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The rescue on Duran Island did not go as planned.

Jonathan Quinn knows that someone is responsible. That someone decided throwing people Quinn cares about into the line of fire in a cold-hearted act of self-preservation was a good idea. He also knows that this someone has made a serious mistake.

Because when Quinn gets mad, the last place anyone should ever be is in his crosshairs. He will not stop until the guilty pay.

Sometimes revenge is best served now.

300 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2013

311 people are currently reading
491 people want to read

About the author

Brett Battles

90 books1,058 followers
Brett Battles is a NEW YORK TIMES bestselling and Barry Award-winning author of forty novels, including the Jonathan Quinn series and its Excoms spinoff, the Project Eden series, and the time bending Rewinder series. He’s also the coauthor, with Robert Gregory Browne, of the Alexandra Poe series. He is one of the founding members of Killer Year, and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and International Thriller Writers. He lives and writes in Ventura County, California.

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5 stars
853 (47%)
4 stars
708 (39%)
3 stars
192 (10%)
2 stars
24 (1%)
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6 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
Profile Image for Tim.
2,497 reviews331 followers
July 11, 2024
Another good solid story that could have used a tidier ending.
Profile Image for Harry.
319 reviews420 followers
August 11, 2013
given the exquisite focus on plot, it would do no good to provide a book revew of every novel in this series because it would be riddled with spoilers. I don't do plot...so read on.

What's his background?
Brett Battles was born in southern California. Though he still makes California his home, he has traveled extensively across the world. Destinations like Ho Chi Minh City, Berlin, Singapore, London, Paris and Bangkok all play their part in his Jonathan Quinn series. Though at the age of five Brett had an inkling that he wanted to write it wasn't until much later in life (2007) that readers became aware of this rising star in crime fiction, primarily through a compilation of short stories by various up and coming writers that included Brett's work entitled Killer Year (edited by Lee Child).

Brett Battles
Brett Battles

Like so many of us, Brett was a huge sci-fi fan reading authors like Heilein, Clarke, Asimov and James White. Then, as we get older we move on as did Battles. He is an admirer of Stephen King's The Stand and The Dark Towers which he considers brilliant. He began branching out into thrillers written by MacLean, Higgins and Harris. Brett Battles began to be interested in novels set in our time. He lists Graham Greene's The Quiet American, The Heart of the Matter, and Our Man in Havana as being influential, especially where it concerns the sparse, simple style of prose.

For those who are potential writers, you may want to take a look at Brett's Q&A on his bio page as regards to writing on his website.

Kindle readers
For those on the Kindle, you'll find periodic free downloads on Brett's site.

What's he written?
Brett Battles is a prolific series writer. Aside from his Jonathan Quinn novels (the best in my opinion), he is known for debuing two new series: Logan Harper, and the Project Eden series.

The series
When I first came on-board with GR while reading Lee Child's novels (like popcorn at the movies) I began scouring GR's genre landscape for heroes similar to Jack Reacher, heroes that were part of a series and decidedly alone, powerful, possessing principles even in professions that refute that notion. (this, after a life time of reading other genres for which no reviews will ever be posted because I'd have to re-read what I've read over a lifetime and since I don't have two lives: well, it ain't happening!).

I ran across two such authors almost immediately. The first was Barry Eisler's John Rain series. If you're interested in assassins as protagonists (an example of where we're hard put to assign morality to our heroes) this series is a must read. It explores the journey of a contract killer who develops a keen sense of right and wrong; a consciousness, if you will; an assassin who struggles to come to terms with what he does across a long voyage that spans the entire series. A movie version exists of this protagonist called Rain Fall.

The second was Brett Battles's Jonathan Quin series (otherwise, informally known as The cleaner series). In the first, we explore the life of an assassin named John Rain. In the second we explore the life of Jonathan Quin, the man that cleans up after contract killers.

