The Untold Story of Nate
I’ll tell you an interesting story about Nate. First, for those of you who don’t know who Nate is, he’s Jonathan Quinn’s apprentice in my Quinn thriller series (THE CLEANER, THE DECEIVED, and this summer’s SHADOW OF BETRAYAL.) Nate is still young, twenty-five, I believe, in SHADOW OF BETRAYAL, but he’s come a long way from the kinda cocky joker he was in THE CLEANER. He’s still got a great sense of humor, but he’s also got a lot more experience, and has reached that point where he knows he doesn’t know everything.
But the truth is, Nate nearly didn’t make it past the first one hundred pages of the first book, THE CLEANER. That’s right, in an early draft I killed him off. If you’ve read THE CLEANER, you might remember the scene in Quinn’s house when someone tries to break in to kill him. Originally, that’s where Nate met his demise.
I know, I know. What was I thinking? The answer is, apparently, whatever I was thinking was wrong! Thank God someone talked me out of it, and not just because Nate is a great (and useful) character. You see, after she read THE CLEANER, my mother told me her favorite character was Nate.
That’s right. My mom. In fact, I believe her words were something like, “You’d better not let anything happen to Nate.”
Those of you who have read the first two books, know that I haven’t exactly been kind to Nate, but what I haven’t done is kill him off. Will I in the future? Who knows? But if I do, I know I’m going to have to answer to mom, so my guess is Nate will be around for a while.
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