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Gray Man #8
Mission Critical
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
From Mark Greaney, the New York Times bestselling author of Gunmetal Gray and a coauthor of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, comes a high-stakes thriller featuring the world's most dangerous assassin: the Gray Man.
Court Gentry's flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley.
When they land in an isolated airbase in the U.K., they are attacked by a hostile force who kidnaps the prisoner. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers, but what can one operative do against a trained team of assassins? A lot, when that operative is the Gray Man.
From Mark Greaney, the New York Times bestselling author of Gunmetal Gray and a coauthor of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, comes a high-stakes thriller featuring the world's most dangerous assassin: the Gray Man.
Court Gentry's flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley.
When they land in an isolated airbase in the U.K., they are attacked by a hostile force who kidnaps the prisoner. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers, but what can one operative do against a trained team of assassins? A lot, when that operative is the Gray Man.
736 pages, Paperback
Published November 26, 2019
2943 people are currently reading
4182 people want to read
About the author
Mark Greaney
59 books6,166 followersMark Greaney has a degree in International Relations and Political Science. In researching The Gray Man series he traveled to ten countries and trained extensively in the use of firearms, battlefield medicine, and close range combative tactics.
Learn more at MARKGREANEYBOOKS.COM
Email Mark at MarkGreaneyBooks@gmail.com
Learn more at MARKGREANEYBOOKS.COM
Email Mark at MarkGreaneyBooks@gmail.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 758 reviews
February 1, 2019
This is the 8th in Mark Greaney's Gray Man series but my first, but it works perfectly fine as a standalone. The Gray Man, Court Gentry, code name The Violater, is the world's most dangerous assassin, an off the books contract killer for the CIA, one of those comprising Poison Apple, engaged in black ops run by Matt Hanley, Deputy Director of Operations. Gentry's handler, the ambitious Suzanne Brewer wants him back in Langley which has him on a CIA transport flight, where a security team bring on a hooded prisoner, a Dutch banker, heading for London for interrogation by the intelligence agencies. As the plane lands on a isolated runway, a well organised surprise attack leaves almost everyone dead as the prisoner is abducted. Gentry survives, has no idea what is going on, but he does know he is not going to let this go as he sets out to chase after the kidnappers and the prisoner.
Zoya Feodorov is a former Russian SVR foreign intelligence officer, a new CIA asset confined in a safe house. Zoya notices a detail in a photograph shown to her by her handler, Suzanne Brewer, that triggers a sense of disquiet as it challenges what she thought was true. It instigates a need to escape in search of the truth. However, before this can happen, the safe house is attacked by Mexican contract killers (sicarios) of the Sinalloa Cartel with the aim of killing Zoya. She manages to escape, intent on reaching London. Won Jang-Mi is a North Korean virologist driven by a personal need for vengeance. The CIA are determined to hunt down a mole that has cost them dearly in a number of operations. Gentry finds himself facing criminal gang members from Nottingham and other UK cities, the Russian Mafia, and a former head of the GRU Aquarium HQ (Russian Military Intelligence), sleeper agents, and a dastardly bioterrorism plot aimed at striking at the heart of the western intelligence agencies at the high security Edinburgh Five Eyes Conference. Will he and Zoya manage to survive the powerful and ruthless forces arraigned against them and prevent a horrific atrocity?
Greaney writes a high octane fast paced espionage thriller that is exhilarating and compulsive, generating a huge body count. The plotting is complex and the various storylines come together in a thrilling finale in a Scottish castle. It has the American intelligence agencies running around in the UK with approval from the British, there are plenty of machinations taking place within the CIA, and frustrated ambitions in the hierarchy. As is often in this type of thriller, plotting and the action driven narrative takes precedence at the expense of detailed and indepth characterisation. This is an entertaining, nail bitingly compelling read, that will appeal to those who love action driven espionage thrillers. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.
Zoya Feodorov is a former Russian SVR foreign intelligence officer, a new CIA asset confined in a safe house. Zoya notices a detail in a photograph shown to her by her handler, Suzanne Brewer, that triggers a sense of disquiet as it challenges what she thought was true. It instigates a need to escape in search of the truth. However, before this can happen, the safe house is attacked by Mexican contract killers (sicarios) of the Sinalloa Cartel with the aim of killing Zoya. She manages to escape, intent on reaching London. Won Jang-Mi is a North Korean virologist driven by a personal need for vengeance. The CIA are determined to hunt down a mole that has cost them dearly in a number of operations. Gentry finds himself facing criminal gang members from Nottingham and other UK cities, the Russian Mafia, and a former head of the GRU Aquarium HQ (Russian Military Intelligence), sleeper agents, and a dastardly bioterrorism plot aimed at striking at the heart of the western intelligence agencies at the high security Edinburgh Five Eyes Conference. Will he and Zoya manage to survive the powerful and ruthless forces arraigned against them and prevent a horrific atrocity?
Greaney writes a high octane fast paced espionage thriller that is exhilarating and compulsive, generating a huge body count. The plotting is complex and the various storylines come together in a thrilling finale in a Scottish castle. It has the American intelligence agencies running around in the UK with approval from the British, there are plenty of machinations taking place within the CIA, and frustrated ambitions in the hierarchy. As is often in this type of thriller, plotting and the action driven narrative takes precedence at the expense of detailed and indepth characterisation. This is an entertaining, nail bitingly compelling read, that will appeal to those who love action driven espionage thrillers. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.
March 1, 2019
This is my first foray into the Gray Man series by Mark Greaney, and I was assured this book can be read as a standalone. I’m happy to report it absolutely can, and I definitely want to read more of the Gray Man books.
The Gray Man is one of the most dangerous and mysterious assassins in the world, and he works for the CIA as a contract killer.
Court Gentry is on a CIA plane when a security team brings a disguised man on board. An attempt is made to get Gentry off the plane, but the CIA says no.
The disguised person is transported to England where the CIA and MI6 will interrogate him about a possible spy at Langley Air Force base.
However, when they land in the UK, the team is under attack, and the prisoner is kidnapped. Gentry is ordered to go after the attackers, but what will he be able to do against an entire team of assassins?
The answer is simple. Court Gentry is the Gray Man.
If you are looking for a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat spy thriller, look no further. I read this book compulsively and could do little else. What a thrill ride. This book is all about the brisk plot and entertaining action. I’m not a nail biter, but if I were, I’d have none left. Highly recommended.
I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
The Gray Man is one of the most dangerous and mysterious assassins in the world, and he works for the CIA as a contract killer.
Court Gentry is on a CIA plane when a security team brings a disguised man on board. An attempt is made to get Gentry off the plane, but the CIA says no.
The disguised person is transported to England where the CIA and MI6 will interrogate him about a possible spy at Langley Air Force base.
However, when they land in the UK, the team is under attack, and the prisoner is kidnapped. Gentry is ordered to go after the attackers, but what will he be able to do against an entire team of assassins?
The answer is simple. Court Gentry is the Gray Man.
If you are looking for a fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat spy thriller, look no further. I read this book compulsively and could do little else. What a thrill ride. This book is all about the brisk plot and entertaining action. I’m not a nail biter, but if I were, I’d have none left. Highly recommended.
I received a complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
March 21, 2022
I like the Nightrain code name, although when I've used it over the past 20+ years it's "nitetrain." What's up with the relationship between Court & Zoya? Mixed answers in #8. 7 of 10 stars
![Profile Image for Terence M [on a brief semi-hiatus].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1712357414i%2F6658001._UY200_CR4%2C0%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
March 28, 2019
Mission Critical (Gray Man #8) – Mark Greaney
Audiobook - 17:02 Hours (512 pages) - Narrator: Jay Snyder
Started: March 19, 2019 – Finished: March 26, 2019
💥💥💥💥 - 4.0 Stars of 5.0
I have listened to all of the 8 Gray Man audiobooks and I enjoyed every one of them to varying degrees, awarding 2 x 5 Stars, 3 x 4 Stars and 3 x 3 Stars. The Gray Man enjoyment process is pretty simple:
*Dial Down your expectations to at least moderate credibility levels;
*Dial Up your expectations of an intricate, exciting and suspenseful plot;
*Dial Down trying to remember multiple weapons models and their ammo;
*Dial Down your expectations of the Goodies losing;
*Dial Down your care factor for dead and dying Baddies;
*Dial Up your expectations for non-stop, fierce, fighting action and pacy, all-round enjoyment, mainly served up by the Blokes but with the input from a seriously bad-assed Chick as well.
Mark Greaney has done very well to develop and maintain the persona of Courtney (Court) Gentry, a highly skilled former special forces operative and master assassin, who was working in Mission Critical as an external contractor to the CIA, an “off-the-grid” role he has played in earlier Gray Man novels.
“Mission Critical” was quite a long audiobook at 17:02 hours (512 pages), but except for maybe the first two or three hours when characters were being established or re-established, and the main ‘plot’ (I use the word loosely) was evolving or being developed or both, the remaining 14 hours or so were pretty much good, relatively light-hearted, ‘boys-with-their-toys’ action and one fiercely scary chick-with-her-toys in action as well. At no time was I bored or looking around the corner to see what might be going to happen next. A most enjoyable audiobook and I look forward to the next Gray Man novel, even if it means waiting until 2020.
Addendum March 27, 2019 @ 4:00 pm
Rereading my review just prior to my afternoon nap (which means I am editing this review on my iPhone, not the PC which I used originally), I think I may have overstated my point about credibility and the book’s plot. I did not mean specifically that the somewhat complicated ‘master plot’ of “Mission Critical” lacked credibility or required a major suspension of belief by the book’s readers. Both the master plot and its sub-plots, and their implementations are feasible, even possible, as far as I know, and if I was a praying person I would ask both the Mighty Odin and the equally Mighty Zeus to spare the world from the possibility of such a terrifying event.🥴🍺💤
Terence M
Audiobook - 17:02 Hours (512 pages) - Narrator: Jay Snyder
Started: March 19, 2019 – Finished: March 26, 2019
💥💥💥💥 - 4.0 Stars of 5.0
I have listened to all of the 8 Gray Man audiobooks and I enjoyed every one of them to varying degrees, awarding 2 x 5 Stars, 3 x 4 Stars and 3 x 3 Stars. The Gray Man enjoyment process is pretty simple:
*Dial Down your expectations to at least moderate credibility levels;
*Dial Up your expectations of an intricate, exciting and suspenseful plot;
*Dial Down trying to remember multiple weapons models and their ammo;
*Dial Down your expectations of the Goodies losing;
*Dial Down your care factor for dead and dying Baddies;
*Dial Up your expectations for non-stop, fierce, fighting action and pacy, all-round enjoyment, mainly served up by the Blokes but with the input from a seriously bad-assed Chick as well.
