Rucka, Greg

Patriot Acts

Greg Rucka is back with a vengeance in this electrifying thriller starring suspense fiction's most dangerous hero: Atticus Kodiak. This time the bodyguard turned fugitive must go underground to protect the woman he loves and a country he may have to betray to defend.

Love your country. Fear your government. Know your enemy.

For the first time in his life, professional bodyguard Atticus Kodiak is laying low--with Alena Cizkova, aka Drama, once the world's premier assassin and now the target of assassination herself. Atticus and Alena are wounded, alone, and on the run. They're being hunted across the world by someone more powerful than the mob, the FBI, or the CIA--and if they don't guess who it is and how to stop him, they're history.

Presented unabridged on 9 CDs.

A Gentleman's Game: A Queen & Country Novel

Tara Chace may be the most dangerous woman alive. She can seduce you into believing she’s the woman of your dreams—or kill you with the icy efficiency of an executioner. As the new head of Special Operations for British Intelligence, she no longer has to court death in the field—she wants to.

Throw away the old rules, the old school, the old-boy network. The world of international espionage is about to learn the hard way that spying is no longer merely…
A Gentleman's Game
Greg Rucka’s electrifying thrillers have pushed the boundaries of suspense fiction to where few have dared to go. Now, in A Gentleman’s Game, one of the genre’s most fearless writers brings readers of international espionage his most
fearless heroine yet: a no-holds-barred woman who’s as lethal as an assassin’s bullet.

When an unthinkable act of terror devastates London, nothing will stop Tara Chace from hunting down those responsible. Her job is simple: stop the terrorists before they strike a second time. To succeed, she’ll do anything and everything it takes. She’ll have to kill again.

Only this time the personal stakes will be higher than ever before. For the terrorist counterstrike will require that Tara allow herself to be used as bait by the government she serves. This time she’s turning her very life into a weapon that can be used only once. But as she and her former mentor race toward destiny at a remote terrorist training camp in Saudi Arabia, Tara begins to question just who’s pulling the trigger—and who’s the real enemy. In this new kind of war, betrayal can take any form...including one’s duty to queen and country.

Based on the graphic novel series that won the coveted Eisner Award, A Gentleman’s Game is an electrifyingly realistic, headline-stealing thriller with an unforgettable protagonist—one who redefines every rule she doesn’t shatter.

Greg Rucka's electrifying thrillers have pushed the boundaries of suspense fiction to where few have dared to go. Now, in A Gentleman's Game, one of the genre's most fearless writers brings readers of international espionage his most fearless heroine yet: a no-holds-barred woman who's as lethal as an assassin's bullet.

When an unthinkable act of terror devastates London, nothing will stop Tara Chace from hunting down those responsible. Her job is simple: stop the terrorists before they strike a second time. To succeed, she'll do anything and everything it takes. She'll have to kill again.

Only this time the personal stakes will be higher than ever before. For the terrorist counterstrike will require that Tara allow herself to be used as bait by the government she serves. This time she's turning her very life into a weapon that can be used only once. But as she and her former mentor race toward destiny at a remote terrorist training camp in Saudi Arabia, Tara begins to question just who's pulling the trigger—and who's the real enemy. In this new kind of war, betrayal can take any form…including one's duty to queen and country.

Based on the graphic novel series that won the coveted Eisner Award, A Gentleman's Game is an electrifyingly realistic, headline-stealing thriller with an unforgettable protagonist-one who redefines every rule she doesn't shatter.

Critical Space

Penzler Pick, September 2001: Greg Rucka has created a remarkable character named Atticus Kodiak, a bodyguard who, together with assorted friends and associates, has appeared in four previous books. Before reading Critical Space, it's not necessary to know the sometimes complicated history of Atticus and his professional and personal relationships, but it helps.

It helps, for instance, to know that Atticus has been romantically involved with Bridget and Natalie, both of whom have worked on cases with him. It helps to know that Bridget has a very complicated past, which Rucka chronicled in his fourth book, Shooting at Midnight. And it helps to know that he has already had a run-in with one of the most deadly international assassins working--a beautiful woman who goes by the name of Drama.

It is Drama who takes center stage in this latest tale. After quitting a high-profile case as bodyguard to spoiled movie star Skye Van Brandt, Kodiak is approached by an old friend from England who is bringing the famous abused children's advocate, Lady Antonia Ainsley-Hunter, to the States for some appearances. After one near-miss with Lady Antonia, another attempt to abduct her is successful. But it is not a ransom or publicity that the kidnapper wants--she is merely bait for the real target: Atticus. A game of cat and mouse leads through the subways of New York, out to Staten Island, and back over to New Jersey, where Atticus is once again in the presence of Drama, who now needs his help. She has become a target of an assassin named Oxford, who is every bit as good as she is. Drama, who has some idea who might have put the hit on her, needs backup to combat this elite killer.

