Queen & Country

In keeping with my current kick of reading crime drama I've come across and have really enjoyed Greg Rucka's Queen & Country series by Oni Press.

While not really a crime book it does have all kinds of double crosses and unsavory characters inside it's pages because Queen & Country is a spy book first and foremost. A realistic James Bond-ian adventure if you will.

The title follows Minder Tara Chance through a series of harrowing missions as she keeps England safe from all kinds of foreign evils. Minder's are secret agents, kept in groups of three and sent to stop everything from terrorists to blackmail plots that may hurt the global economy.

Greg Rucka has become another of my favorite writers since I discovered him swapping scripting duties with Ed Brubaker (Criminal) on DC's Gotham Central. His first Whiteout mini-series was an amazing read and Queen & Country is no exception. (In fact, I think the two are connected by a character in some way... if not I stand corrected... now I'll have to go back and check) He really does his research and pulls the cop/crime/spy drama together very well. The secondary characters and just as entertaining as Tara Chance and fun to read when they Finally get some page time. Rucka makes each one of them count.

Art on the book is done by a different team on each arc. Visually it's hit and miss. For example: Carla Speed McNeil, whom I had never heard of before pickup up issues #16-20 Operation Storm Front has a style you'd never expect on a title like this. Personally I found her character design confusing, several of them looking too alike to make out unless you really paid attention to the dialogue from page to page.

That speed bump aside, Queen & Country is a cool read for anyone who likes either spies or crime or both. All except the most current storyline have been collected into trades by Oni Press. Don't just grab one at random, Start with Operation: Broken Ground collecting issue #1-4 and you'll be glad you did.

Till next time...