Greg Rucka is one of those writers that you find yourself impressed with in every book. He describes a world in which government works behinds the scenes, and a good politician can be more lethal than a sniper. And Tara Chace is good enough at her job to survive most of them.

The Last Run is especially satisfying to me because Cocker, the man in charge while Tara is running a mission, finds himself with no more political capital to spend. He's overruled by his boss and corralled neatly to the side because he is too outspoken and inconvenient in his desire to do a good job of keeping his agents alive and the department effective. Tara, meanwhile, is getting too well-known for her own good. She's been 9 years in the field, and as she complains, there are pictures and profiles of her in every intelligence agency across the world. One of these days, her luck is going to run out.

And of course, that's exactly what happens.

God, I love Greg Rucka.