Review: An action-packed debut for Logan Harper
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 8, 2011
Brett Battles, author of the outstanding Jonathan Quinn series (The Silenced: A Novel), introduces new series character Logan Harper with a bang in Little Girl Gone. The action jumps off right from the opening chapter and never lets up, taking the reader on a whirlwind race against the clock to find the missing young woman. Despite the breakneck pace, however, character development never takes a backseat.As the reader learns over the course of the book, Logan is carrying a tremendous amount of guilt over an event that occurred when he was working for a private security firm, an event which also involved a young girl. His quest to find the missing girl, it turns out, is as much a quest for redemption as it is to simply locate a missing person. Supporting characters from the Wise Ass Old Men - what Hell's Angels would look like if they were all ex-military and their youngest member was on the far side of 60 - also make memorable impressions, as does Daeng, an operative Logan meets in Thailand.Readers have come to expect from the well traveled Battles the inclusion of at least one far flung (from the U.S. at least) locale in his stories, and Little Girl Gone is no exception. The character of Tooney is an immigrant from Burma, now known as Myanmar, and Battles has devised a plot that incorporates the political unrest and oppression in that country smoothly into the storyline. Additionally, much of Little Girl Gone's endgame unfolds in Thailand, and Battles does a masterful job of bringing the country to life with his detailed and colorful descriptions.Fans of Battles' Jonathan Quinn series will welcome Logan Harper to the family with open arms.