Alpha

March 26, 2012
This pulse-pounding first in a new thriller series from bestseller Rucka (The Last Run) introduces special operative Jonathan “Jad” Bell. Back in the States and recently divorced after missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Bell accepts a high-level security job at WilsonVille, a fictional Disney rival in California, where unbeknownst to his WilsonVille bosses, his real job is to monitor potential attacks on the park. Meanwhile, a Russian from Odessa who’s been groomed over several years to be a sleeper agent, lands a summer job at WilsonVille, where he’s known as college student Gabriel Fuller. Fuller and his team first release botulinum toxin into the park’s air, setting off an evacuation. Later, they threaten to detonate a dirty bomb and kill the hostages they’ve taken, including Bell’s deaf 16-year-old daughter, Athena. Bell must weigh his duties as a soldier and a father, while racing against the clock. Rucka mixes suspense and an alarmingly realistic plot with ease. Agent: David Hale, DHS Literary.

July 1, 2012
In Rucka's latest (The Last Run, 2010, etc.), the sneak attack on WilsonVille--world's largest theme park--is no Mickey Mouse operation. Master Sgt. Jad Bell, Delta Forces veteran, senses something catastrophic blowing in the wind and meant for WilsonVille. Of course he does. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been deployed there. Still, he doesn't know precisely where or exactly when, and his bosses tell him they don't either. Normally, he'd take that in stride, since it's really what his 18 years of training has always been about--uncertainty and the coping with it, no matter its shape or time of arrival. The circumstance that makes this different and unsettling, however, is a piece of information just received. Jad, undercover as deputy director in charge of park security, has suddenly learned that among the 60,000 likely visitors this coming Friday will be a contingent from the Hollyoakes School for the Deaf, a group that will include his adored daughter Athena as well as his ex-wife Amy. Switch now to young Gabriel Fuller, terrorist. Actually, he's a terrorist in training and has been for more than 10 years, a period during which he was charged with becoming seamlessly American. In the jargon of the trade, Gabriel is a sleeper--someone planted early on in a position to infiltrate, then later awakened for the sake of the mission: Inflict maximum damage from the inside. In that way, Gabriel has made himself a WilsonVille mainstay. Costumed as Pooch--feckless, endearingly clumsy, endlessly affectionate--he captures hearts and minds on a regular basis. The carefully planned attack is mounted, and hostages are taken, among them, inevitably, Jad's Athena. But Gabriel, too, has some nasty shocks awaiting him. Sometime-graphic-novelist Rucka again crosses genres with positive results. Not much new here, but energetically done and not a comic strip character in sight.

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from March 1, 2012

Rucka gets his new series featuring Ex-Delta Force Master Sergeant Jad Bell off to a smashing start with this pitch-perfect thriller. Bell, a former sniper team leader, has taken a security job at WilsonVille, a world-class theme park in California. Unbeknown to Jad, one of the park's costumed characters, Pooch (aka Gabriel), also ex-U.S. Army, is a sleeper agent for an Uzbek thug serving a man with global terrorist connections. On the very day that Jad's ex-wife and their deaf daughter plan to visit the park on a school field trip, Jad is warned about a dirty bomb hidden on the premises. VERDICT This lean, mean thriller with just the right amount of character development and unexpected complications will appeal to all who enjoy this genre but particularly to readers who like a strong hero along the lines of Lee Child's Jack Reacher. Highly recommended.--Ron Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2012
Regular Rucka readers who might be upset that he's taken a break from the Queen and Country series should be mollified with this new novel's interesting setting (a Disneyland-style theme park called WilsonVille), a likable hero (former Delta Force soldier Jonathan Jad Bell), an appropriately clever villain (whose skills are definitely a match for Jad's), and a gripping story (involving a possible terrorist attack on the theme park). Rucka, who is also a noted author of graphic novels, knows how to construct a plot that keeps readers turning the pages, and this one's a real corker. Although there have been other books with a theme-park setting (including Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, 1990, of course, but also Larry Niven and Steven Barnes' Dream Park, 1981, Carl Hiaasen's Native Tongue, 1991, and Lincoln Child's Utopia, 2002), Rucka does a fine job of making WilsonVille feel like a brand-new environment. A very effective thriller that could also be the start of an interesting new series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)