Shopping Bag
My AccountYesterday we got a brief introduction to Greg Rucka and his blog, but today I would like to put the spotlight on the work he has produced:
Walking Dead (to be released April 2009)
Product Description:
In this explosive new thriller, Greg Rucka, the acclaimed author of Shooting at Midnight and Patriot Acts, sets bodyguard-turned-international-fugitive Atticus Kodiak on a one-man crusade where being willing to die for your ideals isn’t enough. You have to be willing to do much worse.…
I will take your place in times of danger.
As an ex-bodyguard, Atticus Kodiak knew the sentiment well. He’d once based his career on it. Now it could cost him more than just his livelihood—more than even his life. For as he wakes to the sound of gunfire, the nightmare is about to begin again.
Atticus knew very well that people came to a place like Kobuleti to hide. After all, that’s why he and Alena Cizkova had come to the secluded Georgian town in the former U.S.S.R. But Atticus never asked his friend and neighbor Bakhar Lagidze why he was in Kobuleti or what he might be hiding from. Now it’s too late. Bakhar and his family have been brutally murdered, and the thuggish local police chief has declared it a murder-suicide. Everyone—even Alena—seems satisfied to leave it at that.
Except for Atticus.
He knows what the police won’t acknowledge: that one person survived the bloodbath in the Lagidze household—their fourteen-year-old daughter. And the nightmare she’s about to experience will make her wish she’d died with the rest.
To rescue her Atticus must enter a web that takes him from Russia to Istanbul, that stretches from Dubai to Las Vegas. But what troubles Atticus the most is that Alena—once one of the world’s most dangerous assassins and a woman who fears nothing—is clearly terrified of what he’s uncovered. And as Atticus gets closer to learning why, the closer he gets to destroying the life they have made, and each other.
Product Description:
Love your country.
Fear your government.
Know your enemy.
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.
You cannot learn what you have learned and remain unchanged.
As a bodyguard, Atticus Kodiak once protected his clients against professional killers like Alena Cizkova, a.k.a. Drama. Now he is taking lessons from the world’s premier assassin.
I am not a murderer.
It begins with a shocking betrayal, a brutal ambush, and the murder of a friend. Atticus is about to discover that he’s been falsely identified as one of The Ten-a short list of the world’s most wanted assassins. And to survive, he’s going to have to become exactly what they’re accusing him of being: a stone-cold killer.
Yes, you are. You have only to meet your first victim…
Reviews:
“Rucka is a sharp and original thriller writer.”—Chicago Tribune
“Rucka’s Kodiak stories always read like wildfire.” —Dallas Morning News
“Rucka keeps the adrenaline level high throughout.”—San Francisco Chronicle
Product Description:
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.
Reviews:
“[T]he pace is good and the plot compelling. Best of all, Rucka’s protagonists are well-rounded and sympathetic, convincingly resourceful and refreshingly low-key. Solidarity and friendship are as important as weaponry and tactics in this satisfying, character-driven thriller.” Publishers Weekly
“A skillfully orchestrated cat-and-mouse game during which cat and mouse have a most entertaining way of switching roles…. Deftly plotted, elegantly written: might just be the thriller of the year.” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Product Description:
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.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.
Reviews:
“[A] palpable sense of danger drives the narrative….[A] breathless barrage of betrayal and brutality….[A] crime novel that, if not strictly realistic, possesses a relentless and nearly irresistible force.” Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
“First-rate suspense….Strong writing and intelligent plotting, but best of all are Rucka’s characters: edgy, complex, interesting to a one. And [Bridgett] is a triumph.” Kirkus Reviews
Product Description:
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.
Reviews:
“Outstanding…The characters are splendid, the action non-stop, and the writing first-rate. What more could you want?”-The Plain Dealer, Cleveland
“Engaging…Suspense-filled…Smoker is one of those books that unfolds so vividly, it will give the reader the feeling that they saw the movie.” -Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Product Description:
As a bodyguard, Atticus Kodiak knows danger is part of the job. But he still can’t shake his guilt over his best friend’s death in their last assignment. As a bouncer at a hard-core club on the Lower West Side, Atticus is responsible for nothing more than keeping the scene under control. Until he sees Erika Wyatt, the teenage daughter of an Army colonel Atticus once guarded. Stalked by a cold-eyed commando fondling a wicked knife, Erika draws Atticus back into the protection business. In a case built on lies, vengeance, and sins of the past, Atticus is pulled into a vortex of treachery and violence, and learns that a promise can be the most dangerous weapon of all…
Reviews:
“The action is nonstop.” The Boston Globe
“[A] top-notch thriller….Rucka makes superb use of crisp, understated prose, complex and enigmatic characters, highly charged emotions, breakneck pacing, and a brilliantly original, cleverly engineered plot. A powerhouse of a story that will leave readers gasping.” Booklist
Product Description:
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 fanatical 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.
Reviews:
“Rucka’s prose is clean and visual, his characterizations and dialogue are economical and his storytelling scoots along at a fast clip.” Publishers Weekly
“An impressive debut….Keeper is one to hang on to.” People
Product Description:
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.
Reviews:
“Overcomplicated, of course — it’s a spy novel — but the action bristles and Rucka’s way with amoral characters continues to seduce: Chace chases, chills and somehow charms.” Kirkus Reviews
“Rucka provides an initial glossary to help with the numerous acronyms that…lend his many-layered tale an air of authenticity. Suspenseful and action-packed, this spy thriller is recommended.” Library Journal
Product Description:
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.
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.
Reviews:
“By mining the world of his award-winning Q&C comics, Greg Rucka has crafted his finest novel yet….And it doesn’t hurt that Chace is the most tough-as-nails-but-still-shag-worthy secret agent since Mata Hari. (Grade: A)” Entertainment Weekly
“There are echoes of le Carré here, to be sure, although the tone is less cerebral. Those who know The Sandbaggers will be intrigued, but the novel will also interest anyone with a taste for classic British espionage. A sequel would be most welcome.” Booklist
