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Meet Jake Oliver. The day will come when he's one of the best cleaners in the business, a man skilled at making bodies disappear. At the moment, however, he's a 22 year old rookie cop, unaware his life is about to change. In a burning barn a body is found--and the fire isn't the cause of death. The detectives working the case have a pretty good idea about what went down. But Officer Oliver thinks it's something else entirely, and pursues a truth others would prefer remain hidden - others who will go to extreme lengths to keep him quiet.
Logan Harper isn't looking for redemption. He just wants to live in peace and forget his troubled past. But one morning his quiet life is upended when he interrupts the attempted murder of his father's best friend Tooney. The next thing Logan knows, he's on his way to Los Angeles, searching for Tooney's missing granddaughter and uncovering a sinister plot connected not only to Tooney's Burmese past, but also to the boardrooms of corporate America.
Ananke thought her week couldn't get worse, but as she hunts for the man who screwed up her previous job, things really go sideways. Turns out, she's not the only one having problems. Rosario can acquire anything for anyone, but can she obtain freedom for herself when her latest assignment goes awry? Dylan's sure his new gig will be a walk in the park - or rather, a drive, given that he's a courier. Unfortunately, the road is a bit bumpier than he expected.
Trey DeBolt is a young man at the crest of life. His role as a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Alaska offers him a rewarding job and limitless adventure. Then a tragic accident alters his life: during a harrowing rescue, his helicopter goes down. Severely injured, DeBolt awakens in a seaside cabin in Maine, thousands of miles from where the accident occurred. His lone nurse lets slip that he has been officially declared dead, lost in the crash. Back in Alaska, however, Coast Guard investigator Shannon Lund uncovers evidence that DeBolt might still be alive. Her search quickly becomes personal, but before she can intervene, chaos erupts.
Daniel Ash wakes after midnight to the cry of his daughter. Just a bad dream, he thinks. She's had them before. Yet he can't help but worry when she cries out again as he pads down the hallway. Stepping through her doorway, he expects to find her sitting up in bed, frightened by a nightmare. But the nightmare is his. It's real. And it's just beginning....
Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets - i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear.
Meet Jake Oliver. The day will come when he's one of the best cleaners in the business, a man skilled at making bodies disappear. At the moment, however, he's a 22 year old rookie cop, unaware his life is about to change. In a burning barn a body is found--and the fire isn't the cause of death. The detectives working the case have a pretty good idea about what went down. But Officer Oliver thinks it's something else entirely, and pursues a truth others would prefer remain hidden - others who will go to extreme lengths to keep him quiet.
Logan Harper isn't looking for redemption. He just wants to live in peace and forget his troubled past. But one morning his quiet life is upended when he interrupts the attempted murder of his father's best friend Tooney. The next thing Logan knows, he's on his way to Los Angeles, searching for Tooney's missing granddaughter and uncovering a sinister plot connected not only to Tooney's Burmese past, but also to the boardrooms of corporate America.
Ananke thought her week couldn't get worse, but as she hunts for the man who screwed up her previous job, things really go sideways. Turns out, she's not the only one having problems. Rosario can acquire anything for anyone, but can she obtain freedom for herself when her latest assignment goes awry? Dylan's sure his new gig will be a walk in the park - or rather, a drive, given that he's a courier. Unfortunately, the road is a bit bumpier than he expected.
Trey DeBolt is a young man at the crest of life. His role as a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Alaska offers him a rewarding job and limitless adventure. Then a tragic accident alters his life: during a harrowing rescue, his helicopter goes down. Severely injured, DeBolt awakens in a seaside cabin in Maine, thousands of miles from where the accident occurred. His lone nurse lets slip that he has been officially declared dead, lost in the crash. Back in Alaska, however, Coast Guard investigator Shannon Lund uncovers evidence that DeBolt might still be alive. Her search quickly becomes personal, but before she can intervene, chaos erupts.
Daniel Ash wakes after midnight to the cry of his daughter. Just a bad dream, he thinks. She's had them before. Yet he can't help but worry when she cries out again as he pads down the hallway. Stepping through her doorway, he expects to find her sitting up in bed, frightened by a nightmare. But the nightmare is his. It's real. And it's just beginning....
Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets - i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear.
You will never read Denny Younger's name in any history book, will never know what he's done. But even if you did, you'd never believe it. The world as you know it wouldn't be the same without him. Denny was born into one of the lowest rungs of society, but his bleak fortunes abruptly change when the mysterious Upjohn Institute recruits him to be a Rewinder, a verifier of personal histories. The job at first sounds like it involves researching old books and records, but Denny soon learns it's far from it.
Terrorism, duty, and personal safety collide when Jake Pendleton, an investigator for the NTSB, is called to investigate an aircraft accident in Savannah, Georgia during the St. Patrick's Day celebration. The accident, which at first appears to be quite run-of-the-mill, turns out to be anything but. Since Jake is not willing to pretend there are no suspicious circumstances and more than the usual share of rather unlikely "coincidences," he sets off a veritable avalanche of secrets, violence and treachery.
Lord Alexander Hawke is a direct descendant of the legendary English pirate Blackhawke and highly skilled in the cutthroat's deadly ways himself. While still a boy, on a voyage to the Caribbean, Alex Hawke witnesses an act of unspeakable horror. Hidden in a secret compartment on his father's yacht, Alex sees his parents brutally murdered by three modern-day pirates. It is an event that will haunt him for the remainder of his life. Now, fully grown and one of England's most decorated naval heroes, Hawke is back in the same Caribbean waters on a secret mission for the American government.
It's 2005, and Jed Walker has just joined the CIA. As a 10-year veteran of Air Force Special Operations, Walker is used to being at the pointy end of things. But normally the front line is much further from home. Sent to New Orleans on the trail of Russians wanting to claim back what was stolen from them in Afghanistan, it doesn't take long for Walker to realise that in the murky world of espionage, the rules of war do not apply.
Court Gentry is known as The Gray Man - a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible, and then fading away. And he always hits his target. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. Now, he is going to prove that for him, there's no gray area between killing for a living-and killing to stay alive.
Something happened that night in the woods at Camp Red Hawk. But all Joel and Leah can recall is sneaking out for a late hike with five camp friends and that only the two of them and their friend Mike returned. They have no memory of what happened to the others. No memory of anything after leaving the camp. In the years that follow, they realize something has changed inside of them. They are different from others in ways they never should be. In ways that send their lives down disturbing and terrifying paths.
When a mysterious client asks former Delta Force operator Case Lee to investigate a rebellion in South America, he uncovers an incredible global conspiracy. Welcome to revolution, murder, and behind-the-curtains intrigue. As events unfold, the spies and mercenaries come to a hard realization. You may mess with a lot on this good earth, but you don't mess with Case Lee.
After losing her mother to a terrorist attack, Alexandra Poe was devastated when her father - disgraced and accused of treason - disappeared from the face of the earth. Now, over ten years and a stint in Iraq later, Alex is approached by a man who has information about her father and wants to help her find him. But there's a catch.
On his last combat deployment, Lt. Cmdr. James Reece's entire team was killed in an ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government. Now, with no family and free from the military's command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he's learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward revenge.
Who is Nola Brown? Nola is a mystery. Nola is trouble. And Nola is supposed to be dead. Her body was found on a plane that mysteriously fell from the sky as it left a secret military base in the Alaskan wilderness. Her commanding officer verifies she's dead. The US government confirms it. But Jim "Zig" Zigarowski has just found out the truth: Nola is still alive. And on the run.
Amos Decker's life changed forever - twice. The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to go pro. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field for good and left him with an improbable side effect - he can never forget anything.
Riske is a freelance industrial spy who, despite his job title, lives a mostly quiet life above his auto garage in central London. He has avoided big, messy jobs - until now. A gangster by the name of Tino Coluzzi - once a compatriot of Riske - has orchestrated the greatest street heist in the history of Paris: a visiting Saudi prince had his pockets lightened of millions in cash, and something else. Hidden within a stolen briefcase is a secret letter that could upend the balance of power in the Western world. The Russians have already killed in an attempt to get it back.
