The Cleaner by Brett Battles
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Last week, while I was on vacation in Hawaii, I read Deceived (the sequel to The Cleaner), a book by Don Winslow, a book by Louis Begley, and a book by Louis de Bernieres. I liked how that went, so although I’m back home again, I thought I do the same thing, starting with The Cleaner itself.
As I mentioned in my review of Deceived, I’d actually read a sample of The Cleaner a few years ago, so getting back into it was easy. And like the sequel, it’s a thrill-ride, complete with steely-hard commando types who know all the martial arts, all the computer hacking tricks, all the ways to charm and woo. This is spycraft 101. License to kill, issued by the Extenuating Circumstances Department.
I could tell you the plot, but what’s the point? Good guys, bad guys, really bad guys, on-the-fence-guys. Guns and sex and double-crosses. Exotic locations. This is a thriller-by-the-numbers, but we don’t read this kind of thing hoping for Milton, do we?
Much of Deceived alluded to events in The Cleaner, so I knew what was coming, in terms of the big reveal. Still readable, I’d like to say. Still worth your time if this is your sort of thing. If this is not your sort of thing– don’t bother. Wait for the movie. Or wait for a similar movie based on a different book. They’re all the same, aren’t they? Reacher, Parker, Spenser… Cruise, Statham, uh… Cruise…
You get the idea. For me, it was a decent little read. I’ll be reading the third in the series, hopefully next week.