Mark Greaney has done very well to develop and maintain the persona of Courtney (Court) Gentry, a highly skilled former special forces operative and master assassin, who was working in Mission Critical as an external contractor to the CIA, an “off-the-grid” role he has played in earlier Gray Man novels.
“Mission Critical” was quite a long audiobook at 17:02 hours (512 pages), but except for maybe the first two or three hours when characters were being established or re-established, and the main ‘plot’ (I use the word loosely) was evolving or being developed or both, the remaining 14 hours or so were pretty much good, relatively light-hearted, ‘boys-with-their-toys’ action and one fiercely scary chick-with-her-toys in action as well. At no time was I bored or looking around the corner to see what might be going to happen next. A most enjoyable audiobook and I look forward to the next Gray Man novel, even if it means waiting until 2020.
Addendum March 27, 2019 @ 4:00 pm
Rereading my review just prior to my afternoon nap (which means I am editing this review on my iPhone, not the PC which I used originally), I think I may have overstated my point about credibility and the book’s plot. I did not mean specifically that the somewhat complicated ‘master plot’ of “Mission Critical” lacked credibility or required a major suspension of belief by the book’s readers. Both the master plot and its sub-plots, and their implementations are feasible, even possible, as far as I know, and if I was a praying person I would ask both the Mighty Odin and the equally Mighty Zeus to spare the world from the possibility of such a terrifying event.🥴🍺💤
Terence M
February 18, 2019
Mission Critical, the eighth novel in the Gray Man series, is another high-octane, action-packed and nail-bitingly tense thriller from an author who has swiftly become a favourite of mine due to the consistently superb ride on which he takes his readers, and I would go so far as to say this is his best work to date. Here, Greaney crafts another hard-hitting, propulsive story and delivers a plethora of shocks and surprises with considerable aplomb. He also puts a fresh, modern spin on the espionage tales of old by drawing his storyline from timely, topical issues and is adept at playing on current fears of Cold War resurgence and Russian political interference, masterfully weaving them into the fabric of this exhilarating plot.
As always, Greaney proficiently moulds a series of gripping action scenes and is one of the best in the genre in that respect. Unusually for a plot-driven spy thriller such as this, we also get excellent characterisation; you can really see the evolution of protagonist Gentry and the journey he has been on throughout these right complex instalments. He has that often stereotypical sarcasm and cockiness associated with those we deem to be heroic, and he may even be about to receive some attention from a possible love interest. I am already looking forward to the ninth instalment, and if the past is anything to go by it's highly likely to be the best yet.
Many thanks to Sphere for an ARC.
As always, Greaney proficiently moulds a series of gripping action scenes and is one of the best in the genre in that respect. Unusually for a plot-driven spy thriller such as this, we also get excellent characterisation; you can really see the evolution of protagonist Gentry and the journey he has been on throughout these right complex instalments. He has that often stereotypical sarcasm and cockiness associated with those we deem to be heroic, and he may even be about to receive some attention from a possible love interest. I am already looking forward to the ninth instalment, and if the past is anything to go by it's highly likely to be the best yet.
Many thanks to Sphere for an ARC.
March 14, 2019
I have read this series from the beginning. I got hooked on the series with book one and it has become one of my favorites.
The book is well written and is packed with continuous action. Greaney grabbed my attention right at the beginning of the story and held it throughout. Court Gentry is the Grey Man and now is a contractor with the CIA instead of an employee. I enjoyed getting together with the regular characters and meeting some new ones. Sometimes the continuous action exhausted me, but I just could not put the book down. I cannot wait for the next Grey Man story.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is seventeen hours. Jay Snyder does an excellent job narrating the story. Snyder has been the narrator from the beginning of the series. I like it when they keep the same narrator throughout the series.
The book is well written and is packed with continuous action. Greaney grabbed my attention right at the beginning of the story and held it throughout. Court Gentry is the Grey Man and now is a contractor with the CIA instead of an employee. I enjoyed getting together with the regular characters and meeting some new ones. Sometimes the continuous action exhausted me, but I just could not put the book down. I cannot wait for the next Grey Man story.
I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is seventeen hours. Jay Snyder does an excellent job narrating the story. Snyder has been the narrator from the beginning of the series. I like it when they keep the same narrator throughout the series.
November 26, 2018
Mark Greaney (Agent in Place, 2018, etc.) reignites the Cold War in his latest must-read thriller featuring the Gray Man.
Back with the CIA in an unofficial capacity, Courtland Gentry, better known as the Gray Man, is given orders by his handler, Suzanne Brewer, to return to Washington. As it turns out, an agency plane happens to be in the region, and Court’s able to hitch a ride–but it’s not a direct flight to D.C. Their first stop is in Luxembourg City, where another group of operators boards the Gulfstream IV with a prisoner en route to England.
After touching down at a small airfield in the West Midlands, Court realizes something is off. Though he’s told nothing about the other mission his assignment is piggybacking, he’s able to discern that it’s obviously a prisoner swap. What he doesn’t know is that the armed men lining the secluded runway are MI6 agents tasked with interrogating the prisoner about a possible mole inside of Langley as part of a joint effort with CIA. However, just before the exchange goes down, Gentry catches movement in the distance and his instincts tell him the drop is an ambush, a theory that is quickly confirmed when bullets fly moments later.
When the smoke clears, only Court is still alive, and the prisoner is gone.
More than 3,500 miles away, former Russian Foreign Intelligence officer Zoya Zakharvoa . . .
Continue reading this review here: https://therealbookspy.com/2018/11/25...
Back with the CIA in an unofficial capacity, Courtland Gentry, better known as the Gray Man, is given orders by his handler, Suzanne Brewer, to return to Washington. As it turns out, an agency plane happens to be in the region, and Court’s able to hitch a ride–but it’s not a direct flight to D.C. Their first stop is in Luxembourg City, where another group of operators boards the Gulfstream IV with a prisoner en route to England.
After touching down at a small airfield in the West Midlands, Court realizes something is off. Though he’s told nothing about the other mission his assignment is piggybacking, he’s able to discern that it’s obviously a prisoner swap. What he doesn’t know is that the armed men lining the secluded runway are MI6 agents tasked with interrogating the prisoner about a possible mole inside of Langley as part of a joint effort with CIA. However, just before the exchange goes down, Gentry catches movement in the distance and his instincts tell him the drop is an ambush, a theory that is quickly confirmed when bullets fly moments later.
When the smoke clears, only Court is still alive, and the prisoner is gone.
More than 3,500 miles away, former Russian Foreign Intelligence officer Zoya Zakharvoa . . .
Continue reading this review here: https://therealbookspy.com/2018/11/25...
September 29, 2020
An amazing read: I could see all the action in my head, like watching a terrific movie. Court Gentry the gray man fights another battle for the CIA. His former lover Zoya Zakharova joins in the fray.
A very major plot evolves as the story progresses - that could wipe out the intelligence assets of 5 major world powers.
I love Mark Greaney's writing style: it is fast paced and action packed. He allows the what, how, who why, when questions that arise as read to be answered as the plot evolves.
Superb. Unputdownable
A very major plot evolves as the story progresses - that could wipe out the intelligence assets of 5 major world powers.
I love Mark Greaney's writing style: it is fast paced and action packed. He allows the what, how, who why, when questions that arise as read to be answered as the plot evolves.
Superb. Unputdownable
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2022
Started out an excellent thriller, but was not as good as his previous book. This could be a bit shorter and I'm not sure if I liked the ending. Still a good action thriller.
February 18, 2019
Finally finished! Excellent read!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This story is intense from the beginning and completely grabs you. That is the one factor I love about reading this series. The author never repeats a plot or even a similar plot by another author. Each book I have read, and especially this one, has been completely unique, fast-paced, and totally gripping.
Mission Critical takes us to Europe for most of the story and the slow build in intensity, suspense, and information will just about stress you out but the wait is so totally worth it! Don't jump to the end.... Just don't!
Zoya is back popping in and out as she often does, along with many other characters we know andhate love. Many new ones pop in too along the way as strong supporting characters that round out this page turner perfectly.
Secrets, lies, twists, turns, along with plenty of violence, and the high body count we come to expect from Court and his cronies, makes this story is so completely plausible, it is scary in many ways. I just loved it! Plus, I know this one would be so good on audio!
If you are a black-ops fan, you have to read Mission Critical and the whole Gray Man series. Excellent in every way - even the frustrating parts!
* copy received for review consideration
Full Review - https://amidlifewife.com/mission-crit...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This story is intense from the beginning and completely grabs you. That is the one factor I love about reading this series. The author never repeats a plot or even a similar plot by another author. Each book I have read, and especially this one, has been completely unique, fast-paced, and totally gripping.
Mission Critical takes us to Europe for most of the story and the slow build in intensity, suspense, and information will just about stress you out but the wait is so totally worth it! Don't jump to the end.... Just don't!
Zoya is back popping in and out as she often does, along with many other characters we know and
Secrets, lies, twists, turns, along with plenty of violence, and the high body count we come to expect from Court and his cronies, makes this story is so completely plausible, it is scary in many ways. I just loved it! Plus, I know this one would be so good on audio!
If you are a black-ops fan, you have to read Mission Critical and the whole Gray Man series. Excellent in every way - even the frustrating parts!
* copy received for review consideration
Full Review - https://amidlifewife.com/mission-crit...
August 14, 2019
The Gray Man series is awesome and is one of my favorites. This is probably the “weakest” installment of the series. It’s probably a 3.5 stars for me. It’s entertaining as usual but this one is a little too “trite” for me and straightforward. Unpredictability is one of the strengths of the series up until this book. That said I enjoyed it and look forward to the next book in the series.
September 25, 2019
Mission Critical is an action-packed novel.
January 19, 2019
Thank you to Berkley for an ARC of this novel.
