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When Greg Rucka's first novel, Keeper, was published, readers were immediately fascinated by its hero. Alert and skilled, bodyguard Atticus Kodiak could protect his clients from almost any danger, but he sometimes fell prey to his own emotions. This combination of toughness and vulnerability attracted even more fans in Finder. Now, in Smoker, Atticus is about to meet his most elusive foe. The job sounds straight enough: test the security of the crew protecting a key witness in a landmark case against a tobacco company. All Atticus has to do is make sure there are no holes in their surveillance. But one of the ten most dangerous contract killers in the world is training his sights on both the witness and Atticus. Greg Rucka cranks up the suspense as the boundary between hunter and target begins to blur. Spiced with the latest technological tools of the security trade, zinging with split-second decisions, Smoker is enhanced by narrator George Wilson's superb dramatic performance.… (more)
User reviews
The third installment in the series is the best yet. There is a part of me that is turned off all the testosterone in the Atticus Kodiak series, but they books certainly do not lack in the suspense department. Smoker proved to be an entertaining and fun reading experience. Atticus continues to try and build up his reputation, blaming himself for past mistakes even though in truth, he had little control over what had gone wrong. As the series progresses, he is a much more human and real character and less of an action figure, although there is still plenty of that to go around. Readers see more of Natalie Trent, one of the strong female protagonists of the series that you do not want to mess with, in this novel.
Instead, the real John Doe is still focused on the real target, the tobacco case witness. A couple of things happen and Trent is forced to let Atticus and his crew in on the protection. The day comes when the killer says the target will be killed – nothing happens except the court reporter who has to file the transposed deposition with the court is killed and the transcript stolen. This means the deposition has to be done again.
Atticus goes off the case then the principal says he won’t testify without Atticus and Natalie (who has quit Sentinel because of her father’s little stunt) and their crew. So he’s back on and the 2nd deposition day is now the last chance the assassin has of hitting his target. Except John Doe is now Jane Doe and she has bugged Atticus’ apartment and knows all their plans. By the time Atticus discovers this, it’s almost too late to come up with another plan. They do but it’s of little use. Jane Doe gets very close but she doesn’t succeed. She isn’t killed either. She slips away.
This book does feature very effective pacing and centers on an intriguing plot
As in the case of the aforementioned action films, though, this book features plot implausibilities galore (which I will not bother fleshing out). Dialogue occasionally draws attention with its predictability and use of cliches. And besides the protagonist, don't expect any interesting or complex characters: everybody's pretty much from the Acme catalog.
Notable is Rucka's overdue character treatments - they are less objects for him to perform violence with, and have a little more depth to them. The plot inconsistencies are lessened, and one gets the sense that Rucka is beginning to get two very important things right:
First, he seems to display an undercurrent in the storyline that indicates that this will be a prolonged series. For better or worse. He's giving us more real-to-life characters and developing their interactions as if they were more than just objects for his violence.
Second, Rucka finally seems to be taking his story line seriously - where the first two books (KEEPER and FINDER) seem focused primarily on describing violence, Rucka appears to be trying to learn something about the subject matter he's chosen. This translates into a deeper, more cogent story.
More to com - my son is providing me with a copy of SHOOTER AT MIDNIGHT (4th in the series) and I'll be following that with CRITICAL SPACE (the 5th title).
I do hope that my shoulder heals before my brain turns to tapioca.