In my quest to bring you a bunch of books that you have probably seen but never bought, I’m recommending  to you. Queen & Country. Greg Rucka built a world of espionage that is not quite 24, not quite James Bond with a bit of romance and tons of action thrown in.  If you really want to get hooked on characters, and espionage gets you off, this is a book you will need to add to your collection.

Tara Chace is a secret agent for the SIS, one of 6 known as Minders.  The Minders are like the super secret Jack Bauer badasses for the UK.  These people are snipers capable of sitting still for days or people that can get across four countries to deliver a bomb without getting flagged by security.  This is some really intense stuff.  Volume 1 follows Tara through her mental recovery from a painful mission she completes at the beginning of the book.  Sounds like it could be drab, but it’s far from it.  It’s a psychological mind bender where people lose their lives, and entire countries teeter on the brink of war.

In between Tara’s chain smoking rehabilitation, Paul Crocker (her superior) is attempting to keep his agency from abandoning itself after a rocket blast decimates half their building.  Not to mention the CIA, who are apparently always trying to put leverage on anyone that might be able to provide intelligence on anything.

This world  is full of twists and turns, and some meaningless but ultra violent actions.  I don’t know how true to life it is, but a story that ends on 9-11 definitely has some things to say about our current conflict.  Inked and drawn by a variety of artists, Queen and Country is always beautifully rendered except for one unfortunate bit in the beginning entitled “Interlude.”  I don’t know what style they were looking for, but it was lost on me.

Oni’s thick paperback more than makes up for the $20 price tag.  This isn’t something you are likely to finish in a day, and if you do finish it, I’m willing to bet you would need another read through just to process the scope of the story.  It would be interesting to see how the series stacks up as a whole.

Greg Rucka’s careful writing and deliberate attention to detail make for some fantastic characters, made stronger only by stellar art and a well thought out plot.

-Richard Bashara

Rich@ComicImpact.com