Walking Dead Review

Author Greg Rucka Brings Back Atticus Kodiak to Tackle the Sex Trade

Oct 26, 2009

Greg Rucka (Patriot Games) consistently writes best sellers. In Walking Dead, the Atticus Kodiak series earns its reputation for absorbing and socially critical fiction.

Comic book writer and novelist Greg Rucka has seen considerable success on many fronts, but none so much as with his long-running series of novels featuring bodyguard Atticus Kodiak. First appearing in Keeper, Kodiak captured fans' imaginations with his exploits, taking on jobs that inevitably turned out to be more complicated than they looked and that always involved some kind of moral decision along the way. Despite the high adventure inherent in the series, Rucka keeps his novels feeling down-to-earth with regular injections of information gleaned from his own training as a fighter and an EMT. His research into the mechanics and tactics of professional body guarding earned him plaudits for the first books of the series.

Now in its seventh installment, the Atticus Kodiak series has come a long way from its roots in the New York body guarding community. Despite the change of venue, Rucka maintains his commitment to non-stop action and a moral core for his character, while taking on yet another major source of human misery in the world--the international trade in women and children for sexual exploitation.

Atticus Kodiak and his lover, erstwhile hitwoman Alena, have found a peaceful retreat in the remote Georgian village of Kobuleti. They mostly keep to themselves, but have made friends with their neighbors, the Lagidzes, whom they suspect are also in hiding from a darker past. When gunmen invade the neighbors' house, killing the couple and their eight-year-old son, Kodiak finds himself drawn into business that is not his own. In addition to the murders, the gunmen have kidnapped the Lagidze's fourteen-year-old daughter, who will be sold to pay her father's debt.

Despite Alena's warnings that he is endangering the safety of their retreat, Kodiak feels compelled to rescue the girl from a life of sexual abuse and torture. Working on his own, he tracks the girl across the globe, to such disparate places as Turkey, Dubai, and Las Vegas. Along the way he leaves a trail of dead or wounded bad guys, much to the reader's delight. Kodiak's journey through the underworld of forced prostitution and sex slavery provides an unflinching education in the realities of a trade that topped $8 billion in 2006 and reaches into every country in the world. Of course, Rucka makes sure his readers do not mind the education, keeping them busy with nonstop action, thoroughly unlikeable villains, and a satisfying, if also realistic conclusion.

Rucka was a good writer at the beginning of this series and has continued to improve his craft. Although some of the mid-series Kodiak novels lacked the narrative drive that makes his early work so compelling, Walking Dead keeps the reader involved from the first page. Rucka is a master at creating the kind of momentum that keeps the reader engrossed long past the time he or she intended to take a break. Each chapter leads into the next with a seamless flow and the plot, while engagingly complex, is never too convoluted or confusing. The fight scenes are well written and the tactics and problem-solving element of the search are also quite believable and entertaining.

Unlike many action/adventure writers, Rucka never sacrifices character development for action. Even in this novel, with only one primary character, the humanity and fallibility of that character makes for easy empathy from the reader (and perhaps a bit of envy at Kodiak's coolness). Rucka also manages to make his secondary characters interesting and believable. His sympathetic characters, even those making very short appearances, are rounder than his villains, but even the bad guys are consistent and realistic.

Historically, Kodiak worked with a cast of characters, a close-knit group of friends from which he became estranged through his relationship with Alena. For most of this novel, Kodiak (seeming very much like Lee Child's Jack Reacher) works alone, but in the end he must call in old debts of friendship, even as his former friends continue to resent him. This tie-in to earlier works is fulfilling for readers of the series, but does nothing to detract from the enjoyment of those who are new to the character.

Rucka's fans expect great things from him and with Walking Dead, he delivers even more than anticipated. The novel is pitch-perfect in its balance of action and moral outrage. Rucka continues to impress.

The copyright of the article Walking Dead Review in Thriller Fiction is owned by Nancy Baker. Permission to republish Walking Dead Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.