The Silenced by Brett Battles

By Mark Terry

Brett Battles made a splash with his first novel to feature “cleaner” Jonathan Quinn in THE CLEANER in 2007. He followed up with two more to feature the professional spy whose particular expertise was cleaning up the messes left by assassinations and operations gone bad: THE DECEIVED and SHADOW OF BETRAYAL. And Quinn is back in THE SILENCED.

In THE SILENCED, Quinn is hired to find and remove the remains of a body that had been hidden in a London building twenty-five years earlier. The building is now scheduled for demolition. Quinn is still working with his apprentice, Nate, and his girlfriend, Orlando. Battles says, “In THE SILENCED he ends up on a job where it turns out that he is one of the targets. To achieve this, his personal life, his past, gets pulled into his current life in a way he never expected it would. We find out a ton more about Quinn’s past.”

This was partly in response to his publisher constantly asking Battles when he was going to let the readers know more about the mysterious Quinn. In the previous books there were always hints, but for the most part he was a mysterious character. Battles says, “I think it was time to learn more about Quinn. I’m always fascinated—I don’t want my characters to stagnate. The most important part of the book isn’t the plot, but the character’s stories.”

Battles notes that the last year had been an interesting one with the publishing industry trying to figure out what to do with e-books and consolidation efforts and activities by his own publisher. His editor left for a different publisher, then his publisher left, then the publishing houses themselves moved around and merged. He’s managed to stay afloat during all this turmoil, and notes that originally this year’s book was supposed to be a standalone, but the new management decided to flip the publication schedule, so THE SILENCED comes out in 2011 and the already written standalone will come out sometime in 2012.

In addition, Battles is entering the e-publishing market with an e-book titled LITTLE GIRL GONE in April, followed by another standalone thriller for e-platforms this summer. Battles is quick to point out that LITTLE GIRL GONE is not a Quinn novel.

Meanwhile, promotion for THE SILENCED will rev up in late March and go full-bore in April with signings in California and Arizona, as well as a variety of online and radio outlets. Battles travels extensively while researching his books, but otherwise lives in L.A. in what Raymond Chandler dubbed the Miracle Mile. He claims to almost be able to see the LaBrea Tar Pits from his window.

*****

“THE SILENCED, a complex, action-packed international cat and mouse game, will be catnip for thriller readers.”
—John Lescroart, New York Times best selling author of DAMAGE

“It’s Battles’ best book yet.”
—Timothy Hallinan, Edgar Nominated author of The Queen of Patpong

“Quinn is as cool as ever.”
—Meg Gardiner, author of THE LIAR’S LULLABY

“Battles is only getting better, and THE SILENCED is the best Quinn yet.”
—Jason Pinter, bestselling author of THE MARK and THE FURY

*****

Brett Battles lives in Los Angeles and is the author of acclaimed Jonathan Quinn series: THE CLEANER, nominated for a Barry Award for Best Thriller and a Shamus Award for Best First Novel, THE DECEIVED, winner of the 2009 Barry Award for Best Thriller, SHADOW OF BETRAYAL, and his new Quinn Thriller, THE SILENCED. He is one of the founding members of Killer Year, and a member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime. Move info available at his website.