Court Gentry is back for an eighth breathtaking thriller adventure and if you haven't read any of the Gray Man series yet, you've got quite a treat in store when you read this one. All the books are standalone but, of course, you get the full character development if you begin with the first and read right through them. Court is back working with the CIA in a capacity that is so secret even the other assets don't know the whole story. By the end of this book they will be very well acquainted.
This novel has two main areas of focus; first trying to uncover a mole inside the CIA and second, fighting against a bioweapon attack on the leaders of the intelligence agencies of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand during a yearly symposium being held this year in Scotland. The action keeps coming at a fast and furious pace while the three CIA operatives in the clandestine group begin to function, not necessarily as a unit all the time, but they are working on it. I liked having these three working together because it gives the author more scope for what missions can be accomplished. As much as I admire the Gray Man, I never would have expected to like having him share page time with other agents, but author Mark Greaney convinced me to accept this new circumstance and even to enjoy it.
I am satisfied with my five star rating but I did think about assigning four stars because of how the ending at the symposium was handled. There could have been quite a bit more explanation for the consequences of the bioweapon. The ending was too rushed and I feel that those poor people were just abandoned. I am already looking forward to novel number nine in the outstanding adventures of Court Gentry, the Gray Man. Hopefully Mr. Greaney has a long list of ideas to put in book form for those of us who are firm fans.
Court Gentry is back for an eighth breathtaking thriller adventure and if you haven't read any of the Gray Man series yet, you've got quite a treat in store when you read this one. All the books are standalone but, of course, you get the full character development if you begin with the first and read right through them. Court is back working with the CIA in a capacity that is so secret even the other assets don't know the whole story. By the end of this book they will be very well acquainted.
This novel has two main areas of focus; first trying to uncover a mole inside the CIA and second, fighting against a bioweapon attack on the leaders of the intelligence agencies of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand during a yearly symposium being held this year in Scotland. The action keeps coming at a fast and furious pace while the three CIA operatives in the clandestine group begin to function, not necessarily as a unit all the time, but they are working on it. I liked having these three working together because it gives the author more scope for what missions can be accomplished. As much as I admire the Gray Man, I never would have expected to like having him share page time with other agents, but author Mark Greaney convinced me to accept this new circumstance and even to enjoy it.
I am satisfied with my five star rating but I did think about assigning four stars because of how the ending at the symposium was handled. There could have been quite a bit more explanation for the consequences of the bioweapon. The ending was too rushed and I feel that those poor people were just abandoned. I am already looking forward to novel number nine in the outstanding adventures of Court Gentry, the Gray Man. Hopefully Mr. Greaney has a long list of ideas to put in book form for those of us who are firm fans.
June 18, 2022
The Gray Man is back working for the CIA. He's on a plane when a task force brings a prisoner aboard. The leader of the task force is the usual rigid yet incompetent type that always seems to lead these things.
Upon landing, the prisoner is taken, and the Gray Man is tasked with getting him back. His paramour, and another assassin are also on the case. There's a whole lot of fighting and shooting.
Great stuff. One of the best books of this genre this year.
Upon landing, the prisoner is taken, and the Gray Man is tasked with getting him back. His paramour, and another assassin are also on the case. There's a whole lot of fighting and shooting.
Great stuff. One of the best books of this genre this year.
July 24, 2023
Update 3/09/2020:
Still 5 Amazing Stars!
I listened to the on Audible as I was driving back from Houston. The narrator for the Gray Man series is really good. It made this one just as good as when I read the book last year. I still think this is the best of the series (at least until I read One Minute Out ). I highly recommend this series for all Action-Thriller fans.
5/5 Stars
Wow! This is the best yet of the Gray Man series. Mark Greaney writes the best action sequences. There are car chases, planes and gun fights galore. The story revolves around a traitor in the CIA that is compromising transports (including one of Court’s from a previous book). It bends and twists and ends up in Scotland at a meeting of the English-speaking nations’ intelligence agencies. As a side story, Zoya Zarakova is back! One of the greatest bad-ass female characters is in a CIA safe house and being prepped to be an asset of the CIA. And Mark Greaney brings this all together beautifully. It’s great how the author brings together all these moving parts to have a cohesive story. There is great character development of Court and definitely enough of a lead-in to future novels. This is probably my favorite series in this genre. Highly recommended!
Still 5 Amazing Stars!
I listened to the on Audible as I was driving back from Houston. The narrator for the Gray Man series is really good. It made this one just as good as when I read the book last year. I still think this is the best of the series (at least until I read One Minute Out ). I highly recommend this series for all Action-Thriller fans.
5/5 Stars
Wow! This is the best yet of the Gray Man series. Mark Greaney writes the best action sequences. There are car chases, planes and gun fights galore. The story revolves around a traitor in the CIA that is compromising transports (including one of Court’s from a previous book). It bends and twists and ends up in Scotland at a meeting of the English-speaking nations’ intelligence agencies. As a side story, Zoya Zarakova is back! One of the greatest bad-ass female characters is in a CIA safe house and being prepped to be an asset of the CIA. And Mark Greaney brings this all together beautifully. It’s great how the author brings together all these moving parts to have a cohesive story. There is great character development of Court and definitely enough of a lead-in to future novels. This is probably my favorite series in this genre. Highly recommended!
November 30, 2021
This whole Novel has been sneaky good but the ending was icing on the cake. 5 stars easily and one of the best thrillers out there.
February 26, 2019
Mission Critical is one of the finest novels I have ever read. Brilliantly infused plot-lines without turning overwhelming, stunning action sequences ranging from hand-to-hand combat to shootouts and car chases involving shootouts, a roster of returning characters and wonderful humor to balance the gritty situations in the novel. Court Gentry is back as The Gray Man, wrecking havoc in spectacular sequences of action and car chases on bad guys that cross his path. It is always a pleasure to see Court hasn't lost a step. Mission Critical brings back Zoya Zakharova from gunmetal gray and Zack Hightower from the previous novels as Court's team leader during his time in CIA. The chemistry between Court and Zoya is beautifully written and is a delight to read as a long time Gray Man fan. Zack Hightower provides a comic relief in the midst of dire situations but the author makes sure the comic relief does not feel awkward or ill-written. The action sequences are written with a finesse that combines realism with pure awesomeness as Court Gentry does what he does best, take out the bad guys like a boss. The plot twists and turns are well thought out to maximize their effects as readers expect one thing to happen and the narrative takes a swift turn that keeps the readers excited. The stakes in this novel while of global reach also hold personal stakes for Court and Zoya, making the story all the more interesting. Mr. Greaney manages to create a masterpiece with all the necessary elements of an exciting action thriller and then some more. A must read masterpiece!
February 7, 2019
Mission Critical, the eighth Gray Man novel from national best-selling author, Mark Greaney. Mark also wrote or co-wrote seven novels with author Tom Clancy in the Jack Ryan series and the Campus Novel series. On top of that, Mark also has another novel coming out this year, Red Metal (Out 7/16). Co-written with decorated United States Marine Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Hunter Ripley Rawlings.
Mission Critical reads like two separate thrillers combined in one, with two dangerous, highly trained assets who are part of a covert off the books, blacker than black program, code name: Poison Apple. The two assets converge on a target from different ways. One finds himself at the wrong place at the wrong time, unable to stand by while people are getting killed. This asset, code name – Violator gets involved and does not stop. The other asset, on a personal vendetta she noticed while being debriefed by the CIA in a picture. She sees something that only makes sense to her and from there this asset, code name – Anthem escapes her ‘safe house’ and utilizes her formidable spy skills to get out of the country, acquire weapons, gear, and intelligence. Both on the hunt, leading to the same spot with the same target, once they run into each other, the action only picks up and the stakes get bigger and bigger as our assets learn what the bad guys are up to.
The villain of this story is former GRU director, General Feodor Zakharov. This dude however goes by the name David Mars. An English gentleman who no one ever suspected of being a Russian operative. He accomplished this by utilizing skills taught to him by his late wife, whose job was to teach Russian operatives’ language and proper dialect skills and groom them to live in England or the United States and blend in as if they were natives. Russia utilized her and bred many assets who were placed in deep cover as far back as 14 years ago in order to build their legend and establish themselves in various roles, some even in law enforcement. Utilizing these assets, Zakharov made it his life mission to hurt the west and when he learned about the opportunity that presented itself, he moved whatever chess pieces he needed to and came up with a brilliant plan to conduct a terrorist strike against “The Five Eyes conference.” An annual get together of the world’s leading intelligence agencies, with representation from the U.S., the Brits, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. With his legend in place, ‘David Mars’ planned and led the terrorist organization without any official ties to Russia. He also established shell corporations and recruited other motivated individuals from other countries to help in the attack. Specifically, he recruited Won Jang-Mi, an intelligence asset and scientist from North Korea, who adopted a legend as well, Janice Won from South Korea. Janice, a true-believer in her belief to destroy the west, she was motivated by her hatred for the west due to stories she heard as a child growing up about American troops eating North Korean children during the Korean War. This resonated with me because as a Marine, having been in Iraq and Afghanistan, patrolling the streets. We would rarely get hit by an IED or ambushed. While the Army, sometimes patrolling the very same streets got into contact just about every time. Where we better? More disciplined? Less complacent? – Maybe! But we also heard stories that the insurgents feared us specifically. Knowing the difference between our camouflage utility uniform or cammis that we wore and that of the Army. They knew when the Marines were on the move. One particular story I heard is they believed in order to become a U.S. Marine, we would have to sacrifice our first born. So, while a made-up story or myth among the enemy, they believed it. Therefore, reading Mission Critical and learning what motivated this DPRK agent, it felt believable and I love being able to relate to a story on some level. Her specialty is pneumonic plague and hemorrhagic fever. She designed a plague which once exposed to a group of people, takes roughly 5-10 days to kill. All while, the person infected is highly contagious and spreads it to anyone they come in contact with. By recruiting her, Zakharov further reduces his risk of any consequences coming back to his ‘Rodina’ motherland.