What is remarkable about this book, and the series as a whole, is not only the writing, which is crisp and concise, but the inside information from Rucka about what it takes to be a bodyguard, what the training is like, and how certain situations are defused. Rucka knows his stuff and deserves a wider audience. --Otto Penzler

The acclaimed author of Shooting at Midnight has penned a thriller like no other ... the no-holds-barred story of a bodyguard with the ultimate assignment: protecting a woman who also happens to be the most hunted killer in the world...

Code-named Drama, she is a lightning-fast death machine — a hitwoman sought by intelligence agencies around the world. Drama kills as easily as she breathes ... and the last time she and Atticus Kodiak met, they barely escaped each other alive.

Atticus Kodiak has a reputation as one of the toughest bodyguards in the business. He’s used to picking his assignments and calling the shots. But all that changes when he is forced to take on Drama as a client — the last person he ever imagined would need his protection.

This time, Drama is the one who is running from a killer. She needs Atticus’s help, and she won’t take no for an answer. To prove it, she abducts a high-profile member of the royal family whom Atticus has sworn to protect. He will do almost anything to get the woman back. But what Drama needs from him will destroy his reputation — and siding with her means he can never turn back.

From New York’s Russian enclaves to the Swiss Alps and the Caribbean, Atticus becomes Drama’s protector, and her only hope for survival as she tries to outlive and outrun her bloody past. But once immersed in Drama’s high-stakes, covert world, Atticus breaks a cardinal rule: He gets to know Drama as a woman rather than just a client — and it’s a bond that could cost them both their lives.

For the men hunting Drama are capable of unspeakable violence — of sins that make Drama’s own look like the acts of an amateur. And they will stop at nothing to see her dead....

A masterful work by one of the most unique voices in the field, Critical Space combines high-voltage, high-tech action with swift, terrifying brutality. The result is Greg Rucka’s most explosive thriller to date — a powerhouse of a novel destined to become a classic of modern suspense.


From the Hardcover edition.

The acclaimed author of Shooting at Midnight has penned a thriller like no other... the no-holds-barred story of a bodyguard with the ultimate assignment: protecting a woman who also happens to be the most hunted killer in the world...

Code-named Drama, she is a lightning-fast death machine -- a hitwoman sought by intelligence agencies around the world. Drama kills as easily as she breathes... and the last time she and Atticus Kodiak met, they barely escaped each other alive.

Atticus Kodiak has a reputation as one of the toughest bodyguards in the business. He's used to picking his assignments and calling the shots. But all that changes when he is forced to take on Drama as a client -- the last person he ever imagined would need his protection.

This time, Drama is the one who is running from a killer. She needs Atticus's help, and she won't take no for an answer. To prove it, she abducts a high-profile member of the royal family whom Atticus has sworn to protect. He will do almost anything to get the woman back. But what Drama needs from him will destroy his reputation -- and siding with her means he can never turn back.

From New York's Russian enclaves to the Swiss Alps and the Caribbean, Atticus becomes Drama's protector, and her only hope for survival as she tries to outlive and outrun her bloody past. But once immersed in Drama's high-stakes, covert world, Atticus breaks a cardinal rule: He gets to know Drama as a woman rather than just a client -- and it's a bond that could cost them both their lives.

For the men hunting Drama are capable of unspeakable violence -- of sins that make Drama's own look like the acts of an amateur. And they will stop at nothing to see her dead....

A masterful work by one of the most unique voices in the field, Critical Space combines high-voltage, high-tech action with swift, terrifying brutality. The result is Greg Rucka's most explosive thriller to date -- a powerhouse of a novel destined to become a classic of modern suspense.

Smoker

The subject is BGs--bodyguards--and Natalie Trent (bred and buttered in the personal security business, where her father, Elliot, is a top player) says to Atticus Kodiak, "You know what a bad reputation BGs have. Most people on the street think a BG is a muscle-bound heavy with mirror shades, undereducated and overarmed."

