THE SILENCED

When ‘cleaner’ Jonathan Quinn is hired to remove a body walled up in a London office block twenty years earlier the job seems a little ‘left field’ even for the shadow world he inhabits. The things go from merely strange; to downright dangerous.

The body is just a single counter in a deadly game that has its origins in the Cold War. Now one of the players has decided to clear the board; putting Quinn and his estranged family in the firing line.

The Silenced is the sort of thriller the term ‘page turner’ was coined to describe. From London to LA; the wilds of Maine to the streets of Paris Brett Battles keeps things moving at a breakneck pace.

It is a tall order to wring a decent plot out of the fast fading legacy of the Cold War and yet the author has managed to do so. The resulting mix of false identities, ‘sleeper’ agents and double dealing intelligence agencies is just the right side of outlandish to be believable.

As ever Battles gives his readers more than just slam bang action, although there is no shortage of that. This time round he fleshes out Quinn’s back-story and adds a potential new twist to the dynamics within his team.

This is an enjoyable addition to a series that continues to go from strength to strength.