The Deceived by Brett Battles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’m on vacation in Kauai, rented cottage, one of those cute little places complete with a fat stack of hard-back mysteries. The usual suspects: Block, LeCarre, Grisham, Cruz Smith. I choose The Deceived because I like the title. A beer, a comfortable chair on the front porch, and I’m ready.
I’m only half a page in when it starts feeling familiar. I’ve never been to Kauai, and when I was in Honolulu the only other time I’ve been to Hawaii, I read sci-fi in an air-conditioned Hyatt. So why am I getting deja-vu?
It’s beautiful here, by the way, in case you were wondering. Peaceful. Just like people say, but then you can’ always trust people, can you? I guess you can’t even trust me. But I’m getting off the subject.
I push the feeling away and keep reading. Nothing new in this one. Bad-guy anti-hero type chasing down leads and committing thrilling acts of daring-do. A mystery and spy novel in one. Great vacation reading.
About halfway through I figure it out– not the plot, but my feeling of deja-vu. I’ve read Brett Battles before, and this character. There’s a prequel to The Deceived, called The Cleaner. A few years ago I had the sample on my e-reader, and although it was interesting, it wasn’t as compelling as at least one of the other half-dozen samples I was evaluating, so I never got back to it.
But now I will. And that’s my review. The Deceived is a sequel, and good enough to stand on it’s own– there are a few references to the first book, and I know how it will end now, more or less. But Battle’s pacing, and his character Quinn, are interesting enough that I want to read more.
That’s seems like praise, to me. And I’ve got four days of vacation left- more than enough time.