How have I never heard of this author before now? Thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be going back to read books 1-3 in the series. Would recommend it to those who love a fast paced thriller. The characters were sympathetic and the story was excellent. ( )

loved it ( )

If you haven't read the Jonathan Quinn novels you've done yourself a disservice. Battles has created an interesting protagonist with some fun supporting characters. The plot of The Silenced was more straightforward and avoided some of the problems with Battles' last Jonathan Quinn novel. And, as the story progressed, Battles gave the reader some deeper insights into Quinn's character and his background. ( )

The Silenced by Brett Battles is the fourth book in the Jonathan Quinn series following The Cleaner, The Deceived, and Shadow of Betrayal, and one that may shock readers who have come this far in the series. This book gives us a more in depth look at Quinn’s real life before he became a professional cleaner, which has really never been revealed before.

We get a look at the turmoil that was Quinn’s youth and his step-fathers relationship, as well as the disastrous accident that took his younger brother Davey’s life over a silly comic book. We meet his younger sister Liz, who worshipped the ground he walked on until he walked out the door when he was 17 years of age, and she was 9.

Liz has never forgiven him for that. She also has no clue how much pure angst Quinn was under after losing Davey and then nearly killing Liz in a fishing boat accident. Liz believed that her older brother Jake was an international banker and doesn’t find out the truth until someone digs deep into Quinn’s past and puts his entire family in jeopardy. For some reason, Quinn finds it awfully hard to get away from his past and forgive himself for what happened to Davy and Liz. It’s too bad actually, since Liz obviously loved him very much.

As a background on Quinn, he is a professional cleaner with a stellar reputation for getting the job done. Quinn and partner Nate, make it so that nobody knows what happens after a mission. He is responsible for cleaning up the scene (removing the body) so that local authorities have no clue what happened if they come looking. Quinn more often than not, finds himself deep in kimchee and fighting for his survival along with Nate and Orlando who have become an unbreakable team.

Nate has been his apprentice for several years now, and has lost a part of his leg in the process. Thankfully for Nate, Quinn has allowed him to continue to be his apprentice, when others would have told him to quit. Nate’s life is once again put in danger when he finds that he is attracted to Liz while protecting her from people who have learned about Quinn’s real name and his past. Liz is the same age as Nate, but he feels an obligation to ensure that she doesn’t fall into the enemies hands who mean her harm. Naturally, a romance blooms between the two, and it will be interesting to see if it continues.

Orlando was once entangled with Quinn’s mentor, but later in the series we find Quinn and Orlando have become closer. Orlando is the security and computer expert on the team and has numerous contacts throughout the world that helps her and Quinn when they get into dangerous situations. Orlando even goes to Quinn’s father’s funeral with him, and meets his mother. Orlando has one son, Garrett, who Quinn loves like he is his own.

This story has several twists and turns along the way. Quinn takes a series of jobs from David Wills. It is Quinn and Nate’s responsibility to clean up the scene and remove any bodies after each hit. Quinn, however, realizes something is wrong when he learns that two Russians have been following him from Los Angeles to Maine, and later they end up in London and start asking questions about him trying to get his help locating the Ghost.

Quinn finds out that he has been put in the middle of a cold war era clean up, and that he has been the one removing the bodies of those executed by a man the Russians call the Ghost. He also realizes that this job was intended to be his last, and that he needs the Russians, as well as Mi6’s help to survive the ordeal.

I’ve been an avid reader of this series from the start and love to watch Quinn wiggle his way out of dangerous situations. This book doesn’t waiver from the previous books. I would, however, love to see a reconciliation between Quinn and Liz soon. I think he deserves some peace for once. ( )

Jonathan Quinn is a professional “cleaner,” which means it’s his job to makes things, usually bodies, disappear. It’s a crucial function, but one that usually allows Quinn and his crew to stay out of the direct line of fire since their job doesn’t begin until the operation they’ve been hired to clean up after has ended.

The Silenced, the fourth entry in the Quinn series (following The Cleaner, The Deceived, and Shadow of Betrayal), finds Quinn and his crew hired to handle a multi-operation job. First, there’s the matter of a long dead body in London a client wants removed from its resting place before the building serving as its tomb is demolished. Sounds simple enough.

And then there’s the matter of cleaning up after a few interconnected operations in several different locations in the U.S. A bit more involved, but still relatively straightforward. That is until while cleaning up after the first U.S. job someone else shows up at the job site, a remote location they shouldn’t have any idea even exits. Quinn follows the uninvited guest, a mysterious woman, back to her car and overhears her speaking Russian to a companion before they drive away.

When the same woman shows up again at a job clear across the country, and before the hit is even carried out this time, it becomes apparent there is another team working from the same list as Quinn and his client. Stranger still, the Russian woman and her team also appear to be interested in that dead body in London. Whose toes are Quinn inadvertently stepping on, and how far will they go to get Quinn out of their way?

Those are questions that Quinn desperately needs the answers to if he’s to live up to his professional obligations without compromising himself or his client. The professional, however, suddenly gets very personal when Quinn realizes someone has been poking around in a past he thought he’d taken extraordinary measures to bury. And though Quinn’s past has been hinted at in previous books, in The Silenced past collides head-on with present when Quinn’s mother and sister are targeted as a means to try to manipulate and control him.

Author Brett Battles has really created something special in Jonathan Quinn. Electrifying and intriguing from the very first moment he appeared on the page in The Cleaner, Quinn has only continued to evolve, revealing ever more complex facets to his personality with each outing. By placing Quinn’s family in jeopardy, Battles allows the reader to get a look into the past that helped shape Quinn into the man as we know him. It also puts the normally calm, cool, and in control Quinn off-stride and in the position of relying even more than usual on his teammates Orlando (also Quinn’s girlfriend) and Nate. Nate in particular really gets a chance to shine this time out when he’s thrust into the role of serving as protector for Quinn’s estranged sister.

As with previous entries in the series Battles continues to show a masterful understanding of pacing, carefully working both flashbacks to Quinn’s past and crucial information about the team’s current challenges into the plot while always moving the story forward, all with enough gun fights, car chases, twists, and double-crosses to keep the reader on the edge of their seat. Longtime readers will enjoy yet another tightly crafted story, but they will relish the revealing look into Quinn’s past. And you don’t have to have read the prior entries in the series to enjoy The Silenced (though they’re excellent and you really should), so if this is the first you’ve heard of Jonathan Quinn please feel free to use The Silenced as your gateway into this wonderful series. ( )