Customer Reviews

Shadow of Betrayal

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In his three Jonathan Quinn novels, Brett Battles definitely has demonstrated that he belongs on center stage with the great suspense/thriller writers of today. Each of the three, "The Cleaner", "The Deceived", and now, "Shadow Of Betrayal" demonstrate Battles' ability to write highly literate, tightly plotted novels that grab the reader from the first chapter and leave him/her exhausted from the frenetic fast-paced action. The reader gets caught up in the action and prose to such an extent that time passes relentlessly yet almost unknowingly.

In "Shadow Of Betrayal", Quinn is still working off his debt to Peter and "The Office" when things spin out of control. A "cleaner" usually watches and observes unless called upon to clean up a mess that unexpectedly occurs--a clean up that might include removing evidence and clues or might include taking physical action. After a failed assignment in Ireland, Quinn is ordered to find Marion Dupuis, a UN aide, who is on the run from kidnappers with a five-year-old African child with Down syndrome.

Quinn and his small but deadly crew of Nate, his protege, and Orlando, his lover as well as an assassin, follow Marion's trail from Montreal, to Washington, D.C., to New York and ultimately to the desert and coast of California. Along the way, old nemeses reappear and, as usual, politics in Washington get in the way. Who is stealing developmentally disabled children and why? What is that shadowy organization, LP, doing in the center of things? Who is playing and manipulating whom in this thriller that contains mysteries within mysteries? It all leads to a diabolically evil plot that many readers may find disturbing in its callousness.

Battles' books can stand strongly on their plotting, pacing, and action. yet I find his style progressing with each effort particularly with the increased attention to characterization. Quinn, Nate, and Orlando have each evolved over the course of the three novels and their characters have become fully fleshed and are characters the reader really cares about. Suffice it to say that Quinn and Orlando are not people you want chasing you or seeking vengeance against you...yet they have become people this reader cares for. I strongly recommend this novel as well as the entire series.

Okay, that's not a terribly original observation since others here have also compared Jonathan Quinn with the other two espionage heros. Be that as it may, this was a one sitting book for me. The plot by the terrorists is as disgusting and stomach turning as I've come across in this genre. It's well handled though and the suspense towards the end is excruciating. This is the first Battles book I've read and I'll be reading the preceding two within a couple of months. Highly recommended without reservation.

Excellent plot, easy to follow. Waiting for the next Battles's adventure. Love the characters. I really enjoyed reading this one.

This is the second book I've read in this series and I'm hooked. One part Jack Bauer, one part Jason Bourne, and one part James Bond, this book is a page-burner! I love the characters, the action, the locations, and the great twists and turns in the plot. Brett Battle's books are the great escape I had been looking for!

Brett Battles is my new favorite author of thriller novels. I pre-ordered this book so it appeared on my Kindle the day it was released and I was not disappointed. I really enjoy the premise of these books and the characters. Well done.

Jonathan Quinn is a character who does not fit neatly into a particular classification. Ostensibly introduced as a "cleaner" in Brett Battles's brilliant debut novel, THE CLEANER, Quinn's job was to quietly erase on-site traces of missions that had either gone well or awry. Battles has widened the edges of Quinn's mission considerably since then; having demonstrated talents, aptitudes and abilities beyond his chosen profession, Quinn increasingly has been called upon for proactive and interceding roles in addition to cleaning up, if you will, after himself and others. Quinn also has acquired a love interest --- an exotic and dangerous woman named Orlando --- and an apprentice, Nate.

The conclusion of THE DECEIVED, Battles's second work, left Nate badly and permanently damaged, but not out by any means. SHADOW OF BETRAYAL, his latest novel, resolves the issue of Nate's continuing employment, which serves as a secondary plot supporting, but not supplanting, the primary storyline.

The heart of SHADOW OF BETRAYAL is a complex plot based upon a double-cross that is actually a manipulation. It is propelled by the fulfillment by Quinn of an agreement with the enigmatic Peter, arguably Quinn's primary client. The agreement, at least on paper, is relatively simple: Quinn is to perform three jobs for Peter, no questions asked; following completion of the third job, the two of them are quits.

The first takes place in Ireland, where Quinn and Nate are to witness a handoff of information that winds up going badly awry. The second happens in an abandoned New York apartment building where a promise has turned into an apparent ambush, with a shocking revelation waiting at its conclusion, which sends Quinn on the run from law enforcement in a case of mistaken identity. The third and final job actually has two parts that become three --- Peter most assuredly went to law school --- and at first involves a trip to Montreal to find a young woman named Marion Dupuis, a member of a UN observer force in Africa who has fled that continent with a young girl named Iris. In turn, Iris is being hunted by a mysterious group of men who are abducting children who, like Iris, have Down's syndrome, for unknown reasons. Quinn and Nate, with Orlando, just miss retrieving Dupuis; her other set of pursuers are more fortunate, taking Dupuis and her charge to a remote, well-hidden complex in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Quinn and Nate remain two steps behind until luck and a bit of enhanced persuasion provide them with the information they need to uncover a brilliant but twisted plot to disrupt the world's most powerful nations in one stroke. Racing against time, Quinn leads his team against a cold genius with an apparently foolproof plan, while history hangs in a precarious balance.

