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


From Publishers Weekly
Vulnerable macho heroes are always in demand. Here, as in his two previous outings (Finder and Keeper), Rucka's Atticus Kodiak fits the bill in spite of his unlikely name. A personal security specialist ("bodyguard" to the unenlightened) with a bad rep from a botched job, Atticus parlays a new job offer from fellow bodyguard Elliott Trent into a flush gig protecting a "smoking gun" witness from an international assassin hired by Big Tobacco. Anti-tobacco lawyers fortify a Westchester mansion to keep the witness alive, and Kodiak and Trent share guard duties in a very uneasy (and suspenseful) peace. Trent's daughter, Natalie, a bodyguard herself and heir to Trent's sizable firm, adds fuel to the fire as Kodiak's secret lover and new business partner after a rift with Dad. This doesn't please Erika (Kodiak's teen ward), who is pulling for his estranged lover, Bridgett. The assassin's attempts, when they come, show evidence of an inside job and open a can of narrative worms so deftly deployed that readers will bite nearly every hook. Rucka juggles a large cast and complex plot with aplomb and packs enough real action and character depth to please a wide audience. Every nuanceAfrom high-tech security gizmos to personality quirks, the New York setting, and the surprising range of women charactersAcomplicates and deepens Atticus's victorious return. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
It is not enough that the tobacco industry has been slowly killing people for a century or two?now they've hired a mysterious contract killer to take out a witness to their nefarious deeds. In this third thriller by Rucka (Keeper, LJ 5/1/96; Finder, LJ 6/1/97), professional bodyguard Atticus Kodiak is hired to protect Jeremiah Pugh, a biomedical research scientist. Pugh is willing to testify that DTS Industries puts additives into their products to make them more addictive. If this allegation stands up, it will leave DTS open to lawsuits costing zillions of dollars. But Smoker, despite the title, is less concerned with the evil cigarette companies than with thwarting a clever killer?there's a lot of Hollywood, Steven Seagal stuff: guns, bombs, explosions, fighting. Several ongoing characters left over from the first two books are insufficiently reintroduced, and the plot line is minimal, but otherwise this is not a bad book for thriller fans.?Dawn L. Anderson, North Richland Hills P.L., TXCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Jerry Pugh, former head of research at one of the world's largest tobacco companies, has agreed to testify that the company orchestrated its advertising to appeal to kids and that research was focused on more addictive cigarettes. Bodyguard Atticus Kodiak is hired not to guard Pugh, rumored to be the target of an infamous hitman, but to guard a red herring whom Pugh's lawyers hope the assassin will mistake for Pugh. Kodiak is not informed of the ruse and isn't pleased when a hit is attempted. Finally hired to guard the real target, Kodiak oversees Pugh's protection in the face of ever-increasing violence and the suspicion that Pugh may be more at risk from internal than external forces. This exciting, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of high-stakes personal security offers myriad details regarding procedure, weaponry, and the mental chess game that takes place between killer and protector. Kodiak's soap opera^-like personal relationships hurt the book a bit, but not enough to seriously detract from an exciting action adventure. Wes Lukowsky


From Kirkus Reviews
Bombs, bullets, and killings galore in a third adventure for bodyguard Atticus Kodiak. After burning up a dozen pages untangling loose ends from Finder (1997), Rucka brings his brooding, sufficiently alienated noirish action hero, who drinks boutique beer and bakes his own bread, within spitting distance of his erstwhile employer, Elliott Trent. Trent, though leery of Kodiak's lone-wolf ways, still wants him to guard Carter Dean (a.k.a. Jeremiah Pugh), a sleazy New York yuppie whos been getting death threats from the brothers of a woman Dean refuses to marry. Kodiak, living under a cloud from botched jobs in his past, reluctantly accepts, letting Natalie, Trents estranged daughter and Kodiak's current lover, lend an assist. After Natalie blows away a machine-guntoting killer, Trent informs Kodiak that the dead man was the infamous ``John Doe,'' one of ten international assassins so accomplished that nobody knows who they are, what they look like, when they're about to strike, or how to hire them. Soon enough, Kodiak learns that Carter Dean was a decoy used to lure John Doe into the open. It seems that Doe has been hired to kill the real Jeremiah Pugh, a former tobacco industry executive prepared to offer damning testimony in a lawsuit against his former company. But not even Neil Lamia, the industry's pricey lawyer, can believe his good-ole-boy clients would sic a deluxe hit man on Pugh. Kodiak and his bodyguard buddies soon become victims themselves in an absurdist drama as they routinely question, doubt, then deny that far-fetched villainy is afoot, only to discover bombs, bullets, and worse awaiting them around the corner. Kodiak not only has to protect Pugh from further assaults but has to figure out, from among a pack of suspects (both male and female), just who John Doe really is. Tiresome, preposterous plotting in an otherwise compelling tale filled with well-drawn, believable people and nicely turned- out scenes. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"A megathriller. Put Rucka on the short 'must read' list."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"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

"Compelling...[Kodiak] is one of the more empathetic characters in contemporary thrillerdom."
--The Dallas Morning News

"Packs enough real action and character depth to please a wide audience...Victorious."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

What critics are saying about Greg Rucka:

"Impressive."
--People

"Remarkable."
--The Orlando Sentinel

"Full of surprises."
--Houston Chronicle

Don't miss any of the novels of one of today's top suspense writers:

Keeper

Finder

and coming soon in hardcover

Shooting at Midnight

FROM OUR EDITORS

In Smoker, Greg Rucka's fast-paced and entertaining pulse-pounder, it appears that down-and-out bodyguard Atticus Kodiak is in way over his head, especially when he's matched against one of the most deadly, efficient, and skilled assassins in the world. Smoker is a taut, gripping, and suspenseful jackhammer of a thriller.

FROM THE PUBLISHER