The Silenced: A Novel

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.

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.