As the book opens she has retired from the Service and is rearing her infant Tamsin. Tamsin’s father was killed in the prior novel. Tara has now located his widowed mother, introduced herself and having no family of her own, eventually moved in with Tamsin’s grandmother.

Uzbekistan is the primary setting for the novel, and the author obviously has spent a lot of time on his research of that country after the Soviet breakup. A knowledgeable reader will not fail to miss the obvious parallels with present players there. The trite expression “only the names have been changed” seems to apply in some cases here.

The country is being ruled by an old party-liner who is in his declining years. Having fathered a brilliant, beautiful daughter and not so aggressive or charming a son, the battle for succession is being waged between them. Daughter Sevara authorizes her power hungry lover Zahidov to make a preemptive strike against her brother Ruslan. Sevara had discovered that Ruslan’s wife Dina had made contact to get tapes showing heinous violations of human rights out of the country. Dina is tortured and murdered.

England’s secret service, SIS, decides to get Ruslan and his young son out of Uzbekistan before they too are murdered. This is not totally altruistic as Ruslan is pro-western. Crocker a passed over for Deputy Chief of station goes outside the chain of command and seduces Tara back into the game. Her contract is to get Ruslan and young Stepan out.

The US Agency is interested as well particularly since four of their mobile weapons stations are missing and have been tracked through Afghanistan into Uzbekistan. What follows is a long few days with Tara’s mission changing as she inventively meets one challenge after another.

Rucka creatively weaves a realistically portrayed Uzbekistan around every action Tara takes. From buying weapons in a rural market place to surveillance in the teeming capital of Tashkent, one senses the turmoil that embraces all these emerging countries.

Private Wars is the most apt title this reviewer has ever noted. England and the US have conflicting positions; and within their respective agencies, men and women are constantly vying for position and the advantage. In Uzbekistan, sibling rivalry is driving that scenario, all struggling within the framework of fighting or embracing terrorism.

Added to this is the realized and unrealized conflict Tara has with herself. Clearly Rucka will continue to write fast moving suspense stories featuring her. Private Wars has a very complex plot, many complex subplots, graphically featured human rights abuses, realistic insights into terrorism, and its driving forces.

One can only hope that reality is not as grim and bleak as it is portrayed here.

--Thea Davis