Atticus, of course--as readers of Greg Rucka's explosive and intelligent books about him (Finder and Keeper) already know--is none of the above. He does tend to get involved in running gun battles in heavily populated urban areas, however, and has lost a client or two in a shootout. No wonder the very slick Elliot Trent doesn't want him as an employee, let alone a son-in-law, in a case involving the protection of an eccentric scientist about to blow the whistle on a giant tobacco company. But Atticus worms his way in anyway--and the results are as exciting and packed with fascinating inside details of the BG trade as ever. Particularly entertaining is a scene where Atticus and Natalie are hired to test the security of a safe house, using everything from unordered pizzas to volleys of tennis balls to irritate the guards. And the presence of a very spooky world-class hired killer known only as John (or Jane) Doe keeps the tension wires at maximum tightness. Another fine performance from a writer ready to move up in weight and class. --Dick Adler

There is only one way to keep a witness from testifying....

It was supposed to be an easy job: baby-sit a pampered playboy hiding from the angry brothers of an ex-playmate. But someone had forgotten to tell professional bodyguard Atticus Kodiak a few relevant facts. Now Kodiak's been drawn into the crossfire of a multimillion-dollar game of cat and mouse, guarding a potential victim with an explosive story to tell, and pitted against one of the ten most dangerous assassins in the world. One man is a protector. The other is a destroyer. They have one thing in common. Neither will back down. Each will raise the stakes in a deadly duel of wits and skill where the first player to flinch...dies.

Private Wars (Queen and Country)

Only Greg Rucka, the thriller genre’s most fearless writer, would dare create a spy so edgy, so explosive, so extreme, she should be rated X.

Tara Chace was once the most dangerous woman alive. And now that the international spy network thinks she’s as good as dead, she’s even more dangerous than ever.

Only one thing could coax Tara back into the game: a chance to vindicate herself. The torture and execution of Dina Malikov has set off a cutthroat grab for power in strategically crucial Uzbekistan. Tara’s job is to slip into the country and extract Dina’s pro-Western husband and their young son before they are murdered—by his ruthless sister.

But there are a couple of wild cards in the deck, including a missing mobile weapons system that can bring down a commercial airliner, not to mention powerful political careers. Now, as she vanishes into hostile territory with a man who may or may not be what he seems, Tara is going to find out that the war on terror is more terrifying than anyone knows. For in a battle where betrayal is a conventional weapon, loyalty is a weakness, and anyone—even a child—is a legitimate target: it’s every spy, every woman, for herself.

Combine a thriller that defies every expectation with a heroine for whom nothing is out of bounds, and the result is Private Wars, a suspense novel so explosively realistic, it should be classified.


From the Hardcover edition.

"The action bristles and Rucka's way with amoral characters continues to seduce: Chace chases, chills, and somehow charms."--Kirkus Reviews


"Tara is often likened to a female James Bond (she can drink, sleep around and kill just like a man), but she's really more interesting than the comparison would suggest. These are well-researched, intriguingly complicated, exciting spy novels in the tradition of Adam Hall and his great series hero, Quiller."--Publishers Weekly


From the Hardcover edition.

Keeper

In a heartbeat, a crowded auditorium or a city street can become a kill zone, where life and death are separated by a split second. For Atticus Kodiak, professional bodyguard, the object is to keep people alive, and there is no margin for error. Now Kodiak faces his toughest challenge: to protect a woman and her daughter from a killer with a fanatic agenda of his own....

Tense, taut, and as brutally real as this morning's headlines, Keeper marks the debut of a talented young writer of tough, unflinching prose—and the beginning of an electrifying new series.

Shooting at Midnight

Greg Rucka has earned a devoted following for his edgy Atticus Kodiak thrillers, Finder, Keeper, and Smoker. Now, in an electrifying new suspense novel, Rucka puts us in the heart and brain of Kodiak's friend and lover, Bridgett Logan, a young woman living life on her own terms—and living it on the edge. Shooting at Midnight.

It began with a promise made to a friend, made when they were both teenagers. Now, years later, the friend wants to collect. All Bridgett Logan has to do is keep her word and the vow she made: Commit a murder. Now two men are desperately trying to find Bridgett.

One to save her. The other—to kill her.

Wolverine Vol. 1: The Brotherhood

The world's deadliest mutant Wolverine embarks on a dangerous mission of revenge, seeking justice for a young neighbor who was murdered in her sleep. Logan must use all of his lethal skills to take on a mysterious organization hell-bent on keeping its dark secrets hidden from the world.

Queen & Country, Vol. 3: Operation Crystal Ball

Collecting issues 8-12 of the Eisner-winning miniseries. Tara Chace races against the clock to stop a terrorist plot to unleash Sarin gas on the British citizenry-all in the midst of a burgeoning romance between herself and fellow Minder Ed Kittering. Presented in both trade paperback and a special hardcover strictly limited to initial orders. Featuring an exclusive gallery section.

Keeper/Finder (Atticus Kodiak Novels)