An F-18 Navy fighter careens out of the blue sky above the Mojave desert. A TV cameraman who grew up in a small town just miles away can see what is going to happen next. Frantically, Wes Stewart races to the downed jet and tries to save the pilot’s life. When the plane explodes, Wes escapes without harm—and plunges into a murderous conspiracy.
It’s been 15 years since Wes has been back to the desolate land of his childhood. Now he finds himself up against the U.S. military, the local police, and someone who is tracking his every move. In the moments he spent with the dying pilot, Wes discovered something that could get him killed. But while he tries to untangle a web of lies and secrets surrounding the crash, another danger is stalking him. And this one he will never see coming.
When I find an thriller author I really like I purchase all of his/her novels. I recently purchased No Return and Rewinder to complete my Brett Battles library. (I have the complete works of quite a number of other authors including Vince Flynn, Ben Coes, Brad Thor, Karin Slaughter, Brad Taylor, Bob Meyer, Michael Connelly, Patricia Cornwell, Brad Metzler, Mark Dawson, Brian Haig, David Baldacci, Greg Iles, Charles Todd, Daniel Silva, Dalton Fury, Tom Clancy, Harlan Coben, Lee Child, Lisa Gardner, Mark Greaney, Michael Koryta, Nelson DeMille, T. R. Regan, and a few others. I prefer the audiobooks, but I buy the KIindle versions when the books ar not available from Audible. It is little wonder that my Audible library is approaching 900 books and my Kindle library is over 500 books.)
No Return is set in the desert town of China Lake, California where Brett Battles grew up and where a Naval air base is located. The major plot line is about a plane that crashed near the town with the pilot being misidentified by the Navy. The subplot is about a death that occurred in the town while the main character was growing up there. As usual with Brett Battles the characters are well developed and the story has lots of suspense.
The narrator is Scott Brick who also narrates Brett Battles entire Jonathan Quinn series. Scott Brick is one of many excellent narrators, and he happens to be my favorite.
In addition to the Quinn series, Battles has another great series named Project Eden which is narrated by McLeod Andrews, another excellent narrator. He also has the short Logan Harper series which is not as good as well as being co-writer of the two book Alexandra Poe tseries which I find disappointing.
One of the really nice aspects of the the more recent Battles novels that are narrated by Scott Brick is that they end with a 15 to 20 minute interview of Battles by Brick. That is true of No Return.
I highly recommend No Return for those who like thrillers.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful
Would you consider the audio edition of No Return to be better than the print version?
Good storyline although a bit far fetched in some areas but storyline held together well
Havent read the print version but enjoyed the narration
What other book might you compare No Return to and why?
no real comparison
What does Scott Brick bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Great narrator - brings the characters and story to life
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Not really - many twists and turns that you need to think about
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
This book was enjoyable on so many levels. It was suspenseful and had some surprising twists. Excellent book for long trips or monotonous housecleaning!
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
If you could sum up No Return in three words, what would they be?
Thrums with intrigue
Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?
Yes. The character who practiced Eastern medicine made the predictable zig-zag because his character was so enigmatic.
Have you listened to any of Scott Brick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Probably. I listen to many books.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
I found that this one was hard to turn off, so yes.
Any additional comments?
I loved the blending of cultures, the strength of the characters, and that the female protagonist was not the cliche warrior princess. Something about the development of this character made her feel unusual. Each character was strongly developed and strongly distinguished by the narrator.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Any additional comments?
This Brett Battles guy, well, he has some interesting action story ideas. He throws in some curves and some twists and turns. It's fun reading. However, his characters are just plain dumb. The way they interact and the conversations they have are cringe worthy. I'm a sci fi nut. You can convince me most anything is real, but in no universe or alternate reality do people make conversations the way Battles writes them. I'm not saying don't get the book. It's an easy listen, mindless action story. Just be prepared for the ridiculous dialogue. Too bad because if he would get help with character development, he would be an awesome writer.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful