A Fistful of Rain

Rating:
Summary: Okay, so I work with Greg Rucka on comics...
Review: ...but that doesn't mean I don't know a good novel when I read one. And A FISTFUL OF RAIN is a damn good novel.

What impresses me most--and likely will impress anyone who has read Rucka's previous books (and who hasn't?)--is that as far as his prose work is concerned, this is new and exciting territory. In the Atticus Kodiak novels, you have Atticus Kodiak as your focus character--a bodyguard who is a pretty straight shooter and tells it like it is. He's a very reliable and meticulous person, and so using him as the authorial POV makes for a reliable story.

Mim in A FISTFUL OF RAIN is none of these things--and she's telling the story in first person. This makes for a wholly different kind of read, where the reader is never on stable ground. Thus ratcheting the suspense up even further than normal.

Now, Rucka has always been intrigued by flawed characters. No one in his other books is perfect, and they are all the more endearing for it. This is something he pushes to the limits in FISTFUL. Mim can be blindingly stupid and make you incredibly angry for some of the choices she makes--yet since Greg is an author who cares about this character, he knows how to make you care, as well. You don't love her in spite of her failings, but because of them.

Ultimately, though, what keeps a reader hooked to a Rucka novel is on ample display here--and that's excitement. I think there is always a point of no return in Greg's books, where you have been dropped into the middle of the action and you just can't put the novel down until you are done. If that's what you love in the Kodiak adventures, then you're all set in A FISTFUL OF RAIN.

Rating:
Summary: Too Little, Too Late
Review: After enjoying a lot of success with his Atticus Kodiak series, a series that has made me a true fan, Greg Rucka has followed it up with this stand-alone story. While it definitely has its moments in terms of providing a tense thriller, I found that the story didn't quite ring true to me. I'll explain why a little later.

The story is told from the first person point of view of Mim Bracca. From the outside it would appear that Mim has it all. She's a member of a Tailhook, a rock band that is riding a wild wave of success that seems like it will never end. But Mim is haunted by her past and the early tragedies that shaped her life.

After her father was sent to prison for the murder of her mother, Mim and her brother were sent to a series of foster homes with varying levels of success. Mim became what could delicately be termed a "problem child" and her experiences could be directly related to her alcoholism now.

It's her problem with alcohol that eventually leads her to be confronted by the lead singer of the band while on tour with the news that Mim is being temporarily rested from the band because they consider her drinking to have gotten out of control. After spending the previous two days alternately blacked out or vomiting, Mim doesn't have much of an argument and is soon aboard a plane bound for her home in Portland, Oregon.

When she arrives home, nursing a hangover from the flight, she is confronted by a man on her doorstep and then abducted at gunpoint. It's an unusual abduction because she is thrown into the back of a van, forced to strip naked and then is driven around for a while before being dumped back at her own home. Confused and scared, she rings the police but when she tells them her story they are very sceptical and take little action.

Mim's response to her ordeal, as it is with most situations, is to get completely and utterly rat-faced drunk. From this point her life begins to nosedive as she experiences personal tragedy (response: get drunk), is publicly humiliated (response: get drunk), is blackmailed (response: get drunk), her father is kidnapped (response: well...you get the idea).

After what seems like an eternity Mim finally takes some sort of control of the situation and comes up with an idea about who is blackmailing her and how she can fight her way out of the problem. What annoyed me the most about Mim's helplessness was her utter refusal to let anyone else, such as the police, help her in any way. I don't yell at books very often, but I sure did this time, pleading with her to get some bloody help before we ran out of pages.

I found the way that Mim's alcoholism was dealt with to be extremely frustrating and unrealistic. Here was a rich and famous young woman who was sent home by her fellow band members to "dry out", yet she was given absolutely no support at all. In fact, she was just shoved on a plane by herself, expected to go home where she lived alone and then, all be herself, she had to "dry out".

Just a little bit of help from someone would have served the duel purpose of giving the story some added interest, and it would have helped move things along a little more quickly.

Finally, things begin to fall into place after numerous disagreements with the police which I simply found annoying and distracting. Once Mim pulls herself together the action picks up and we are treated to an ending with one or two unexpected twists. But on the whole I found the book rather disappointing with the resolution leaving me with a feeling that it was too little, too late.

Rating:
Summary: New Characters
Review: Cheers to an author who can change the usual characters and get a new voice. Rucka is a talent. Doesn't always score high, but keeps things interesting. In a world of cookie cutter books, that is something.

Rating:
Summary: A Fistful Isn't Enough When It Comes To Greg Rucka
Review: First of all, a warning: Do not start this book unless you have the rest of the day to finish it. If you start it right before you go to bed, trust me - you won't sleep a wink. Once this book gets rolling, it's near impossible to put it down.

Greg Rucka once again creates a high-speed roller coaster of a novel - a novel that starts with a steep drop, followed by a brief moment to catch your breath, and then when you least expect it, you're sent down a wild loop-de-loop that doesn't slow down until the very last page.

As with Rucka's other books, the best thing the novel has going is the main character - but instead of the familiar Atticus Kodiak, this time Rucka introduces us to Mim. She's one of those love/hate characters. One moment you are sympathizing with her, but the next moment you just want to take her and slap her silly. She is one of the most unpredictable characters that you'll ever come across in fiction and the predicaments that she finds herself in are definitely some of the most unique.

This is pure mystery. You'll be guessing who's behind Mim's torment all the way up to the very last chapter - and everyone's a suspect. Is it the person you least expect, or the person you most expect? It's hard to tell, as Rucka is ruthless in his twists and turns throughout the novel. Just when you think you might have it all figured out, Rucka throws a curveball your way that makes you think twice, forcing you to keep reading out of anticipation and excitement.

Rating:
Summary: An Exciting Thrill Ride with a Little Substance
Review: Greg Rucka is a new author to me. This is the second book of his that I've read, and he is quickly becoming one of my favorites. "A Fistful of Rain", after the Warren Zevon song, is satisfying not only because of its pulse-pounding plot (which moves at breakneck speed), but because of the challenge of a male author writing from a first person, female point of view.

The story centers around Mim Bracca, a rock star who is temporarily ejected from her band because of her problems with alcohol. Upon her return home, she is kidnapped, forced to strip naked, and then returned home relatively unharmed. Things go from bad to worse, and soon Mim's brother Mikel finds that there are pornographic pictures of her on the Internet. The police try to get involved, but Mim is rather pigheaded, and they find their help unwanted at best. I won't go further into the plot, and for one major reason.

The mystery isn't all that mysterious. You'll have it solved before you're halfway through the book, and the only reason it's even remotely believable that Mim missed this rather glaringly obvious resolution is that she's drunk nearly the entire time.

One thing Rucka is famous for, however, is last minute twists, and boy, does this book pack one. He cleverly leads you on, making you believe that you have it all figured out, and reveals an accomplice (and I use the term loosely) in the penultimate chapter of the book. While the twist is surprising, it isn't very intelligent, as there is no possible way even the most hardcore mystery buff could guess at it. This may seem like a good idea, but it really isn't, because the accomplice isn't really given a decent motive even after he's unveiled, and so the whole thing comes off as rather stupid.

All in all, this is an action-packed book that reads incredibly quickly (start early in the day, because if you start in bed, you won't sleep until you're done), but with an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion. There isn't much to the book; if you want something that makes you think, try Neil Gaiman's "American Gods", which requires quite a bit of outside research. Despite my gripes, this is truly an exciting book, and with a little more work and experience, I can definitely see Rucka becoming a premier thriller writer, moreso than he already is.

Rating:
Summary: An Exciting Thrill Ride with a Little Substance
Review: Greg Rucka is a new author to me. This is the second book of his that I've read, and he is quickly becoming one of my favorites. "A Fistful of Rain", after the Warren Zevon song, is satisfying not only because of its pulse-pounding plot (which moves at breakneck speed), but because of the challenge of a male author writing from a first person, female point of view.

The story centers around Mim Bracca, a rock star who is temporarily ejected from her band because of her problems with alcohol. Upon her return home, she is kidnapped, forced to strip naked, and then returned home relatively unharmed. Things go from bad to worse, and soon Mim's brother Mikel finds that there are pornographic pictures of her on the Internet. The police try to get involved, but Mim is rather pigheaded, and they find their help unwanted at best. I won't go further into the plot, and for one major reason.

The mystery isn't all that mysterious. You'll have it solved before you're halfway through the book, and the only reason it's even remotely believable that Mim missed this rather glaringly obvious resolution is that she's drunk nearly the entire time.

One thing Rucka is famous for, however, is last minute twists, and boy, does this book pack one. He cleverly leads you on, making you believe that you have it all figured out, and reveals an accomplice (and I use the term loosely) in the penultimate chapter of the book. While the twist is surprising, it isn't very intelligent, as there is no possible way even the most hardcore mystery buff could guess at it. This may seem like a good idea, but it really isn't, because the accomplice isn't really given a decent motive even after he's unveiled, and so the whole thing comes off as rather stupid.

All in all, this is an action-packed book that reads incredibly quickly (start early in the day, because if you start in bed, you won't sleep until you're done), but with an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion. There isn't much to the book; if you want something that makes you think, try Neil Gaiman's "American Gods", which requires quite a bit of outside research. Despite my gripes, this is truly an exciting book, and with a little more work and experience, I can definitely see Rucka becoming a premier thriller writer, moreso than he already is.

Rating:
Summary: Twists. Turns. Great Writing. Terse Prose.
Review: I hadn't read any of Greg Rucka's earlier books, but when I stumbled across a review of A Fistful of Rain, I decided to give it a read. Now I know what I've been missing!

Rucka combines terse prose and sudden plot twists with an amazing ability to make you identify with the characters. But the real draw in Fistful is excitement -- I started reading it on my morning train-ride, and almost missed my stop. I considered spending the first few hours of the workday in a corner finishing it, but compromised by staying up late that night. Yes, it's that good.

Rating:
Summary: Rock and Roll, a Mystery and a Girl in Trouble
Review: Mim Bracca is the bad girl of rock and roll. She's the lead guitarist for the wildly popular bad Tailhook and she's been touring with the group for over a year due to the success of their third album. However as the group sours in the charts, Mim nose dives into the bottle and the band decides they'd be better off without her, so they do something Mick and his boys never would have done to Keith and they tell her it's hasta la vista time.

Kicked out of the band, Mim goes home and is grabbed by a person unknown right out of her house and made to ride around town nude in the back of a pickup truck, but other than the cold chill and the embarassement, she is returned home unharmed. More odd and strange things happen to her and at first she thinks maybe it's because of her drinking, she hasn't quit and doesn't take well to people suggesting that she ought to slow down. As more and more bad things happen, Mim figures out that someone is trying to kill her, so now she has to find out who and why.

Mim is a wounded and vulnerable person on the road to self-destruction. She's obstinate and sometimes can't see the obvious. And she can be a real pain in the ass, but I found myself caring for her immensly, and the mystery as to why these things happen to her held me enthralled and guessing right up to the end of this wonderful story.

Rating:
Summary: Grab A Good Book: A Fistful Of Rain by Greg Rucka
Review: Mim Bracca is the focal point of this very enjoyable novel, the latest from Greg Rucka. Breaking away, hopefully just temporarily from his Kodiak series, Greg Rucka has created another intense character battling personal demons and a reality shakily built and on the verge of collapse. Unlike Kodiak, Mim Bracca does not have the resources to cope, either personally or by extension through her relationships with others.

Mim Bracca is a guitarist for the hot rock band known as Tailhook. While the band is doing incredibly well as the sold out concerts as they tour the world and the latest cover of Rolling Stone prove, her personal life and her future is being poured down the drain, one drink of alcohol at a time. Mim believes she is holding her own, but she isn't and one scene too many on tour has earned her the right to go home and get her act together. Van, the leader of the band, left her no choice but to go home, dry out and then they would consider bringing her back.

Mim flies home and almost makes it inside her house, when a gunman accosts her on her porch. He forces her to his van where he orders her to strip, takes her clothes and drives her around for awhile. Eventually, they arrive back at her place where she is allowed to dress and he vanishes into the night. Terrified and upset, she has no proof that anything happened but she will have a drink or two first and then call the Police.

The responding Police soon realize that she has had several drinks before they got there on top of what she had been consuming on the plane coming home. They come to the conclusion that if anything happened, and with no evidence at all of anything they don't believe her story, that it was a publicity stunt that went awry. Mim doesn't agree, hits the bottle and over the next few days realizes that someone is after her. Nude pictures of her that could only be taken in her home while she was passed out are posted on the Internet and then she is linked to a murder and extortion plot. Like her drinking, her life accelerates out of control as she struggles to hold it together and clear her name.

While I much prefer the Kodiak series for their intense reads, this stand alone novel works on many of the same levels. Not only is it a strong introduction to the enjoyable writings of the author if you haven't had the pleasure of reading him before, this novel weaves an increasingly complex tale at frenetic speed. As in his other enjoyable novels, the main character is multifaceted and complex with realistic problems to handle, both internally and externally. In this specific case, Greg Rucka brings Mim Bracca's compulsion to drink to life and gives it a presence that not only serves as a background to the novel but works for those who have also battled the alcoholic demon within.

The writing style is intense with no wasted words or long wasted expository paragraphs as the reader and characters drift aimlessly through the work. The mystery itself is never overshadowed by other things and is complex and constantly changing. Just when the reader believes the situation is figured out, the author flips everything and changes course. The result is an intense 305-page read that is a pretty good book.

Rating:
Summary: Boos, Naked Pictures and Rock and Roll
Review: Mim Bracca, lead guitarist for the band Tailhook, was kicked off the tour because of her drinking problem. She goes home to Portland and finds someone has been posting nude photos of her on the net, then someone abducts her, drives her around for awhile, then dumps her back at her door and the cops don't seem to believe her. To add more woes to her famous life, her brother is murdered and the cops think that maybe she did it. And if that's not enough woes, someone kidnaps her father and wants a million dollar ransom.

This fast-paced, suspense story will take you on a ride you'll never forget as you tour a world of groupies and fans, face the problems of addiction and fame and wonder just who is making Mim's life so miserable. I couldn't put the book down.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne