to break the news to Markoff’s lover, Jenny Fuentes. Markoff, we learn, once saved Quinn’s life. But Jenny is on the run, and Quinn dashes from L.A. to Houston, then Washington, and ultimately Singapore in his efforts to find her and keep her alive. Battles keeps to the formula that made his first Quinn novel, The Cleaner (2007), a success: plenty of globetrotting, nonstop action, plot twists, tight writing, whiz-bang high-tech devices, tradecraft, and a surfeit of dangerous women. As in The Cleaner, the evildoers whom Quinn must neutralize are a bit James Bondish, but derring-do will always find an audience. --Thomas Gaughan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; 1 edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385341571
• ISBN-13: 978-0385341578
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #330,796 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sequel to The Cleaner, July 1, 2008

By	ellen "ellen in atlanta" (Atlanta, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Brett Battles created an excellent, unique story featuring Jonathan Quinn. He is a freelance professional 'Cleaner' - someone who comes in and cleans up messes for folks - making bodies disappear - cleaning up scenes that if the authorities were involved, they would cordon off and search for clues to 'whodunit'.
Quinn is called to clean a job and finds the person he needs to have disappear is one of his friends in the business that saved his life. He feels an obligation to this person to find out why this happened.
So starts a fast paced sequel to The Cleaner. Many of the same characters as The Cleaner, Nate, the apprentice in training with Quinn, Orlando, the beautiful Oriental lady whom Quinn is attracted to - and a slew of agents in the shadowy world of cleaning up someone elses 'messes'.
This story takes the characters all over the globe, and Quinn does a lot of digging and heart searching to find out who killed his friend.
It may have been about 30 pages too long, but it is still an excellent sequel to The Cleaner.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thrill ride of a book, July 29, 2008

By	W. Dobson - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Brett Battles THE DECIEVER is a great book, fast paced, exciting and full of wonderful details about how spies do their business. It's got all the hallmarks of a great thriller including exotic locales, neat gadgets, believable violence, people who aren't whom they appear to be and, oh yes, a little bit of sex just to keep us interested.

The plot, well, the plot, as is often the case in books like this, doesn't really matter. For the first three hundred or so of its three hundred fifty-eight pages no one, including the characters, have any idea what's happening and neither will you...fortunately it doesn't matter in the least, just go along for the roller coaster ride but watch out for that last dip - it's a lulu! We first met Jonathan Quinn in THE CLEANER and I for one am thrilled to renew his acquaintance. In THE DECIEVER one of Quinn's few real friends is killed and Quinn sets off in search of his missing girlfriend. Along the way Quinn and his team, Orlando, an electronics expert who is a match for Quinn in every way, and his apprentice Nate chase after the girlfriend with stops in Houston, Washington D. C., San Francisco and Singapore. I won't give you the details but there's some great chase scenes, a few gunfights, some second story work and lot's of interesting details of spy craft that will keep your eyes glued to this book well after your bedtime.

Brett Battles has a bright future as a thriller writer assuming he doesn't lose his center. I sincerely hope to see many more books featuring Jonathan Quinn but the ending of THE DECEIVER leaves an opening to take this series in a very different direction moving into the realm of Robert Ludlum rather then continue charting his own very different direction. This, in my opinion, would be a mistake. The Quinn books do indeed exist in a byzantine world of spies, assassins and conspiracies but they're more about the process and tradecraft then they are about the details of the plotters and their plots. Quinn reminds me of Richard Stark's Parker, a cool professional who overcomes every obstacle regardless of the odds not because he's a superhuman but because he simply knows how (and shares the fascinating details with us, the readers).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Thriller; Difficult to put down, July 21, 2008

By	Longstreet - See all my reviews

Superb writing. Brett Battles write similarly to many of my favorite authors: Martin Cruz Smith, James Lee Burke, Jonathan Kellerman, and Barry Eisler. I look forward to whatever he's writing next!