Friday, June 20, 2008

Thank you LIBRARY JOURNAL

STARRED REVIEW for THE DECEIVED!

Battles, Brett. The Deceived. Delacorte. Jul. 2008. c.368p. ISBN 978-0-385-34157-8. $24. F

Freelance "cleaner" Jonathan Quinn is hired to make a body disappear. When he discovers that the victim is a friend, Quinn violates the first rule of his profession and becomes personally involved. Quinn, female ally Orlando, and apprentice Nate travel to Singapore to prevent an assassination and rescue an innocent woman. Lots of tradecraft and a growing relationship between Quinn and Orlando make this a successful sequel to The Cleaner. Highly recommended.

3 comments:

Wayne C. Rogers said...

Brett,

If The Deceived is as good as The Cleaner, then it certainly deserves a Starred Review; but, I hate to say this, the review was so short that I have to wonder if the person actually read the novel. It seems like too many reviewers today are simply reading the inside of the dust jacket and copying what's there and then calling it a book review. I think your novels deserve more than that. I intend of doing a review of The Cleaner on the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper's website, The Book Nook next Sunday. A review of The Deceived will probably follow in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I've tried writing to your e-mail address concerning the contest for a free autographed copy of The Deceived (did I just lose any chance I had with my comment about the Starred Review?)and my e-mails keep getting bounced back to me as an error in the address. So, I'll try this route and see what happens.

First, the best novel I've read in the last three months, besides The Cleaner, is The 47th Samurai by Stephen Hunter. It continues the "Bob Lee Swagger" series that the movie, Shooter with Mark Walberg, was adapted from. This novel has Swagger going to Japan to get retribution against the death of a friend and his family and retrieving a priceless katana that his father had brought back from World War II. He has to go up against a killer and master swordsman, putting his honor and life on the line. This novel gives the reader a nice look at Japan and the art of Japanese swordsmanship, which I enjoy reading about. It reminded me a little bit of The Challenge with Scott Glenn and Toshiro Mifune.

Many thanks for recommending Robert Gregory Browne. I intend of getting his novel, Kiss Her Goodbye, this coming payday, along with The Deceived and the new "Elvis Cole" novel by Robert Crais.

Anyway, that's it for the moment.

All the best,

Wayne C. Rogers
2465 Paradise Village Way
Las Vegas, NV 89120
lvbookman@aol.com

Tasha Alexander said...

This makes me so very, very happy!!!! The book rocks, as you well know---glad to see you getting such well-deserved praise!

Hope the party was fantastic last night!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Brett!