In both, the authors must accomplish a difficult task: how to get empathy out of a reader when the protagonist is in the killing business. In large part (particularly with the Quin series) this is solved by having the responsibility for right and wrong shoved up the ladder to those ordering the kills and usually this is a department in the government. We are conditioned to think that governments behave morally, and do so in the interest of the public (a view that is rapidly dwindling in today's news headlines). And of course, what carries the reader along in such a series is the constant tension between the individual (a cleaner in Quin's casae) and the orders passed down from above. At some point, the individual will buck the system out of his own sense of morality and this is where we become hopelessly infused with empathy for the one bucking the system. Brett takes this a step further and removes Quin from the responsibility of the act itself by making him a cleaner: a contractor who cleans up the mess after a killing has taken place. If done well, which is the case with Brett Battles, we become addicted to the series.

The playground is international. There is no specific allegiance to country, there is no home for Quin's friends and crew, there is only their own code to which they adhere as a substitute for what the reader considers a given: family, country, home, children, etc. The character development takes place across many books to the point that reading this latest in the series is like coming home, reading about a family for whom we emphatize.

This book is a story of justified revenge, where the bad guys get what's coming to them.

Enjoy!
Profile Image for Jim A.
1,267 reviews82 followers
March 7, 2014
A very satisfactory conclusion to the story started in The Collected. While this one does not end with a cliff hanger, it does leave open the door for the Quinn series to take a new direction.

For those who have not read any of the Quinn series, this is NOT the novel with which to start. Battles does not put a lot of back story into the characters or the plot line of The Collected. New readers will be seriously lost.
Profile Image for Pierre Tassé (Enjoying Books).
598 reviews91 followers
September 11, 2020
An intense start to the book kept me on edge throughout most of the reading. Interesting the way life plays out on who lives and who dies and who does the taking of lives. Some question their lot in life while others act as part of a job description. Life is more than that as becomes apparent in who are friends and who are people you can trust. The last 100 pages were so nerve racking. This book will not really inspire you or connect with you if you don't give the other previous books in the series a read. I enjoyed this one and believe-given a good foundation of past knowledge-that you would also.
Profile Image for James.
722 reviews13 followers
November 25, 2013
Quinn and his team finally get their revenge for the death of peter and his wife.
A convuluted plot which you need to follow carefully. Former enemies become friends once they realise they are being lied to.
Profile Image for Alan Coll-Peacock.
85 reviews
March 29, 2025
It's been a good few years since I last read an entry in the Quinn series from Brett Battles, so when getting back into it with The Enraged I had to remind myself of what happened at least in the previous book. Thankfully that was pretty easy, as this picks up almost exactly where The Collected" ended.
Quinn is a professional "cleaner", and has been through a fair bit over the first half dozen novels as he and his now growing entourage keep things moving forward.
Quinn is different enough from your Reachers, Orphan Xs and John Rains to stand out, and the books are generally well written.
For me, Enraged was a great way to get back into the series after so long, it's short, sharp and very nicely done. It's not the best Quinn book, but it's good enough, and does highlight some of the qualities that have made Battles a successful author with this series. I've added the next books to my wishlist now, I'm definitely back in after this. 3.5/5 rounded up to a 4 for Goodreads.
Profile Image for Tucker Elliot.
Author 47 books22 followers
July 3, 2013
"The Cleaner" Jonathan Quinn is back in Brett Battles' new action-packed novel THE ENRAGED.

One of Quinn's colleagues has been digging into an "accident" that has haunted him for years - and now a list of names has been generated by a powerful consortium that will do anything to keep the past buried, and everyone on that list must die.

With his closest allies targeted and tortured - and one of them killed - forget Quinn in the shadows "cleaning" someone else's wet work. He's an enraged man on a mission and he's going to avenge his friends or die trying.

As Quinn says, "In our business, we don't wait years for justice that may or may not come. We deal with it ourselves."

We see Quinn picking up the clues and continuing his colleague's investigation, realizing that the way to find those responsible for his death is to finish what his colleague started - but don't be fooled into thinking this is your typical "out for revenge" novel.

Nothing about it is cliché. This is a smart, incredibly fast-paced thriller.

Quinn has always been more than a "cleaner" and now he must draw upon all of his resources to complete one final mission for his long-time friend and colleague. And the result is a very satisfying read from Brett Battles, who with Jonathan Quinn has given us one of the coolest heroic characters in fiction today.

I've been a fan of this series since it began with THE CLEANER. If you've never read a Quinn novel or short story then it's possible you might not be as invested in the characters at the beginning of this novel. It starts in a hurry and never slows down, but if you don't already know Quinn's relationships with the other characters in play then you might not be as eager to praise this book as I clearly am. However, I'd say this: give it time. As the book unfolds and the tension builds, what's happened in the past and what Quinn plans to do about it is revealed ... and it's a ride well worth taking.
1,272 reviews21 followers
July 23, 2020
The Enraged picks up where The Collected ends. Cho, the director of certain government agencies and a friend of Peter's, records his death. This in turn releases a letter to Misty, Peter's former executive assistant. She reaches out to Quinn who is waiting to see if Orlando will survive. Together they must work to decipher Peter's final message.

Battles has crafted a tangled web of deceit, betrayal, half-truths, and hidden agendas. What makes this series different from others in this genre is Quinn's job (he's a cleaner not an assassin) and the strong, loving bond he has with Orlando who is as tough and as smart as he is. Usually a love interest is killed off to propel the protagonist forward, leaving him wounded and vengeful. Thus far, Battles has avoided this, allowing the relationship between Quinn and Orlando to grow and deepen.

This is a quick read, filled with clues to decipher and good action sequences. One of the best in the series.
Profile Image for Wenzel Roessler.
815 reviews7 followers
July 16, 2020
After a brief teaser this book picks up right where book 6 left off. Well written, beautifully paced, interesting new characters, everything about this book was great.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Nolan.
3,744 reviews38 followers
June 22, 2024
Do yourself a favor and don't read this book until you have first read The Collected. This is a sequel to that book. You will struggle mightily if you just grab this one and decide to work your way through it. It won't have nearly the meaning that it would have had had you read The Collected.

Jonathan Quinn cleans up after other people's messy projects. He is normally the guy who goes in after the secret killers finish, and he literally picks up the bodies, wipes away the Prints, and cleans up the blood. After his adventure in The collected, Quinn's partner, Nate, is recovering in a hospital not far from where the incidents in that earlier book happened. Quinn's lover and partner, Orlando, will not have access to one of her kidneys for the rest of her life, and her spleen is no more because of events in that previous book. She may or may not live. She is in a coma as the book opens. The guy who purchased Quinn's services, Peter, is dead.

In this book, Peter’s loyal assistant, misty, works with Quinn to unearth peter's last correspondences. They learned that Peter has one final set of instructions he wants the group to carry out in his absence. It does indeed carry those out, and that's what this book is about. There's no point in me going into further detail.

I've enjoyed this series, and I found this installment ok. It's not the best book you're going to read in the series, but it's far from the worst, and you won't regret picking it up if you do. But please read The collected first if there's any way you can.
577 reviews
April 5, 2020
This book is a continuation of the story that began in "The Collected." That story was about a revenge mission that found Nate and several other operators who were captured and tortured as "payback" for a mission that resulted in the near death and crippling of a powerful "despot wanna be" on a island in the Caribbean.

The story begans in the aftermath of Quinn leading an effort to free those captured from the island. However, Orlando is critically injured and Peter is killed in the process. Quinn's followup to find those who identified those who were tortured is what the story in "The Enraged" is about. Its a good story that follows the typical plots of the series with plenty of trade craft and the bad guys are captured and dealt with by the end of the story. Orlando is on her way to recovery and Quinn has a new job offer to consider.
Profile Image for Jonnie.
814 reviews
August 22, 2022
Although many of the books in this series can be read out of order or as standalone books, I recommend reading book 6 before reading this book. This book fills in some of the questions that were left hanging in book 6. I think book 6 and 7 could have been combined into one book (albeit a long book unless there was a lot of editing).

Quinn is determined to find out how Romero (from book 6) got the names of the team members on the op that was supposed to have killed Romero. In the process, he gets tangled up with something Peter was investigating before he died and soon the two things begin to overlap. Several characters from book 6 make an appearance in this book which is another reason to read book 6 first.

