Profile: Atticus Kodiak

Atticus Kodiak is the fictional bodyguard created by Greg Rucka (M), first encountered in Rucka's debut novel Keeper (M). Atticus is not your run of the mill tough guy bodyguard, but rather a Brooks Bros suit wearing, secret service trained kind of professional bodyguard. He is both charming and deadly, depending on the situation. He has a strong moral code and a willingness, and the skills, to intervene when this code is violated. Just the type of guy you want in your corner when things get dicey...

"A fast paced thriller ... Kodiak is a man for the 90's. He's young, he's sensitive and he is politically astute. I like him." - Ottawa Citizen

"Keeper pulls at the heart-strings and brings a tear to the eyes.... a remarkable first novel." -Orlando Sentinel

Here is the publisher's description of book one, Keeper:

"In a heartbeat, a crowded auditorium or a city street can become a kill zone, where life and death are separated by a split second. For Atticus Kodiak, professional bodyguard, the object is to keep people alive, and there is no margin for error. Now Kodiak faces his toughest challenge: to protect a woman and her daughter from a killer with a fanatic agenda of his own.... Tense, taut, and as brutally real as this morning's headlines,Keepermarks the debut of a talented young writer of tough, unflinching prose--and the beginning of an electrifying new series."

The series is now seven novels deep, with the latest, Walking Dead (M) published in 2009.

"In Rucka's adrenaline-filled seventh novel to feature ex-bodyguard Atticus Kodika (after Patriot Acts), Atticus and his ex-assassin lover, Alena Cizkova, are living under assumed names in the remote town of Kobuleti in the Republic of Georgia. When the family of their next-door neighbor, Bakhar Lagidze, is slaughtered and Bakhar's 14-year-old daughter, Tiasa, is kidnapped, Atticus vows to do anything to get her back. After discovering Tiasa was sold to pay off her father's debt, Atticus reluctantly immerses himself in the seedy world of human trafficking, which takes him across Eastern Europe to Nevada, with stops in Dubai and Amsterdam along the way. When the men he's chasing target Alena for retribution, she too goes on the run, with help from an unlikely source: hard-nosed New York PI-and Atticus's ex-lover-Bridgett Logan, last seen in Critical Space. Series fans who have come to expect a nonstop thrill ride with a topical angle won't be disappointed." - Library Journal