Patriot Acts

Not too hard to surmise from the title that this is a plot line where people who always thought they loved their country are challenged in that belief when their country appears to have turned on them. A later entry in the Atticus Kodiak series by Greg Rucka, Atticus has gone from being a reputable, competent bodyguard to being labelled as one of the ten most wanted assassins in the world, and the source of this misinformation seems to be someone very high up in the U.S. government. His partner and dear friend, Natalie Trent is killed in one of multiple attempts on his life, and so far his efforts to find out who is behind it all have fallen short. He has teamed up, romantically as well as professionally, with a former enemy, Drama, aka Alena Cizkova. They are alternately the hunted and the hunters, as they work to track down the master puppeteer, covering ground from a remote village in Russian Georgia to Portland, Oregon. In the process of their association, Alena has become more human, and Atticus has become a little more cold-blooded. Alena has taught him ballet and yoga as a way to master and control his body, and he needs every bit of this unorthodox training to survive what comes at him in this book.