I first encountered Greg Rucka in the pages of his Oni Press graphic novel White Out, a tale of a US Marshal dealing with murder in the Antarctic.
Fell in love.
I’ve kept my eyes open since then, and found Rucka running the core of DC’s Batman books. And he’s done a great noir/crime/detective bit there. Not perfect, but while he deals with personalities, mysteries, and crime (and stays away from super-power stuff) he does great.
I became aware a few months back that he’s actually written “real” books, too. I picked up the first one of his Atticus Kodiak series, Keeper, a week or so back.
Good, good stuff.
I became a fan of Robert Parker and his Spenser series quite some time ago. Keeper and Kodiak remind me of Spenser in the Good Ol’ Days, before Parker became comfortable with his formula (which formula is good enough, mind you, to keep me reading each new installment, not to mention his other two series). In some ways, Rucka outdoes Parker. His Kodiak is less philosophical, and doesn’t spend as much time in the kitchen, but Rucka does his research, and when he talks “body guard” talk, it feels authentic. It may or may not be, but it feels that way.
In Keeper, Kodiak, a professional bodyguard, gets a job protecting a prominent doctor who is the target of anti-abortion activists. Things get deadly very quickly, and Kodiak and his team have their work cut out for them keeping the activists — and others — at bay … not always successfully.
Like Spenser, Kodiak is the archetypical tough guy (though he doesn’t discuss it nearly as much). Both men are strong on the outside, passionate and oddly vulnerable on the inside. I think the two of them would end up either as fast friends or in a macho fist fight within minutes. I suspect Kodiak would think Spenser a bit pretentious, and Spenser think Kodiak decent but dull.
Rucka handles the abortion issue with decent balance. Anti-abortion folks range from lunatics to demogogues to folks who simply feel it’s wrong. Pro-choice folks don’t get quite the range, but Kodiak, dealing with his own issues here, gets to express some of the sad ambivalence of many folks on the pro-choice side of the debate. Given that much of the book centers around an upcoming conference trying to find a non-violent way to deal with the debate, Rucka does a reasonable job of being balanced while not being blandly neutral on the subject.
If there’s any flaw in this 1996 book, it’s that Rucka isn’t content to give Kodiak some down time. Instead, he moves him (and his team) through increasing threats and dangers, not to mention personal emotional turmoil. There’s almost a Saturday Serial feel to it, as though whatever disaster Kodiak has just been through, Rucka feels compelled to trump it a chapter or two later. Kodiak doesn’t actually act so much as react to the various things that happen. We feel for him enough that we forgive him this, but I’ll be curious to see how or if it changes in future books.
Because there are future books. Rucka’s written four or five since then. And I’m confident enough in what I’ve read that I’ve already purchased all the ones that have made it into paperback, as well as a couple other works of his.
If you enjoy Spenser, or the whole Chandler/Runyon tough-PI-with-a-heart-of-gold-and-feet-of-clay genre, you’ll enjoy Keeper.
WOW! I’m hooked. Got yourself a new reader, Dave.
I think the whole thing hinged on mentioning Spenser/Parker. Avid fan. I’m going to have to check out this other writer you’ve mentioned now because, frankly, Parker can’t write fast enough for me. That, and now that there’s no hope in one of his books being made into a movie-of-the-week starring Robert Urich……………
Anyhow, looking forward to reading through the archives (I’m obsessive about catching up on everything in my favorite blogs….)
Beautiful child, there. Katherine is absolutely beautiful.
Thank you, Joan. We think she’s pretty special, too.
On Spenser, I, too, got pulled in via the Urich TV series, though going back later I could see how the vagueries of network TV did a pretty awful job of adopting the novels. I’m not a huge fan of the Mantegna TV movies, but at least they took some time and were relatively faithful to the books.
I pretty regularly read everything Parker puts out, but more and more it feels like just slipping into a worn, faded, well-made but not-terribly-presentable bath robe. The most recent yarns feel more like he’s going through the (well-compensated) motions, compared to A Catskill Eagle, Early Autumn, or Looking for Rachel Wallace.
Thanks for the kind words.
You know what gets me about the Mantenga shows? HAWK. He’s hardly Spenser’s contemporary. It just irks me to no end.
Let me tell you something. I never watched Spenser until I’d read the books. I came in later to the series. But, on going through and watching the bulk of the shows, I was amazed to see Robert Urich grow into the role. And, I mean that literally. He BECAME more and more physically like Spenser is described in the books. And, then…..Avery Brooks. To me, he’ll always be Hawk.
The books, sigh. I’ll always read ’em. I have to. I’m hooked. It’s sad but true. Parker could hire Tom Clancy’s group to push the books out and I’d most likely continue.
On Katherine……enjoy the early stuff! It goes by so quickly.
Oh, I agree — Urich and Brooks were perfect in their roles.
I’ve probably read through the Spenser series four or five times (with higher counts for some individual books). I’m sure I’ll reread them again.