REVIEW: The Gray Man By Mark Greaney

The Gray Man by Mark Greaney
Publishing information: Paperback; 464 pages
Publisher: Jove; 29 September 2009
ISBN: 978-0515147018
Series: Gray Man/Court Gentry #1
Copy: Out of Pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Amazon

Synopsis: "Courtland Gentry is a good man. But he’s a great assassin.

To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always.

But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness.

But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive…"

I love a good thriller and have a special place in my heart for Tom Clancy. When Clancy's health started to go down hill, he brought in Mark Greaney to help write his books. They both write in a very similar fashion so when I was heading off for vacation I picked up Greaney's first book in his Gray Man series. It is the story of a legendary assassin being hunted.

Courtland Gentry, or Court is the gray man, a ghost and a legend in the black ops community. He

takes out his targets and then disappears. He isn't a ruthless killer either, doesn't kill just any target, they must be despicable and need to be removed in order for Court to take on the assignment. Court also has a little bit of a different background then what we are used to; he was never trained by the US military, instead he was trained by the CIA and given a very specialized and diverse set of skills to make him one of the most lethal black ops operators to have ever lived. His ability to fade into the background after eliminating an enemy is what earned him the name Gray Man. It also helps that he is an easy character to like. He doesn't come off as arrogant and cocky but more intelligent and calculating.

When Court takes out the brother of an outgoing president he has made an enemy that will stop at nothing to have his head, regardless of the cost. This leads to a huge price on his head that many in the black ops community are willing to take a shot at collecting. Killers and special operator teams from all over the world have convened in Europe to obtain the bounty.

While I found Gray Man to be a really well-written story there were a few issues that I had albeit rather minor. The first issue is that at times Court appears to be a little to bland. He is a killer first and foremost and while Greaney has shown that he has a heart it would have been nice to see a more multifaceted character. The main baddie is a lawyer who is ruthless, which I enjoyed, but it would have been a little more realistic had he taken his head of security's advice. I know that he as a suit that took his education to be all that he would need in facing an assassin but after a few teams go missing, you would think he would at least have a moment of doubt or indecision and adapt. But like I said, these are minor issues that never detracted from the story.

The Gray Man was a lot of fun and the perfect read for my vacation. Before I even got halfway through the book I headed out to the bookstore and picked up the rest of the series. I haven't had a chance to read any of them as of yet but I do plan on getting to them as soon as I can.

Overall 8/10