Cleverly written thriller, full of mysterious men in black suits lurking in the background of supposedly altruistic spy missions.

Five different people, working as blind couriers, assassins, hackers, bodyguards and hunters are mysteriously spirited away in the middle of their operations, just as they become disastrous.

As each of them awaken, realizing they have been sedated for varying lengths of time, they emerge from stripped down cells to find them drawn to a conference room.

From this point on, major changes begin for everyone. The Committee, an anonymous group of people with unknown histories, approaches each of them with the same offer.

Go back to your former life, where you have failed miserably, and face the consequences. Or, come to work for us, to help on select missions, and have your background cleared.

Much murder and Mayhem ensue, as our group tries to track down a group of kidnapped children and rescue them before they are killed.

I really enjoyed the speed and pacing of the plot, as well as the intriguing characters. Brett Battles does a great thriller! ( )

This is a fast-paced action thriller, the first in a series featuring a team of professionals of the secret world of espionage and assassinations. The characters are interesting and the action is non-stop. There are some intentional loose ends and vagueness which the author seems to have kept for exploiting in the future books of the series. That is okay, but what disappointed me was the absolute lack of information about the villains. That made it feel incomplete for me.
The Excoms is not great as a standalone read but seems it will be better if read as part of the whole series. ( )

Good start to what will hopefully become a good series. I am a big fan of Battles' books. Once again he gives us an interesting group of characters. I'm sure that as the series progresses, we'll get to know each of the characters (and their skills) better, but for a first book this does a good job of introducing the characters and the secret world that they inhabit. The sort of snarky dialogue among the characters is well-written and ... well, fun. I also liked the opaque motivations of those working behind the scenes either with or against the main characters. I look forward to the development of those ideas as the series evolves. And of course the little tease about the next Quinn book was enough to make me smile! ( )