Overall, this book is fast paced and a quick read. If you like this genre, I recommend this series. If you like this series, you should like this book.
Profile Image for Alabama Anthony.
702 reviews5 followers
December 28, 2019
This is the second part to the book The Collected. Glad I am reading them now and didn't have to wait a year between books.

There was a lot of back and forth travel in this story that could have been handled by just splitting the team up.

Peter has one last mission for Quinn, but he needs to bring Peter's office assistant in on the job to fill in some of the past secrets that now have to come to life. The fighting and bloodshed is somewhat minimal compared to the other books in the Quinn series. There is quite a bit of personal information being exchanged and contacts from past jobs are popping up all over the place. The world of contract jobs is becoming quite gray in figuring out who is really the good guys and who are the bad guys.
294 reviews
July 1, 2017
The Jonathan Quinn novels by Brett Battles continue to be one of my favorite thriller series. The plot of this book is essentially a continuation of his previous book "The Collected" so explaining the plot would spoil it in a way. Battles was my first introduction into the thriller/espionage genre all those years ago, and he continues to improve in every book. His characters are interesting, and he constantly finds new ways to pull at whatever their weaknesses are. This book continues to prove why Battles is still one of my favorites.
Profile Image for Tracy T..
1,023 reviews24 followers
July 17, 2020
This series is so good. I love it. Excellent Book and Narration by Scott Brick! (audible review)

This book gives us the ending to the previous book in the series. It was a good one. It also gives us a lead in to more things to come for Quinn, Nate, Orlando and Deang. I am so excited.

As for the narration it was amazing! I absolutely love Scott Brick. He is such a great narrator. The women sound like women and he has a very sexy reading voice. He reads with emotion as called for. Simply amazing.
Profile Image for Dan Smith.
1,802 reviews18 followers
March 1, 2020
Jonathan Quinn is still at work.
Quinn knows that someone is responsible. That someone decided throwing people Quinn cares about into the line of fire in a cold-hearted act of self-preservation was a good idea. He also knows that this someone has made a serious mistake.

Because when Quinn gets mad, the last place anyone should ever be is in his crosshairs. He will not stop until the guilty pay.

As long as there are Quinn books to be read, you can bet I will be reading them.
Profile Image for Warren Thoms.
530 reviews4 followers
November 16, 2018
Quick and dirty. Even with the fact that it was a small book (page wise) it still flew like the wind. I thought that I was not going to like it as even it started where the last one left off but it seemed like there was nowhere to go. Brett Battles stuffed a ton of action and a pretty good story into this little guy.
Profile Image for Trish R..
1,772 reviews58 followers
June 9, 2020

Jeez! I just love Quinn! And this was kind of a cliffhanger from book 6. It was so good. All about Nate, Lanier, Berkeley and Curson’s time of getting revenge for being tortured in the last book. AND what happened to Orlando.

No sex and the F-bomb was only used 2 times.

As to the narration: I always love Scott Brick.
19 reviews
April 4, 2018
Brilliant

Another Great Story, I am so looking forward to the rest of these novels. The character's are so intriguing and learning more about them in each new story helps so much with the series.
317 reviews4 followers
August 16, 2021
The Enraged

Another winner with more of the background as I read these stories trying to put the big picture together. Unfortunately when I got hooked on Quinn’s series I was late to the party, but I can’t stop reading the backstories to find out more.
372 reviews
October 2, 2021
Quinn is out to find who was responsible for his friends being tortured and almost killed. It’s a good cat and mouse scenario that gets revenge. It also opens the door for he and his friends switching from cleaners to other pursuits. A good read.
Profile Image for Robin Cox.
97 reviews
June 28, 2018
Interesting book

I love these stories. Hope the characters continue to grow and grow with each other. Quinn and Orlando, Liz and Mate just all belong together.
Profile Image for Joshua.
291 reviews
August 8, 2018
"In our business, we don’t wait years for justice that may or may not come. We deal with it ourselves.” Nice. Thanks @BrettBattles
Profile Image for Abibliofob.
1,586 reviews102 followers
February 18, 2020
Got some time to get caught up on Jonathan Quinn by Brett battles. Great series.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews

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