Court Gentry is overseas and is summoned by the CIA. An agency plane happens to be flying near his location and is tasked with making a stop to pick him up. From there, the plane is to continue with its original mission with Gentry tagging along for the ride, then bring him back to the states. The plane lands and picks up the passengers it was originally meant to, a CIA team led by seasoned officer Doug Spano. Spano notices Gentry in the back and attempts to intimidate him and throw him off the plane. Unimpressed by his show of force and attitude, Court rolls his eyes and simply says, call Langley at extension XXXX (Brewer) and says, “she tells me to get off, I get off.” Long story short, Court Gentry, code name – Violator stays on the plane and takes a nap. The plane lands, and Court notices their mission is a prisoner handover with another intelligence agency. Before this is accomplished, the group is attacked, and the prisoner is taken. Court, not wanting to see agency personnel killed for nothing intervenes and realizes he’s just about the only guy left alive. He hijacks another smaller aircraft, a glider and pursues the attackers.
Back in the States, another asset is being held at an agency ‘safe house.’ This asset, code name Anthem, has been a ‘guest’ here for about four months. Being debriefed and just weeks away from being set free as an asset in the field. During one of the debrief sessions, Anthem’s past is being discussed and the death of her father is brought up. The man, former director of GRU laid dead in a picture provided to her by the CIA, an attack by a lucky mortar shot roughly 14 years ago. Anthem notices something in the picture, a skin condition she shares with her father which would only present itself if the person was still alive. She realizes her father is in fact alive and Anthem, aka Zoya escapes her ‘safe house’ and makes her way to Europe in order to find out the truth about her father. Completely unaware of the current terrorist strike being planned by him and that Court Gentry, aka Violator is currently tracking a team that kidnapped a CIA prisoner and is being led to the same destination.
As I mentioned, Mission Critical reads almost like two different thrillers with two formidable assets using their skills in order to get to where they need to be. Once they converge on the same target and start to work together, more action and more killing occurs. However, the plan the mastermind ‘David Mars’ has laid out is pretty solid and it takes more than these two formidable assets to stop. Enter the third asset in Poison Apple, Romantic. This asset, a fan favorite in the series has been around the block a few times. Initially a Navy SEAL, then a team leader for a group of paramilitary operations officers tasked with running renditions, hits, black bag jobs, and other jobs deemed appropriate by the CIA. The group he led, Task Force Golf Sierra, or better known as “the Goon Squad.” Zack Hightower aka Romantic, (He’s not absolutely thrilled with his call sign) has had a long history with Violator including a time when Zack tried to kill him, and Gentry shot him. But as Zack says, “it’s cool, we hugged it out.” The amount of sarcasm this former Navy SEAL spits is pure gold. I absolutely love this character and while it took him a while to get in on the action, due to the fact that Brewer had him tasked with another assignment, trying to find a CIA mole. Once he joins Anthem and Violator. The real fun and action start.
Other returning characters in the Gray Man series, Suzanne Brewer. Already mentioned a few times in the review, she oversees the blacker than black program, code name: Poison Apple and she is not happy about it. If we look back when Brewer was first introduced to the series, in Back Blast. She initially worked for Denny Carmichael, the then Director of National Clandestine Service. And she had no problem bending the rules, looking the other way in order to further her career and agenda, ultimately switching sides when she realized it was in her best interest. Well, now she’s realizing that being in Ops, running this program, Poison Apple will absolutely not advance her career and she will never see the seventh floor at Langley. This motivates her to show us the readers her true colors and she makes some bad choices, from some she can escape from but not all, she may soon be a target herself if she doesn’t fix the error of her ways. Matthew Hanley is back and is the current Director of Operations at the CIA. Chris Taverns, a SAD Ground Branch paramilitary officer. Sir Donald Fitzroy also makes an appearance, if you remember him, he used to run the Gray Man through his Security Consulting firm as an assassin for hire, well now retired and in a turn of events, Court gets to run him for an operation.
If Mission Critical were to be made into a movie, it would have to be a trilogy. With so many moving parts, so much action, sub-plots going in every direction with just about every character involved. This Gray Man thriller is one you will not be able to put down. Mark Greaney has absolutely upped his game and has delivered the best Gray Man novel to date. The non-stop action, the brilliant humor, the believable plot has earned this thriller novel a Blast Radius of a thermonuclear explosion, a second-generation nuclear weapon more powerful than the atomic bomb. Pre-order this Gray Man novel today and don’t expect to sleep once February 19th roles around.
Mission Critical reads like two separate thrillers combined in one, with two dangerous, highly trained assets who are part of a covert off the books, blacker than black program, code name: Poison Apple. The two assets converge on a target from different ways. One finds himself at the wrong place at the wrong time, unable to stand by while people are getting killed. This asset, code name – Violator gets involved and does not stop. The other asset, on a personal vendetta she noticed while being debriefed by the CIA in a picture. She sees something that only makes sense to her and from there this asset, code name – Anthem escapes her ‘safe house’ and utilizes her formidable spy skills to get out of the country, acquire weapons, gear, and intelligence. Both on the hunt, leading to the same spot with the same target, once they run into each other, the action only picks up and the stakes get bigger and bigger as our assets learn what the bad guys are up to.
The villain of this story is former GRU director, General Feodor Zakharov. This dude however goes by the name David Mars. An English gentleman who no one ever suspected of being a Russian operative. He accomplished this by utilizing skills taught to him by his late wife, whose job was to teach Russian operatives’ language and proper dialect skills and groom them to live in England or the United States and blend in as if they were natives. Russia utilized her and bred many assets who were placed in deep cover as far back as 14 years ago in order to build their legend and establish themselves in various roles, some even in law enforcement. Utilizing these assets, Zakharov made it his life mission to hurt the west and when he learned about the opportunity that presented itself, he moved whatever chess pieces he needed to and came up with a brilliant plan to conduct a terrorist strike against “The Five Eyes conference.” An annual get together of the world’s leading intelligence agencies, with representation from the U.S., the Brits, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. With his legend in place, ‘David Mars’ planned and led the terrorist organization without any official ties to Russia. He also established shell corporations and recruited other motivated individuals from other countries to help in the attack. Specifically, he recruited Won Jang-Mi, an intelligence asset and scientist from North Korea, who adopted a legend as well, Janice Won from South Korea. Janice, a true-believer in her belief to destroy the west, she was motivated by her hatred for the west due to stories she heard as a child growing up about American troops eating North Korean children during the Korean War. This resonated with me because as a Marine, having been in Iraq and Afghanistan, patrolling the streets. We would rarely get hit by an IED or ambushed. While the Army, sometimes patrolling the very same streets got into contact just about every time. Where we better? More disciplined? Less complacent? – Maybe! But we also heard stories that the insurgents feared us specifically. Knowing the difference between our camouflage utility uniform or cammis that we wore and that of the Army. They knew when the Marines were on the move. One particular story I heard is they believed in order to become a U.S. Marine, we would have to sacrifice our first born. So, while a made-up story or myth among the enemy, they believed it. Therefore, reading Mission Critical and learning what motivated this DPRK agent, it felt believable and I love being able to relate to a story on some level. Her specialty is pneumonic plague and hemorrhagic fever. She designed a plague which once exposed to a group of people, takes roughly 5-10 days to kill. All while, the person infected is highly contagious and spreads it to anyone they come in contact with. By recruiting her, Zakharov further reduces his risk of any consequences coming back to his ‘Rodina’ motherland.
Court Gentry is overseas and is summoned by the CIA. An agency plane happens to be flying near his location and is tasked with making a stop to pick him up. From there, the plane is to continue with its original mission with Gentry tagging along for the ride, then bring him back to the states. The plane lands and picks up the passengers it was originally meant to, a CIA team led by seasoned officer Doug Spano. Spano notices Gentry in the back and attempts to intimidate him and throw him off the plane. Unimpressed by his show of force and attitude, Court rolls his eyes and simply says, call Langley at extension XXXX (Brewer) and says, “she tells me to get off, I get off.” Long story short, Court Gentry, code name – Violator stays on the plane and takes a nap. The plane lands, and Court notices their mission is a prisoner handover with another intelligence agency. Before this is accomplished, the group is attacked, and the prisoner is taken. Court, not wanting to see agency personnel killed for nothing intervenes and realizes he’s just about the only guy left alive. He hijacks another smaller aircraft, a glider and pursues the attackers.
Back in the States, another asset is being held at an agency ‘safe house.’ This asset, code name Anthem, has been a ‘guest’ here for about four months. Being debriefed and just weeks away from being set free as an asset in the field. During one of the debrief sessions, Anthem’s past is being discussed and the death of her father is brought up. The man, former director of GRU laid dead in a picture provided to her by the CIA, an attack by a lucky mortar shot roughly 14 years ago. Anthem notices something in the picture, a skin condition she shares with her father which would only present itself if the person was still alive. She realizes her father is in fact alive and Anthem, aka Zoya escapes her ‘safe house’ and makes her way to Europe in order to find out the truth about her father. Completely unaware of the current terrorist strike being planned by him and that Court Gentry, aka Violator is currently tracking a team that kidnapped a CIA prisoner and is being led to the same destination.
As I mentioned, Mission Critical reads almost like two different thrillers with two formidable assets using their skills in order to get to where they need to be. Once they converge on the same target and start to work together, more action and more killing occurs. However, the plan the mastermind ‘David Mars’ has laid out is pretty solid and it takes more than these two formidable assets to stop. Enter the third asset in Poison Apple, Romantic. This asset, a fan favorite in the series has been around the block a few times. Initially a Navy SEAL, then a team leader for a group of paramilitary operations officers tasked with running renditions, hits, black bag jobs, and other jobs deemed appropriate by the CIA. The group he led, Task Force Golf Sierra, or better known as “the Goon Squad.” Zack Hightower aka Romantic, (He’s not absolutely thrilled with his call sign) has had a long history with Violator including a time when Zack tried to kill him, and Gentry shot him. But as Zack says, “it’s cool, we hugged it out.” The amount of sarcasm this former Navy SEAL spits is pure gold. I absolutely love this character and while it took him a while to get in on the action, due to the fact that Brewer had him tasked with another assignment, trying to find a CIA mole. Once he joins Anthem and Violator. The real fun and action start.
