A Fistful of Rain

Mim Bracca, lead guitarist for the band Tailhook, was kicked off the tour because of her drinking problem. She goes home to Portland and finds someone has been posting nude photos of her on the net, then someone abducts her, drives her around for awhile, then dumps her back at her door and the cops don't seem to believe her. To add more woes to her famous life, her brother is murdered and the cops think that maybe she did it. And if that's not enough woes, someone kidnaps her father and wants a million dollar ransom. This fast-paced, suspense story will take you on a ride you'll never forget as you tour a world of groupies and fans, face the problems of addiction and fame and wonder just who is making Mim's life so miserable. I couldn't put the book down. Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

Mim Bracca is the bad girl of rock and roll. She's the lead guitarist for the wildly popular bad Tailhook and she's been touring with the group for over a year due to the success of their third album. However as the group sours in the charts, Mim nose dives into the bottle and the band decides they'd be better off without her, so they do something Mick and his boys never would have done to Keith and they tell her it's hasta la vista time. Kicked out of the band, Mim goes home and is grabbed by a person unknown right out of her house and made to ride around town nude in the back of a pickup truck, but other than the cold chill and the embarassement, she is returned home unharmed. More odd and strange things happen to her and at first she thinks maybe it's because of her drinking, she hasn't quit and doesn't take well to people suggesting that she ought to slow down. As more and more bad things happen, Mim figures out that someone is trying to kill her, so now she has to find out who and why. Mim is a wounded and vulnerable person on the road to self-destruction. She's obstinate and sometimes can't see the obvious. And she can be a real pain in the ass, but I found myself caring for her immensly, and the mystery as to why these things happen to her held me enthralled and guessing right up to the end of this wonderful story.

Songwriter and guitarist Miriam (Mim) Bracca has been on tour with her band for the last year. Unfortunately, she has a severe problem with alcohol that causes her to have blackouts. After falling off the stage at one of the shows with no recollection of it, the band decides to replace her. On the way back to Portland from Australia, Mim holds true to form and drinks excessively on the flight. She arrives home not feeling very well, confronted with a man with a gun outside her door. He has her strip, puts her in the backseat, drives her around for a while, and then brings her back to her house. She calls the police to report the incident, but she can tell they don't really believe her. Shortly thereafter, pornographic pictures of Mim circulate on the Internet. Mim also has some family problems. Years earlier, her mother was run over by her father's truck. Her father got fifteen years in prison, but was just released on parole. Her brother is a drug dealer. Life seems like it can not get worse, but it does.When I started this book, I was not sure I would like it. A story about a hard rockin', messed up chick really didn't appeal to me. I have to say within a few pages I was hooked. Mim is a total mess, but she is a fully fleshed out emotional being. I felt a real connection to her. At times, I felt real stress while reading the story. It was a fast-moving, page-turning novel. Don't start it unless you have a chunk of time to devout to it. Rainy Portland, Oregon provides ideal imagery to Mim's life and sets a dark and somber mood. There was a really good surprise twist at the end.Highly recommended

I hadn't read any of Greg Rucka's earlier books, but when I stumbled across a review of A Fistful of Rain, I decided to give it a read. Now I know what I've been missing!Rucka combines terse prose and sudden plot twists with an amazing ability to make you identify with the characters. But the real draw in Fistful is excitement -- I started reading it on my morning train-ride, and almost missed my stop. I considered spending the first few hours of the workday in a corner finishing it, but compromised by staying up late that night. Yes, it's that good.

Famous and rich rock star Mim Bracca is notorious for getting drunk and blacking out and it becomes bad enough that her band sends her back home to Portland to dry out. Before she enters her new home, someone kidnaps her. They drive around for a few hours before he drops her back at her home. The police don?t believe her because she is famous for her lies.Her day gets much worse when her brother Mikel drops by to tell her their father, after serving fifteen years for killing their mother, is out and living with him. Just when she thinks life can?t get any lower, pornographic pictures of her, which she didn?t pose for appears on the net. While trying to solve that problem she walks in to her brother?s place and finds him dead, a bullet in his head. When someone kidnaps her father for a $1,000,000 ransom, Mim stops getting defensive and works up the courage to track down the kidnapper before he can kill her and her father.The protagonist is an alcoholic but she is able to stay away from the bottle long enough to come up with a plan to try to get her and her father out of trouble. She?s gutsy, feisty, and vulnerable, a combination that endears her to the audience who will root for her in the hope that she can get her act together. A FISTFUL OF RAIN is a suspense thriller that is a dark and gritty as Greg Rucka pulls no punches with this one sitting novel.Harriet Klausner