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(More customer reviews)"The Last Run," by Greg Rucka, is the third in his Queen and Country series featuring the tough-minded, intrepid, and fiercely determined Tara Chace. Tara's life has not been a walk in the park. She had to grow up quickly; her parents separated when she was ten, and her mother sent her away to boarding school. During her last year in Cambridge, Tara was recruited by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service. She agreed to join the Firm as a fledgling spy who, thanks to her sharp mind, fluency in four languages, and incredibly quick learning curve, became a Minder or Special Operations Officer. She learned every aspect of tradecraft, but even her consummate skill did not protect her from being "stripped, beaten, tortured, and nearly raped in Uzbekistan." She survived, and managed to work her way up Head of Section for the SIS, under the supervision of Paul Crocker, Director of Operations.
After spending nearly a decade at Vauxhill Cross, Chace declares that she has "outlived [her] operational usefulness to the Firm." As a single parent of a five-year-old daughter, Tara wants to spend more time at home, and is willing to stick around only until the necessary personnel changes can be made. However, her plan to leave Special Operations for a less stressful and time-consuming job may have to be put on hold. It seems that a high-level target from an important Iranian family wants to defect to the West, and Tara may be the only individual who can be trusted to extract him successfully.
Although Crocker wants to keep Tara from embarking on a potentially dangerous mission, he must answer to Chief of Service Alison Gordon-Palmer, known as "C," a self-serving woman whose main concerns are her government's image and her own reputation. It is her firm belief that the well-being of British assets must occasionally be sacrificed in the national interest. When conditions in Iran become unstable, Tara and her colleagues must face the possibility that they will be written off as collateral damage.
This is a succinctly written, suspenseful, darkly humorous, and fast-paced novel, with a large cast of well-defined characters, evocative settings, and an ingeniously constructed plot. Rucka includes all of the elements that aficionados of this genre adore, including cryptography, surveillance, chase sequences, gunplay, and a final twist that few will see coming. The author moves back and forth between England and Iran, manipulating his chess pieces brilliantly and keeping the adrenaline level high. Everything works: the dialogue is sharp, the premise is intricate but believable, and the book's climax is so tense that it is impossible to put the novel aside until the story is played out. "The Last Run" is a entertaining and timely espionage thriller that is arguably one of Rucka's best works of fiction to date.
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The game of espionage catches up to everyone in the end. Now, in Greg Rucka's sensational new Queen & Country thriller, the world's most lethal woman embarks on one final and all-too-likely fatal mission. For nearly a decade Tara Chace has been Britain's top covert agent. But Chace is past her expiration date. Her body hurts. Her nerves are scrambled. She's ready for a desk job, the quiet role of mentor to a new generation of special operations officers. But before her replacement can be chosen, there's one last job for Queen and country . . . and it may be the last thing she does. Ever. The assignment begins with an enigmatic message from Iran—a message made all the more perplexing not just by its cryptic code but by its apparent dispatcher. But what if the long-dormant cipher is a trap meant to entice Iran's enemies into the open? There's only one way to find out—and only one agent who can do it: Tara Chace. Soon Chace is on the ground in Tehran leading an extraction team toward a high-profile defector. But obtaining him is one thing, getting him out of the country will be another. For with the likelihood of a double cross at every turn, Chace knows that chaos can erupt in a heartbeat. And when it does, it's far worse than even she expects. Now, if she's to have a future, Chace must survive any way she can. And that means one thing hasn't changed: Tara Chace is never the hunted. She's always the hunter.
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