Other returning characters in the Gray Man series, Suzanne Brewer. Already mentioned a few times in the review, she oversees the blacker than black program, code name: Poison Apple and she is not happy about it. If we look back when Brewer was first introduced to the series, in Back Blast. She initially worked for Denny Carmichael, the then Director of National Clandestine Service. And she had no problem bending the rules, looking the other way in order to further her career and agenda, ultimately switching sides when she realized it was in her best interest. Well, now she’s realizing that being in Ops, running this program, Poison Apple will absolutely not advance her career and she will never see the seventh floor at Langley. This motivates her to show us the readers her true colors and she makes some bad choices, from some she can escape from but not all, she may soon be a target herself if she doesn’t fix the error of her ways. Matthew Hanley is back and is the current Director of Operations at the CIA. Chris Taverns, a SAD Ground Branch paramilitary officer. Sir Donald Fitzroy also makes an appearance, if you remember him, he used to run the Gray Man through his Security Consulting firm as an assassin for hire, well now retired and in a turn of events, Court gets to run him for an operation.
If Mission Critical were to be made into a movie, it would have to be a trilogy. With so many moving parts, so much action, sub-plots going in every direction with just about every character involved. This Gray Man thriller is one you will not be able to put down. Mark Greaney has absolutely upped his game and has delivered the best Gray Man novel to date. The non-stop action, the brilliant humor, the believable plot has earned this thriller novel a Blast Radius of a thermonuclear explosion, a second-generation nuclear weapon more powerful than the atomic bomb. Pre-order this Gray Man novel today and don’t expect to sleep once February 19th roles around.
August 23, 2020
Loved it! Hightower is a great character.
May 31, 2020
A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
“Ah! my poor dear child, the truth is, that in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.” - Jane Austen
“My job is to stop Britain going red.” - Margaret Thatcher
As we come into a new decade, one thing is difficult to argue with. The West is now fighting a second Cold War. From London assassinations to messy proxy battles in the Eastern Syrian borderlands, the Free World is slowly waking up to the fact that the end of history has not come, and its old enemy has risen once more to try destroying it in new and creative ways. One of the fronts of the new Cold War is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. By far the most hostile country to Moscow’s geopolitical ambitions in Europe, the UK has seen a massive spike in Russian black operations, most prominently with the assassination of Russian dissidents through radioactive and chemical weapons. Such actions which have not been precise or discriminate have been met with hardly any retaliation by London or the West. It’s this covert war which is the backdrop for Mark Greaney’s eight Gray Man book. Focusing on the life and times of Courtland Gentry, contract killer and deniable asset of the CIA, the series has come a long way from its humble beginnings all the way back in 2009.
The real world has gotten more complex, more dangerous, more violent and more exciting and so has Courtland Gentry. Still with a legion of enemies who would be happy to shoot him if the opportunity presents itself and future enemies who are happy to make use of him for now, Mission Critical, Gentry’s eight outing is a story about, among other things, how Gentry and the people around him, try to reconcile their complexities and relationships in the violent profession they work in. When writing this book, the author said that he avoided doing a ripped from the headlines story and instead, poached like a magpie, elements of actual real-world espionage and geopolitical events happening now. The result is one of the most interesting contemporary spy novels and one of the perfect ones to close out the 2010s. Now to the review, can children forgive the sins of their fathers?
We start our story in Switzerland several hours after the previous book, Agent In Place concluded. Courtland Gentry boards a Gulfstream IV Jet in Zurich, briefly worrying the Flight attendant and pilots due to changing the pre – arranged approach. He’s informed that they’ll have to make a stop in Luxemburg and a stop at the RAF’s Ternhill Airbase as part of an extraordinary rendition operation. At the Luxemburg stop, a team of CIA officers get into a macho pissing match over Gentry’s presence on the plane. At the Ternhill stop, calamity strikes. A team of gunmen storm the RAF Ternhill runway, slaughtering the entire CIA rendition team and several SIS officers who had come to pick of the rendition prisoner. As this attack is going on, one of the Virginia Safe Houses belonging to the CIA is also hit by hired Mexican mercenaries.
They too manage to slaughter nearly everyone in the vicinity but miss Zoya Zakharova, a defector and highly trained Russian SVR officer who attempts to flee to Britain for reasons unknown. In the immediate aftermath of these assassinations, the CIA realize that there is a mole who provided the intel used in the attacks and initiate a violent hunt spearheaded by an ex Paramilitary officer. And hidden in the British underworld, a mysterious Evil Genius begins finalizing a plan that if successful would permanently blind the Free World for an entire generation. As Gentry and Zakharova fight across the length of the United Kingdom dodging death, bullets, sniper fire, grenades and even some very large fists, only one question remains. When on a mission to save the world, is success or the survival of those alongside you the most critical?
In terms of plot? This is one of the most fun and imaginative the author has penned in his entire career to date. Rather than being centred around one big issue and exploring its facets, Greaney instead takes several different security threats and blends them into a multifaceted, original tale that examines the state of contemporary espionage in the Post 9/11 world. From traitors and leaky information that somehow ends up in the hands of the opposition, a growing emphasis on the paramilitary side of the business in the once trigger shy west, and a use of proxies of all kinds, from terrorists, mercenaries and even criminal groups to act as the third option in place of global thermonuclear conflict or appeasement, Mission Critical and its author examines just how complex and violate the Second Cold War has gotten.
And it’s not just the hard, impersonal complexities that are examined, but the human factor that is at the heart of espionage ever since the Israelites went to spy out the land. Whether it be an unwillingness to lead due to power hungriness, a sinful father refusing to admit his responsibilities to the only family he has left, or whether it’s even possible for a man of action to find true romance when he’s still married to the job and lives for the dangerous thrill of the job, the author explores some interesting avenues about what the human condition goes through when playing the spying game.
Action and setting? Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that Mark decided to have a little fun by giving Gentry more guns than he has ever used in the previous books and then letting him loose in a country which in real life has strict gun control laws. If that’s true, then he succeeded. From the opening airfield gun battle, we get taken on a violent, wild ride with enough explosions to rival Michael Bay and enough bullets to put Michael Mann in the shade. From a wild, visceral car chase through the English Home Counties, to sniper attacks in Earls Court, a spectacular commando assault on a Scottish Presbyterian Church in the Highlands and a race to stop a highly unconventional assassination of 400 people simultaneously, Mission Critical actually manages to recapture some of the raw ferocity present in the earlier books of the series like Dead Eye and Back Blast. The backdrop on which this action takes place is also rather good. While not reaching the exotic heights of Gunmetal Gray where setting was used to good effect, Mission Critical does capture the gritty drabness of contemporary Britain to a degree with a variety of locales across the UK. Whether it be a fancy Belgravia Mansion owned by a powerful Russian Oligarch, a hidden biological warfare lab in the alleys of Edinburgh, or the underground dungeon of an old Scottish Castle, the Gray Man continues to find himself in very interesting places.
Research? Rather good. Due to increased firepower, Gentry gets some very Gucci kit to use in this story. Micro – Compact Glock 43s, Heckler and Koch 416 assault rifles chambered for .300 Blackout rifle rounds, the sexy new SIG MPX submachine gun that’s finally providing competition to the old MP5 and even the HK VP9 tactical automatic, there’s, enough hardware in Mission Critical to satisfy the gear – heads and tacticool nerds. But there’s also some other neat non – firearm equipment used during the story, chief among which are the Direct-Action Penetrator helicopters, tricked out Blackhawk prototypes that allow Gentry and his allies to pull off incredibly violent Paramilitary assaults within Britain without the public being any the wiser. But aside from the guns and kit, there are also other highlights in the book. A major highlight is the succinct and efficiently explained primer on the mechanics of biological warfare. Unlike other books which bore the reader to death in needless minutiae, Greaney manages to illustrate the severity of the pathogen he’s selected, how it works and what sort of strategies go into optimal deployment.
Rather than being just another mere afterthought, the WMD in the novel will make you think and impress you with how well thought out the narrative is, especially when you consider the targets, the nature of which is a genius move on the author’s part. Aside from that we also have the usual combat and tradecraft tactics. The author spent time with a stunt driver who teaches America’s special forces soldiers on the actual tricks used in the book’s car chase and even the little details like the dead – check insurance gunshot and disabling the air bags when running over hostiles inject the authenticity which balances out the wilder escapism of the Gray Man saga.
Characters, phenomenal. Not since DEADEYE have the characters shined this much in a Gray Man book. Many standouts in this story and I’ll focus on a few. Gentry, Zoya, Brewer, Hightower and DM. First Gentry. Courtland Gentry in this book is on fine form. For the first time in the series he’s not hobbled by a firepower disadvantage, he has a little more time to plan and best of all, he has some friends with guns on his side. The man is a badass who can fight a covert war with nothing but a heavy steel monkey wrench single handed but despite his best efforts, he’s not as antiheroic as he tries to act for his work. For someone called The Gray Man, his morality is stark, good vs evil, something which even he has identified as his Achilles heel. A good man who finds himself in a business full of backstabbing arseholes and the odd crazed sociopath, the true joy of the Gray Man saga has been seeing Gentry, the hero who suffers so much because he wants to do the morally righteous thing, bring down the smug monster’s he’s sent to slay. In this entry of the series however, he’s put on the spot with the monster he’s hunting as he now has a choice. To let the monster die by the hands of someone else, or do the deed and forever destroy the first true love he’s ever found during his years in the spying game. It’s this dilemma which takes the Gray Man into one of the more interesting psychological places he’s been in since the series began.
Second, Zoya. Zoya Zakharova is the deutertagonist of Mission Critical. In some respects, Mission Critical is more of her story, than it is Gentry’s. Zakharova is a now fired Russian SVR Officer who Gentry swept up in Gunmetal Gray. Having defected to the USA after the destruction of her career in the wake of the business in Phuket, when we find at the start of this story, her she has accepted employment as a deniable asset for the CIA. Just before she can go off on her new employment however, she’s forced to go on the run after a dramatic assassination attempt on her life. Zoya is one of the most compelling characters in the series, and Greaney does an excellent job in this book fleshing out her characterization. As the daughter of the most gifted spymaster ever to grace the Russian Intelligence Community, Zakharova was imbued with a great regard for duty, diligence, excellence and never settling for mediocrity. Her desire to live up to these qualities, resulted in a talented, operative who like Gentry, was suited for lone wolf covert operations, but made her wholly unsuited to working in a team environment, especially a team environment that was part of a conforming authoritarian government. Her arc in this story, is reconciling with the lies of her past and the sins of her parents whom she discovers might be too grave to ever be forgivable.
