Greg Rucka is one of the best writers Portland's got—he's the writer behind the acclaimed and beloved Queen & Country series, he's earned accolades for everything from his work on Whiteout to Gotham Central, and he's got enough Eisners to bludgeon... huh. I did not really think that sentence though. To bludgeon something pretty good, though, for sure. He's currently writing The Punisher for Marvel, an ongoing series that's so good that even I love it, and I don't even like the Punisher. (I reviewed it for the Mercury here.)

Anyway, the reason for this post: Rucka's reading at Powell's Cedar Hills tonight; he's got a new prose novel, Alpha. Stupid work commitments have kept me from having a chance to read it yet, but it's next up in my stack. I couldn't help but sneak a look at the first sentence, however, which was enough to convince me it will be excellent:

Mario Vesques was sure he was going to make it, right up until he saw the knife in the dog's hand.

SOLD. Rucka recently read at a comic book reading series that Alison and I put on, Comics Underground, and he was great; I have to imagine tonight's reading will be similarly fun and smart and cool. So you should go.

Greg Rucka, reading at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing (3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd), Tues May 22nd, 7 pm, FREE, maybe there will be dogs with knives there, who knows