"Walking Dead", by Greg Rucka

Book 7, featuring Atticus Kodiak

This series and author is new to me, I realize starting with the 7th instalment is not ideal but with "Walking Dead" I was quickly hooked. Although it may have been most helpful to have read the previous books, I immediately felt comfortable in the story and found it could easily stand by its own.

Written in the first person in a clear and concise prose the story grabs the attention from the start with its action, timely plot and stone cold protagonists that have been tested over and over and pushed to the edge seemingly right into the abyss at times. Do not fear as in all great thrillers the characters are like the energiser bunny...they just keep on going...

This riveting storyline opens with Atticus and his lover Alena living in Kobuleti, Georgia, a place where they felt they could start a new life and distance themselves from the past. Their neighbours, the Lagidze family appear to have done the same. One day suddenly everything changes when the Lagidze family is slaughtered and Tiasa, the 14 year old daughter, is abducted. At this point Atticus swears to move heaven and hell to find Tiasa and give her a chance to live a life without fear. When Atticus discovers that Tiasa has been sold to sex traffickers to pay her father's debt, he becomes even more determined to find her; the trail takes him to Dubai, Amsterdam and Las Vegas.

While on the home front we see a second thread quickly developing one as important as the first: Alena narrowly escapes an attack and a terrible fire'..at this point I wondered if there was a possible link to the kidnapping or something from their past coming to back to haunt them? The suspense just kept on growing.

This thriller is very captivating and one of the best I have read in a long time. The storyline is well-crafted with plenty of brutal and never ending action that exploits the dark side of human trafficking and the political shenanigans that it often attracts. The scenes are crawling with details that are sure to raise goose bumps. I was emotionally invested in Atticus; I wanted him to succeed regardless. This cleverly written thriller will leave you on a reader's high.