Third, Brewer. Suzanne Brewer is the handler of the Gray Man. First introduced in Back Blast and Gunmetal Gray, she established herself as a competent enough asset runner but a very greedy office politicker who has grandiose dreams of finally reaching the 7th floor and becoming the first female DCI in the Company’s history. However, Suzanne’s opportunism has proven to be her main weakness. As we meet with her in this story, she’s already found being handler to the Gray Man become wearisome and a dead-end job preventing her from moving up in Langley. As such she starts to get ideas beyond her station, ideas which turn to a shocking, murderous act of rebellion as her resentment and hatred of the assets she’s running boils over. Brewer however is not a careerist of the Vince Flynn mould and even at her worst can pull her weight whether it be providing technical support or supplies that Gentry needs.
Fourthly, Hightower. Zack Hightower is a now ex Special Activities Division assassin turned government contractor and is one of the most fun characters in the series. A heroic high functioning sociopath, Hightower is gleefully callous, ruthless and driven as only a former Navy SEAL from Texas can be. His worldview is about following orders and whether he’s told by his masters at the Company to take pot shots at Courtland Gentry or team up with him to stop a terrorist attack, Hightower is more than happy to do both when asked. With fewer hang - ups about the morality of his profession which grip the Gray Man, while morally depraved, Hightower possesses some more common sense and clarity that Gentry lacks about life, being able to whack Courtland in the face with said clarity at the right moment during the story. Hightower is also a riot, with his machine gun stream of jokes, wisecracks, taunts and sarcasm providing a lot of the black comedy of the narrative.
Constructive criticism? Well, let me say that it did not detract from the overall story at all, but I did find it rather jarring that Mr Greaney was rather slapdash with the GRU, SVR and FSB. With a GRU officer becoming an FSB agent and an FSB file becoming an SVR file. It was moderately disconcerting and felt a bit shabby to be honest. Secondly, while it’s explained away early on, there’s almost no difficulty or complications with the British intelligence, military or law enforcement communities. While it’s not noticeable due to the excellent story, upon reflection, it’s a tad unrealistic.
As we start the 2020s, it is clear that we have not reached the end of history. The new Cold War is just getting started and its eternal conflict over which ideals will rule the world and the Shadow Warriors who violently battle for supremacy will continue to influence the future Global Order. Mission Critical captures this battle, one which the Free World does not have a guaranteed, God Given certainty of winning. With its well balanced, imaginative narrative, cinematic action that never lets up, devastating use of research which manages to take a stock assassination into a class above its peers and a cast of characters who undergo some surprising story arcs, Mark Greaney closes the old decade and enters the new one on top form. 2020, the Gray Man will return, and in a
way you’ll have never seen or heard him before.
RECOMMENDED.
“Ah! my poor dear child, the truth is, that in London it is always a sickly season. Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.” - Jane Austen
“My job is to stop Britain going red.” - Margaret Thatcher
As we come into a new decade, one thing is difficult to argue with. The West is now fighting a second Cold War. From London assassinations to messy proxy battles in the Eastern Syrian borderlands, the Free World is slowly waking up to the fact that the end of history has not come, and its old enemy has risen once more to try destroying it in new and creative ways. One of the fronts of the new Cold War is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. By far the most hostile country to Moscow’s geopolitical ambitions in Europe, the UK has seen a massive spike in Russian black operations, most prominently with the assassination of Russian dissidents through radioactive and chemical weapons. Such actions which have not been precise or discriminate have been met with hardly any retaliation by London or the West. It’s this covert war which is the backdrop for Mark Greaney’s eight Gray Man book. Focusing on the life and times of Courtland Gentry, contract killer and deniable asset of the CIA, the series has come a long way from its humble beginnings all the way back in 2009.
The real world has gotten more complex, more dangerous, more violent and more exciting and so has Courtland Gentry. Still with a legion of enemies who would be happy to shoot him if the opportunity presents itself and future enemies who are happy to make use of him for now, Mission Critical, Gentry’s eight outing is a story about, among other things, how Gentry and the people around him, try to reconcile their complexities and relationships in the violent profession they work in. When writing this book, the author said that he avoided doing a ripped from the headlines story and instead, poached like a magpie, elements of actual real-world espionage and geopolitical events happening now. The result is one of the most interesting contemporary spy novels and one of the perfect ones to close out the 2010s. Now to the review, can children forgive the sins of their fathers?
We start our story in Switzerland several hours after the previous book, Agent In Place concluded. Courtland Gentry boards a Gulfstream IV Jet in Zurich, briefly worrying the Flight attendant and pilots due to changing the pre – arranged approach. He’s informed that they’ll have to make a stop in Luxemburg and a stop at the RAF’s Ternhill Airbase as part of an extraordinary rendition operation. At the Luxemburg stop, a team of CIA officers get into a macho pissing match over Gentry’s presence on the plane. At the Ternhill stop, calamity strikes. A team of gunmen storm the RAF Ternhill runway, slaughtering the entire CIA rendition team and several SIS officers who had come to pick of the rendition prisoner. As this attack is going on, one of the Virginia Safe Houses belonging to the CIA is also hit by hired Mexican mercenaries.
They too manage to slaughter nearly everyone in the vicinity but miss Zoya Zakharova, a defector and highly trained Russian SVR officer who attempts to flee to Britain for reasons unknown. In the immediate aftermath of these assassinations, the CIA realize that there is a mole who provided the intel used in the attacks and initiate a violent hunt spearheaded by an ex Paramilitary officer. And hidden in the British underworld, a mysterious Evil Genius begins finalizing a plan that if successful would permanently blind the Free World for an entire generation. As Gentry and Zakharova fight across the length of the United Kingdom dodging death, bullets, sniper fire, grenades and even some very large fists, only one question remains. When on a mission to save the world, is success or the survival of those alongside you the most critical?
In terms of plot? This is one of the most fun and imaginative the author has penned in his entire career to date. Rather than being centred around one big issue and exploring its facets, Greaney instead takes several different security threats and blends them into a multifaceted, original tale that examines the state of contemporary espionage in the Post 9/11 world. From traitors and leaky information that somehow ends up in the hands of the opposition, a growing emphasis on the paramilitary side of the business in the once trigger shy west, and a use of proxies of all kinds, from terrorists, mercenaries and even criminal groups to act as the third option in place of global thermonuclear conflict or appeasement, Mission Critical and its author examines just how complex and violate the Second Cold War has gotten.
And it’s not just the hard, impersonal complexities that are examined, but the human factor that is at the heart of espionage ever since the Israelites went to spy out the land. Whether it be an unwillingness to lead due to power hungriness, a sinful father refusing to admit his responsibilities to the only family he has left, or whether it’s even possible for a man of action to find true romance when he’s still married to the job and lives for the dangerous thrill of the job, the author explores some interesting avenues about what the human condition goes through when playing the spying game.
Action and setting? Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that Mark decided to have a little fun by giving Gentry more guns than he has ever used in the previous books and then letting him loose in a country which in real life has strict gun control laws. If that’s true, then he succeeded. From the opening airfield gun battle, we get taken on a violent, wild ride with enough explosions to rival Michael Bay and enough bullets to put Michael Mann in the shade. From a wild, visceral car chase through the English Home Counties, to sniper attacks in Earls Court, a spectacular commando assault on a Scottish Presbyterian Church in the Highlands and a race to stop a highly unconventional assassination of 400 people simultaneously, Mission Critical actually manages to recapture some of the raw ferocity present in the earlier books of the series like Dead Eye and Back Blast. The backdrop on which this action takes place is also rather good. While not reaching the exotic heights of Gunmetal Gray where setting was used to good effect, Mission Critical does capture the gritty drabness of contemporary Britain to a degree with a variety of locales across the UK. Whether it be a fancy Belgravia Mansion owned by a powerful Russian Oligarch, a hidden biological warfare lab in the alleys of Edinburgh, or the underground dungeon of an old Scottish Castle, the Gray Man continues to find himself in very interesting places.
Research? Rather good. Due to increased firepower, Gentry gets some very Gucci kit to use in this story. Micro – Compact Glock 43s, Heckler and Koch 416 assault rifles chambered for .300 Blackout rifle rounds, the sexy new SIG MPX submachine gun that’s finally providing competition to the old MP5 and even the HK VP9 tactical automatic, there’s, enough hardware in Mission Critical to satisfy the gear – heads and tacticool nerds. But there’s also some other neat non – firearm equipment used during the story, chief among which are the Direct-Action Penetrator helicopters, tricked out Blackhawk prototypes that allow Gentry and his allies to pull off incredibly violent Paramilitary assaults within Britain without the public being any the wiser. But aside from the guns and kit, there are also other highlights in the book. A major highlight is the succinct and efficiently explained primer on the mechanics of biological warfare. Unlike other books which bore the reader to death in needless minutiae, Greaney manages to illustrate the severity of the pathogen he’s selected, how it works and what sort of strategies go into optimal deployment.
Rather than being just another mere afterthought, the WMD in the novel will make you think and impress you with how well thought out the narrative is, especially when you consider the targets, the nature of which is a genius move on the author’s part. Aside from that we also have the usual combat and tradecraft tactics. The author spent time with a stunt driver who teaches America’s special forces soldiers on the actual tricks used in the book’s car chase and even the little details like the dead – check insurance gunshot and disabling the air bags when running over hostiles inject the authenticity which balances out the wilder escapism of the Gray Man saga.
Characters, phenomenal. Not since DEADEYE have the characters shined this much in a Gray Man book. Many standouts in this story and I’ll focus on a few. Gentry, Zoya, Brewer, Hightower and DM. First Gentry. Courtland Gentry in this book is on fine form. For the first time in the series he’s not hobbled by a firepower disadvantage, he has a little more time to plan and best of all, he has some friends with guns on his side. The man is a badass who can fight a covert war with nothing but a heavy steel monkey wrench single handed but despite his best efforts, he’s not as antiheroic as he tries to act for his work. For someone called The Gray Man, his morality is stark, good vs evil, something which even he has identified as his Achilles heel. A good man who finds himself in a business full of backstabbing arseholes and the odd crazed sociopath, the true joy of the Gray Man saga has been seeing Gentry, the hero who suffers so much because he wants to do the morally righteous thing, bring down the smug monster’s he’s sent to slay. In this entry of the series however, he’s put on the spot with the monster he’s hunting as he now has a choice. To let the monster die by the hands of someone else, or do the deed and forever destroy the first true love he’s ever found during his years in the spying game. It’s this dilemma which takes the Gray Man into one of the more interesting psychological places he’s been in since the series began.
Second, Zoya. Zoya Zakharova is the deutertagonist of Mission Critical. In some respects, Mission Critical is more of her story, than it is Gentry’s. Zakharova is a now fired Russian SVR Officer who Gentry swept up in Gunmetal Gray. Having defected to the USA after the destruction of her career in the wake of the business in Phuket, when we find at the start of this story, her she has accepted employment as a deniable asset for the CIA. Just before she can go off on her new employment however, she’s forced to go on the run after a dramatic assassination attempt on her life. Zoya is one of the most compelling characters in the series, and Greaney does an excellent job in this book fleshing out her characterization. As the daughter of the most gifted spymaster ever to grace the Russian Intelligence Community, Zakharova was imbued with a great regard for duty, diligence, excellence and never settling for mediocrity. Her desire to live up to these qualities, resulted in a talented, operative who like Gentry, was suited for lone wolf covert operations, but made her wholly unsuited to working in a team environment, especially a team environment that was part of a conforming authoritarian government. Her arc in this story, is reconciling with the lies of her past and the sins of her parents whom she discovers might be too grave to ever be forgivable.
Third, Brewer. Suzanne Brewer is the handler of the Gray Man. First introduced in Back Blast and Gunmetal Gray, she established herself as a competent enough asset runner but a very greedy office politicker who has grandiose dreams of finally reaching the 7th floor and becoming the first female DCI in the Company’s history. However, Suzanne’s opportunism has proven to be her main weakness. As we meet with her in this story, she’s already found being handler to the Gray Man become wearisome and a dead-end job preventing her from moving up in Langley. As such she starts to get ideas beyond her station, ideas which turn to a shocking, murderous act of rebellion as her resentment and hatred of the assets she’s running boils over. Brewer however is not a careerist of the Vince Flynn mould and even at her worst can pull her weight whether it be providing technical support or supplies that Gentry needs.
Fourthly, Hightower. Zack Hightower is a now ex Special Activities Division assassin turned government contractor and is one of the most fun characters in the series. A heroic high functioning sociopath, Hightower is gleefully callous, ruthless and driven as only a former Navy SEAL from Texas can be. His worldview is about following orders and whether he’s told by his masters at the Company to take pot shots at Courtland Gentry or team up with him to stop a terrorist attack, Hightower is more than happy to do both when asked. With fewer hang - ups about the morality of his profession which grip the Gray Man, while morally depraved, Hightower possesses some more common sense and clarity that Gentry lacks about life, being able to whack Courtland in the face with said clarity at the right moment during the story. Hightower is also a riot, with his machine gun stream of jokes, wisecracks, taunts and sarcasm providing a lot of the black comedy of the narrative.
Constructive criticism? Well, let me say that it did not detract from the overall story at all, but I did find it rather jarring that Mr Greaney was rather slapdash with the GRU, SVR and FSB. With a GRU officer becoming an FSB agent and an FSB file becoming an SVR file. It was moderately disconcerting and felt a bit shabby to be honest. Secondly, while it’s explained away early on, there’s almost no difficulty or complications with the British intelligence, military or law enforcement communities. While it’s not noticeable due to the excellent story, upon reflection, it’s a tad unrealistic.
As we start the 2020s, it is clear that we have not reached the end of history. The new Cold War is just getting started and its eternal conflict over which ideals will rule the world and the Shadow Warriors who violently battle for supremacy will continue to influence the future Global Order. Mission Critical captures this battle, one which the Free World does not have a guaranteed, God Given certainty of winning. With its well balanced, imaginative narrative, cinematic action that never lets up, devastating use of research which manages to take a stock assassination into a class above its peers and a cast of characters who undergo some surprising story arcs, Mark Greaney closes the old decade and enters the new one on top form. 2020, the Gray Man will return, and in a
way you’ll have never seen or heard him before.
RECOMMENDED.
March 3, 2019
If you like this genre and aren't reading this series your missing out! Not sure how he does it but Mark Greaney just gets better and better. It has been a pleasure watching his writing evolve and growing along side this character.
This book is long, intense, and has many players. This didn't feel overwhelming as MG gave each character the appropriate amount of attention, thus the reader remains invested. The conclusion feels like our protagonist is moving into yet another chapter of his life and I am looking forward to tagging along for the ride. I really liked the focus placed on the reality of being in this line of work. This book really explored CG's vulnerability, physically and mentally. In this genre, sometimes the characters can feel superhuman. I really felt the humanity of the character; and that although he has this incredible skill set, he is just a man after all.
This book is long, intense, and has many players. This didn't feel overwhelming as MG gave each character the appropriate amount of attention, thus the reader remains invested. The conclusion feels like our protagonist is moving into yet another chapter of his life and I am looking forward to tagging along for the ride. I really liked the focus placed on the reality of being in this line of work. This book really explored CG's vulnerability, physically and mentally. In this genre, sometimes the characters can feel superhuman. I really felt the humanity of the character; and that although he has this incredible skill set, he is just a man after all.
March 17, 2019
Mission Critical follows the same formula as the previous Court Gentry novels, but it did not have the usual suspenseful hook that would keep the reader's attention. Court ends up in a seemingly impossible situation multiple times, which is nothing new. The problem that I had with the novel was that too much time was spent on side plots, especially the one that involved a possible breach in the covert chain.
The novel was entirely too long, getting bogged down in the middle due to the aforementioned side plots and the completely unrealistic story involving Court's handler. I found it difficult to believe that security for a meeting such as the Five Eyes conference would have not considered every possibility. In an effort to bring together the multiple threads that appear in this novel, the author ends up tangling them in a hopeless pile. I usually enjoy Court Gentry's unique perspective and dogged determination, but this novel fell flat for me. The conclusion of the novel left only a small avenue of possibilities for future plot lines, though I am not certain that I would seek out more in this series. Readers who are new to the series should go back a few novels to pick up the central thread, as Mission Critical has too many elements that are tie-ins from previous books. I was happy to catch up with Court Gentry, as I am usually a fan of his strength and determination, but I would be hesitant to recommend Mission Critical to other readers.
The novel was entirely too long, getting bogged down in the middle due to the aforementioned side plots and the completely unrealistic story involving Court's handler. I found it difficult to believe that security for a meeting such as the Five Eyes conference would have not considered every possibility. In an effort to bring together the multiple threads that appear in this novel, the author ends up tangling them in a hopeless pile. I usually enjoy Court Gentry's unique perspective and dogged determination, but this novel fell flat for me. The conclusion of the novel left only a small avenue of possibilities for future plot lines, though I am not certain that I would seek out more in this series. Readers who are new to the series should go back a few novels to pick up the central thread, as Mission Critical has too many elements that are tie-ins from previous books. I was happy to catch up with Court Gentry, as I am usually a fan of his strength and determination, but I would be hesitant to recommend Mission Critical to other readers.
January 9, 2021
It was awesome to be back riding with The Gray Man. This is a "CIA mission" book vs a "freelance mission" book and I think that has become y preference. The reason for that is that Greany has built a really cool cast of secondary characters that either don't appear or barely appear in the freelance books. Specifically the character of Zach Hightower has been developed by Greany since the early books to be an absolute riot. I love it when he is on the page. Greany is doing himself a disservice if he doesn't at some point write a Hightower spin off or novella.
As for this particular book Greany was back hitting all the right notes that I felt were missing a little in the last CIA book. The story had a lot of tension and stakes and was interesting. Greany does a really good job of making his plots and settings pretty original. He seems to be aware that those of us reading in the genre can easily recognize a recycled Middle East terrorism plot, and he goes out of his way to give us something more interesting. He does that really well while utilizing his own in-world characters and history in those plots to make the characters and story more interesting. While characters may never been the focus of a book in this genre, Greany does them better than his contemporaries and he deserves credit for that. Mission Critical benefits from all those aspects and fans of The Gray Man, like me, will probably say it's the best since Back Blast.
As for this particular book Greany was back hitting all the right notes that I felt were missing a little in the last CIA book. The story had a lot of tension and stakes and was interesting. Greany does a really good job of making his plots and settings pretty original. He seems to be aware that those of us reading in the genre can easily recognize a recycled Middle East terrorism plot, and he goes out of his way to give us something more interesting. He does that really well while utilizing his own in-world characters and history in those plots to make the characters and story more interesting. While characters may never been the focus of a book in this genre, Greany does them better than his contemporaries and he deserves credit for that. Mission Critical benefits from all those aspects and fans of The Gray Man, like me, will probably say it's the best since Back Blast.
April 29, 2019
AMAZING BOOK AND NARRATION BY JAY SNYDER (audible review)
Wow I love this series. It is so freaking good! I hate that I have to wait for the next book!
I love Court Gentry! This book was just as good as the previous and full of action. Kicking butt and taking names. I really like Zoya's character too. So many things always happening. Lots of Dialogue and great characters.
If you have not read/listened to this series, I highly recommend it! 100%
I literally took my time listening to this to keep it going longer for me because I know I am going to have to wait quite a while for the next one to come out. Sigh...
As for the narration it is truly amazing! Jay Snyder does a phenomenal job! The women sound like women, everyone gets their own distinct voice, he reads with emotion and has a sexy reading voice.
Wow I love this series. It is so freaking good! I hate that I have to wait for the next book!
I love Court Gentry! This book was just as good as the previous and full of action. Kicking butt and taking names. I really like Zoya's character too. So many things always happening. Lots of Dialogue and great characters.
If you have not read/listened to this series, I highly recommend it! 100%
I literally took my time listening to this to keep it going longer for me because I know I am going to have to wait quite a while for the next one to come out. Sigh...
As for the narration it is truly amazing! Jay Snyder does a phenomenal job! The women sound like women, everyone gets their own distinct voice, he reads with emotion and has a sexy reading voice.
March 3, 2019
The series continues to impress me. Not only with the thrilling action, but the character work. This being book 8 in the series, some long-time favorite past characters return for serious supporting roles. It makes for a fun and engaging read. Fans of the series will love this book.
