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The book begins with professional 'cleaner' Jonathan Quinn observing the handover of some information in an abandoned church hidden deep in the Irish countryside. It's Quinn's job to remain impartial and uninvolved, and to ensure that if anything does go wrong no incriminating traces are left behind. A hidden sniper racks up a high body count and plunges the scene into chaos, testing the skills of Quinn and his assistant Nate to the full. As part of the inevitable clean-up operation Quinn ends up in possession of a puzzling package and is determined to find out what went wrong and why. And more importantly, who was behind it all. The plot diverges to encompass UN aide worker, Marion Dubois, who foils the attempted kidnapping of Iris, a Down 's syndrome child from a children's home where Marion has been working. Marion believes there is more to the attempted snatch than meets the eye, and that more children than Iris are at risk. The two of them flee to America where, to Marion's horror, she finds that her parents have been killed, seemingly as a result of a gas leak at their home, but she is certain that Iris's pursuers are in fact closing in on her. Quinn, following his own investigations, ends up hard on the heels of Marion's pursuers and is equally baffled by the unfolding events. He is unable to protect Iris and a intriguing game of cat and mouse follows. Quinn is both intelligent and resourceful and I found him an entertaining main character. Throughout the book he struggles to come to terms with his assistant's injury, the loss of a foot, which Nate sustained whilst working for Quinn and, at the same time, Nate has to prove that he really can do a hard, dirty job without Quinn having to make concessions for him that could end up getting both of them killed. An increasingly complex and genuinely chilling plot gradually unfolds as the book gathers momentum towards a potentially very explosive climax. I liked both Quinn and Nate a lot and found myself thoroughly wrapped up in their attempts to save both Iris and the numerous other children being used as pawns in a particularly vile game. There were times when some of the plot strands tended to become somewhat confusing, but strong characterization made up for that, and the pace rarely dragged. The fact that I hadn't read the preceding book didn't hamper my enjoyment of the story. This was definitely a good read.
Reviewed by Linda Wilson, March 2010
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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