Award-winning Author Brett Battles

Brett Battles is an author, world traveler, and devoted father. His thrilling tales about a cleaner's exploits encompass the world. A "cleaner" is a person who disposes of bodies so no trace remains of the killing or the crime scene. Jonathon Quinn is Brett's recurring protagonist who contracts with a covert agency to clean up their messes, and usually finds himself embroiled in a mess of his own.

What Brett adds to his creatively crafted plots is a reality far beyond his marvelously twisted imagination. As a lover of travel, Brett includes personal observations into his stories. This compulsion to provide genuineness to his readers extends to his uncommon practice of photographing and videotaping people on the street in order to capture their miniscule quirks and gestures, their unique styles of dress, and their expressions, which he then implants into his characters.

Such devotion to detail has produced acclaimed and award-winning novels such as "The Deceived" and his latest release "The Silenced."

This desire for detail also happened to snap a photograph of Paris Hilton scanning the self-help/relationship section in a bookstore. True story.

Brett's books have been distributed around the world, and his fan base continues to grow. The reason is, Brett Battles' stories draw the reader in to international intrigue, suspense, and danger. When you sit down with one of Brett's books, be it a Quinn tale such as "Shadow of Betrayal" or the Logan Harper thriller "Little Girl Gone," make sure your calendar's cleared. Or, if it isn't, Brett knows a cleaner who just might be able to help you out.
http://www.brettbattles.com/

Q) Your taste for life is eclectic. Your music choices range from Billie Holiday to David Bowie. Movies: from Casablanca to The Matador. What drew your focus to writing suspense-filled thrillers?

A) I’ve been a thriller fan since I was a kid, so it must be something sewn into my DNA. I remember reading stories like ICE STATION ZEBRA by Alistair MacLean and BLACK SUNDAY by Thomas Harris and absolutely loving them.

Q) In "Shadow of Betrayal," you focus on children, some with special needs. You, yourself, have a child with Down's syndrome. Obviously, this book was difficult for you to write. So, why did you?

A) Why? That’s a good question, but one I don’t think I have a clear answer for. I had this scene in my mind before I started, a quiet little scene with Quinn and a child with Down Syndrome. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, or if I even wanted to do it. That scene did make it into my book, and while it was quick, it may have been one of the hardest I’ve ever written. I got very emotional while I was working on it.

Q) You have adapted quite well to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. How important do you believe similar sites will be to an author's popularity in the future?

A) I think they are very important now, and will be even more so in the future. With the move to more and more people reading ebooks, these online venues become the primary place where authors can connect with the readers and where they can share news about new work. They can definitely be exciting and all consuming, but they are here to stay.

Q) You travel extensively. Does the traveling inspire your stories, or do the stories inspire you to travel?

A) Yes and yes. They feed into each other. Sometimes I’m traveling and a scene will come to me. For instance, I have this image in my mind of Nate (Quinn’s apprentice) standing on a dock along the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok watching the water...that came to me while I was there. Haven’t written it yet, but it will probably be in the next Quinn book. Other times go to a location with a story already in mind and look around for specific locales that will help me out. I did this with THE SILENCED by purposely traveling to London and Paris, knowing the book would be largely set there.

Q) "The Silenced" is the fourth novel for Jonathon Quinn. Do you plan to continue this series, or is Quinn's dangerous lifestyle catching up with him?

A) Definitely will be more Quinn books, but Quinn is also starting to show the strain. In THE SILENCED his past comes into direct contact with his Cleaner life, and that is something he never thought would happen. That’s going to have a big effect on him. Plus he’s been growing slowly disenchanted with his profession, and that’s going to make things interesting. Then there’s his whole relationship with his girlfriend and partner Orlando and where is that going. Plus his apprentice Nate, what does his future hold? This is a long way of saying there’s a lot more to come! I’ll be sitting down to write the next one in a few months, and can’t wait to get back into his world.