Battles is magnificent --- one of the best, even at this relatively early point in his career --- at taking what in lesser hands would be a jumble of a plot and leading the reader incrementally through it. SHADOW OF BETRAYAL starts well and ends magnificently, building slowly but methodically. Battles baits the hook early on with a chase through an African city that ends badly, but somehow plausibly, in Toronto, leaving the "why" dangling until near the end of the book. You know the bad guys are fiends fairly early on; they are collecting special-needs children for some nefarious purpose. When you find out what they want them for, however, you get a clue as to why they are the scum of the earth. Quinn's reaction at one point is understandable, even justifiable, as is Orlando's at another. Rather than presenting their actions as simple gratuitous violence, however (which in this genre absolutely has its place), there is justifiable purpose to them; a reasonable person would do no less.

Additionally, the residuals of Nate's prior injury, which resulted in one of his legs being amputated, is an unknown factor that hovers around and through the book. Quinn, feeling somewhat responsible for the situation, is unsure of Nate's abilities and deficiencies; Nate, for his part, chafes at Quinn's sheltering. The issue is resolved by book's end, with what would be a limitation becoming an asset at one point. Add a plot twist that will provide fodder for future Quinn novels for as long as Battles wants to write them, throwing in a subtle in-joke or two for aficionados of thriller literature, and you have a work that not only provides incentive to read the next Quinn novel but also sets a challenging standard for it.

Warning: If you pack a lunch for a grade school student, you will never do so again without thinking about SHADOW OF BETRAYAL. You might give one object in particular a look or two just before you put it in the bag. Don't say you weren't warned.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Jonathan Quinn is a professional, contract "cleaner" making bodies disappear and covering tracks. When a simple job gets out of hand, Quinn and his apprentice Nate begin to uncover a vast conspiracy. But when Quinn is targeted for a crime he didn't commit, things get personal.

Following events in the previous books The Cleaner and The Deceived, Quinn must deal with the consequences of making a decision that cost his apprentice his leg. And with Orlando back in his life, Quinn's character is growing and changing from who he was in the earlier installments. With loose ends being tied up from previous books, it is helpful to read them in sequential order. In fact, I wish I had read them closer together, as I had forgotten a lot over the past year because of the number of book that I read. But the main characters are hard to forget.

This latest novel also revolves around Marion, a UN worker who mysteriously flees Africa with a young child. We are kept in the dark until the very end, why this ominous group is after Marion and the girl she is trying to protect. With just as much suspense and intensity as Battles' previous novels, Shadow of Betrayal is another exciting and fun thriller. Don't miss this series.

This series just gets stronger and stronger with each installment. Quinn is one of my favorite characters and he doesn't disappoint in this book. The suspense is relentless, the action is believable, and I, for one, can't wait for the next book!

And I love, love, love Orlando!

This third installment in the Cleaner series is the best so far. Battles' knack for detailed and accurate description make the readers feel as if they inhabit the characters, whether it's Quinn, the smooth Bond-like protagonist, or a new addition, Marion, a U.N. worker who finds she must rescue an African child from certain death. Why the terrorists are after the child is a question raised early in the story and keeps the reader turning pages.

Quinn's protégé Nate is back, bearing the wounds of the last job, and so is Orlando, Quinn's provocative girlfriend. For any reader who has read the previous books in the series ("The Cleaner" and "The Deceived)," the reward is detecting the nuances in their interaction, as if watching a reunion of old friends. But ultimately, the thrill is in the ride that veers so dangerously close to the edge and then pulls back out to safety just at the right moment. Battles' skillfulness at character combined with his sharp sense of pacing add up to a terrifically smart thriller.

Brett Battles is the next big thing. I've been with him from the beginning. His Jonathan Quinn novels just keep getting better and better. With each new installment we learn more about Quinn's posse--his lover, Orlando and his cleaner-in-training, Nate, and with each novel we see the larger architectonics of Battles' overarching saga as we return to old villains, old organizations and old debts that need to be repaid.

In Shadow of Betrayal Quinn is attempting to break up what appears to be a terrorist plot, a particularly nasty one, involving the use of children and explosives. Set in Ireland, Montreal, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, China Lake, Africa and Morro Bay, the plot is both complex in its structure and simple in its conception. Orlando's nemesis, Tucker, is back, though I can't promise that he'll make it through the last reel.

The key to a Battles novel is the integration of a series of scenes, each of which involves suspense. Sometimes the suspense involves action, sometimes claustrophobia, sometimes ticking time bombs. The result is a breakneck pace that is only exceeded by Lee Child.

All three of Battles' novels are excellent; Shadow of Betrayal may well be the best, with special points for an ending which ties up the loose ends, satisfies, but still looks ahead to new elements in a continuing story. If you're ready for a sleepless night I can't think of a better way of spending it. Highly recommended.