A Gentleman's Game (Queen and Country Novel Series #1) » (Reprint)

Born in San Francisco, Greg Rucka was raised on the Monterey Peninsula. He is the author of Private Wars, A Gentleman’s Game, and six previous thrillers, as well as numerous comic books, including the Eisner Award—winning Whiteout: Melt. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family.


From the Hardcover edition.

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.

Throw away the old rules, the old school, the old-boy network. The world of international espionage is about to learn the hard way that spying is no longer merely…
A Gentleman's Game
Greg Rucka’s electrifying thrillers have pushed the boundaries of suspense fiction to where few have dared to go. Now, in A Gentleman’s Game, one of the genre’s most fearless writers brings readers of international espionage his most
fearless heroine yet: a no-holds-barred woman who’s as lethal as an assassin’s bullet.

When an unthinkable act of terror devastates London, nothing will stop Tara Chace from hunting down those responsible. Her job is simple: stop the terrorists before they strike a second time. To succeed, she’ll do anything and everything it takes. She’ll have to kill again.

Only this time the personal stakes will be higher than ever before. For the terrorist counterstrike will require that Tara allow herself to be used as bait by the government she serves. This time she’s turning her very life into a weapon that can be used only once. But as she and her former mentor race toward destiny at a remote terrorist training camp in Saudi Arabia, Tara begins to question just who’s pulling the trigger—and who’s the real enemy. In this new kind of war, betrayal can takeany form...including one’s duty to queen and country.

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.

Publishers Weekly

Inspired by his Eisner Award-winning Queen & Country graphic novel series, the author of the adrenaline-charged Atticus Kodiac thrillers (Critical Space) offers up this British cloak-and-dagger hardcover introducing Tara Chase, an intrepid, relentless female assassin. In a coolly orchestrated terrorist raid chillingly reminiscent of September 11, a well-trained trio of al Qaeda-linked fanatics bomb London subway trains at three major stations, killing 372. In retaliation, Minder One (the head assassin of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligent Service) Tara Chase is given the assignment of killing Dr. Faud bin Abdullah al-Shimmari, a Saudi Arabian religious leader. She can't undertake an operation inside Faud's high-security Saudi homeland, but when the Mossad gets involved on a mission of its own, the hit is scheduled to take place on Yemeni soil. In a bit of bad luck, Chase completes her primary mission with a daring hit on Faud inside the Great Mosque, but ignites international outrage when she blows away a Saudi prince, too. As a result, her queen and countrymen betray her, and she is forced to flee with one final chance to avoid being sacrificed as a pawn in a worldwide political chess game. Though a trifle muddled by bureaucratese, the novel's superb pacing, offbeat characters, wry plot twists and damning insight into oily schizoid Middle Eastern diplomacy add up to an engrossing read. Agent, David Hale Smith at DHS Literary Inc. (Oct. 5) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.