June 22, 2022
Mark Greaney’s eighth Court Gentry aka The Gray Man action-thriller Mission Critical is an epic that’s at the top of the modern-day action-thriller genre. This 700+ page long tale is a complex, devious, hilarious, brutal, and awesome work of art. Fan favorite characters of the series like Zack Hightower and Zoya Zakharova reprise their roles in this epic and it’s a memorable ride. Though many things in this story are unrealistic, remember that it’s escapist antiony entertainment at its finest, and the narrative does a good job of setting up things to make them convincing within the breathtaking plot.
When a CIA transport plane is ambushed and a prisoner captured by a group of armed gunmen at a transfer in rural England, legendary freelance assassin Court Gentry who’s also accidentally on that same place gives chase and goes after the bad guys, not knowing what he’s getting into. Meanwhile, a former Russian SVR operator and Gentry’s love interest Zoya is being debriefed at a CIA safe house which gets attacked by a group of trained killers. She escapes after taking down some of them and investigates the situation on her own, with the help of her old contacts, while being hunted by the Americans. The two situations are connected to a bigger problem of a mole at the CIA who’s feeding operational intelligence to their enemies.
In terms of plot, this is a rollercoaster ride of many twists and turns with the dramatic flair of old-school espionage thrillers. Greaney creates the air of the cold war thriller genre for the modern-day with a ticking clock counting towards a large disaster and even an enigmatic Fleming-esque villain in David Mars. Mission Critical has Brit organized crime groups, the Russian Bratva, the Russian GRU, oligarchs, old British spies, a North Korean bioweapons designer, a deadly giant, SVR spies, corrupt lawyers, traitors, Spetznas, CIA Ground Branch paramilitary, and many other players in a complex and mindblowing plot.
Court Gentry, the legendary assassin known as the Gray Man, has a real struggle in this book as he almost gets killed many times and gets his body battered up and broken in the fight scenes. Zoya is almost like a co-protagonist who is the main focus of this story. She’s an interesting, complex, badass, smart, and resourceful operator who deserves her own spin-off series. It’s personal for Zoya in the story as her long-dead father is the villain and they face off many times. Zack Hightower, Court’s frenemy, is a hilariously wild dose of fun who always says the most messed up things to cheer up the story in a grim way. The demented deniable operator, former Navy SEAL, and former Ground Branch operator works with Gentry in many fight scenes in the second half of the book and their twisted bond is too fun. Zack’s interactions with Zoya are also wildly hilarious. The three of them together form the Poison Apple Group, a top-secret unit used by the cunning spymaster Matt Hanley at the CIA.
David Mars is an awesome, demented, enigmatic, powerful, and brilliant villain who might even be the best villain of the series. He’s a twisted, cunning, and devious figure who’s a treat to read. Master plotter and manipulator, David Mars has contingencies for his contingencies, ready to double cross anyone, and do whatever it takes to fulfill his vendetta against the West. Acting as a rogue actor with unofficial backing from Russia, he comes closer to devastating the western intelligence apparatus than any other villain in the genre. Matt Hanley, the spymaster on the other side of the plot has a more prominent role in this book than in all the previous books in the series. He’s a flawed human, but a cunning, cynical, and brilliant spymaster, ready to break any law to get to the truth. Masterminding a mole hunt in Langley, with the help of his deputy Suzane Brewer and Zack Hightower, Hanley plays an espionage puzzle while diving into the darkness himself, doing whatever it takes to clean the situation.
Brewer, a hateable character in every book she appears in, is in a fix for her career and even her freedom, and does whatever it takes to rid herself of Gentry and Hanley. She’s a slimy, devious, selfish character who’s exciting and fun to hate in the espionage part of the plot, but unfortunately she’s not a real villain and does not get killed. A female North Korean bioweapon scientist with many social phobias was an interesting character who was different from the usual sort of villains. All the characters in this story have clear reasons for what they’re doing, and they are even sympathetic to the eyes of the readers, with clear flaws and moral complexities. Even the so-called ‘good guys’ have darkness, flaws, and amorality in them, except Gentry who’s almost like a good crusader despite being an assassin.
The action is bonkers, but this is more of a complex and layered espionage epic than a rampage of constant action. The attention to detail and the intricate plotting in the narration, make this one of the best in the action-thriller genre in our current era and even the crazy situations are written well enough to be convincing. Greaney has done his research and taken the effort to connect all the numerous plot lines in a satisfying, exciting, and grim way. The espionage elements are believable yet fun with smart spycraft and tradecraft.
Just like any other Gray Man story, the heroes are not flag waving flawless characters, and the villains are not one dimensional cardboard cutouts. Every major character is fleshed out and memorable as hell. Though this series is a guilty pleasure read, it’s also the smartest series in that category. From the jarring opening to the intense and dramatic tension filled finale inside a Scottish castle, Mission Critical is a must read for all hardcore fans of well written action thrillers. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, One Minute Out soon.
For more long-form book reviews, check out - www.kronosananthsimha.com/book-blog/
When a CIA transport plane is ambushed and a prisoner captured by a group of armed gunmen at a transfer in rural England, legendary freelance assassin Court Gentry who’s also accidentally on that same place gives chase and goes after the bad guys, not knowing what he’s getting into. Meanwhile, a former Russian SVR operator and Gentry’s love interest Zoya is being debriefed at a CIA safe house which gets attacked by a group of trained killers. She escapes after taking down some of them and investigates the situation on her own, with the help of her old contacts, while being hunted by the Americans. The two situations are connected to a bigger problem of a mole at the CIA who’s feeding operational intelligence to their enemies.
In terms of plot, this is a rollercoaster ride of many twists and turns with the dramatic flair of old-school espionage thrillers. Greaney creates the air of the cold war thriller genre for the modern-day with a ticking clock counting towards a large disaster and even an enigmatic Fleming-esque villain in David Mars. Mission Critical has Brit organized crime groups, the Russian Bratva, the Russian GRU, oligarchs, old British spies, a North Korean bioweapons designer, a deadly giant, SVR spies, corrupt lawyers, traitors, Spetznas, CIA Ground Branch paramilitary, and many other players in a complex and mindblowing plot.
Court Gentry, the legendary assassin known as the Gray Man, has a real struggle in this book as he almost gets killed many times and gets his body battered up and broken in the fight scenes. Zoya is almost like a co-protagonist who is the main focus of this story. She’s an interesting, complex, badass, smart, and resourceful operator who deserves her own spin-off series. It’s personal for Zoya in the story as her long-dead father is the villain and they face off many times. Zack Hightower, Court’s frenemy, is a hilariously wild dose of fun who always says the most messed up things to cheer up the story in a grim way. The demented deniable operator, former Navy SEAL, and former Ground Branch operator works with Gentry in many fight scenes in the second half of the book and their twisted bond is too fun. Zack’s interactions with Zoya are also wildly hilarious. The three of them together form the Poison Apple Group, a top-secret unit used by the cunning spymaster Matt Hanley at the CIA.
David Mars is an awesome, demented, enigmatic, powerful, and brilliant villain who might even be the best villain of the series. He’s a twisted, cunning, and devious figure who’s a treat to read. Master plotter and manipulator, David Mars has contingencies for his contingencies, ready to double cross anyone, and do whatever it takes to fulfill his vendetta against the West. Acting as a rogue actor with unofficial backing from Russia, he comes closer to devastating the western intelligence apparatus than any other villain in the genre. Matt Hanley, the spymaster on the other side of the plot has a more prominent role in this book than in all the previous books in the series. He’s a flawed human, but a cunning, cynical, and brilliant spymaster, ready to break any law to get to the truth. Masterminding a mole hunt in Langley, with the help of his deputy Suzane Brewer and Zack Hightower, Hanley plays an espionage puzzle while diving into the darkness himself, doing whatever it takes to clean the situation.
Brewer, a hateable character in every book she appears in, is in a fix for her career and even her freedom, and does whatever it takes to rid herself of Gentry and Hanley. She’s a slimy, devious, selfish character who’s exciting and fun to hate in the espionage part of the plot, but unfortunately she’s not a real villain and does not get killed. A female North Korean bioweapon scientist with many social phobias was an interesting character who was different from the usual sort of villains. All the characters in this story have clear reasons for what they’re doing, and they are even sympathetic to the eyes of the readers, with clear flaws and moral complexities. Even the so-called ‘good guys’ have darkness, flaws, and amorality in them, except Gentry who’s almost like a good crusader despite being an assassin.
The action is bonkers, but this is more of a complex and layered espionage epic than a rampage of constant action. The attention to detail and the intricate plotting in the narration, make this one of the best in the action-thriller genre in our current era and even the crazy situations are written well enough to be convincing. Greaney has done his research and taken the effort to connect all the numerous plot lines in a satisfying, exciting, and grim way. The espionage elements are believable yet fun with smart spycraft and tradecraft.
Just like any other Gray Man story, the heroes are not flag waving flawless characters, and the villains are not one dimensional cardboard cutouts. Every major character is fleshed out and memorable as hell. Though this series is a guilty pleasure read, it’s also the smartest series in that category. From the jarring opening to the intense and dramatic tension filled finale inside a Scottish castle, Mission Critical is a must read for all hardcore fans of well written action thrillers. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, One Minute Out soon.
For more long-form book reviews, check out - www.kronosananthsimha.com/book-blog/
August 16, 2019
"Mission Critical," the 8th in the "Gray Man Series," really shows the Tom Clancy influence on Greaney, as Court Gentry confronts a reawakened Cold War, as Zoya Zakharvoa's father attempts to extract revenge on the Western intelligence agencies for the assassination of his wife, the "turning" of his daughter and the rationalized death of his son...I really enjoyed the developing chemistry between Gentry, Zoya and the returning Zack Hightower...plenty of twists and turns in this fun page-turner...Good Stuff!!!!
September 12, 2021
4.5 Stars ( Excellent)
The 'Gray man' does not fail to disappoint! In this latest installment, the series gets a 'refresher' with new characters, new environments, yet the same kick ass performance from the 'gray man'. This is by far much superior than 'Bourne' series.
The 'Gray man' does not fail to disappoint! In this latest installment, the series gets a 'refresher' with new characters, new environments, yet the same kick ass performance from the 'gray man'. This is by far much superior than 'Bourne' series.
November 22, 2020
The unstoppable Gray Man... has a tough time again.
September 28, 2021
4.5 stars. Some of Court's colleagues are as interesting as he is.
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