Book Review: Agent in Place by Mark Greaney

Last Updated on November 29, 2022

The latest book in Mark Greaney’s Gray Man, aka, Court Gentry series is one that I’ve been waiting for a year to read. And, finally, I grabbed it as soon as it was published.

Reading this series is a real joy for any Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne, Victor the Assassin, and The Nowhere Man fan. I love this type of emerging modern thriller, and thankfully more and more authors are writing their books following this fast-rising trend.

The Gray Man is a guy by the name Court Gentry, and he is an assassin. And a very good one at that. Right now he is working as a contractor, doing only the jobs he wants to do. But to learn how he got there, you really need to read the Mark Greaney books in order because there is a whole history to the author’s popular star.

In Agent in Place, Court Gentry has taken on the job of saving Bianca Medina, the mistress of the Syrian president, a feat that is especially dangerous since there is a group that would want nothing more than seeing the Spanish model dead. Yes, he was told that his black operation would be easy. But then things are never easy in the Gray Man’s world.

Once he has secured his target, it becomes apparent that Bianca comes with some serious luggage: she has a small baby which she has left back in Syria. And if she doesn’t go back or doesn’t get the baby out of the country, he will be for sure killed, maybe even by the president himself.

So Court has to transform himself, once again, into The Gray Man, go to Syria, infiltrate the compound where the baby is kept, and kidnap him (well, save him, really), and bring him to his mother. Easier said than done. Because now that the mother is no longer in Syria, the security around the place where her son is held has more than doubled. Not to mention that there is a full-fledged Syrian Civil War going on in the country, so a European will stand out as soon as he takes a peek outside the airport.

The story, as usual, is fast-paced. The action starts right from the start. In fact, we are thrown into one of Court’s ops from very early on. We get to see his brilliance in action right away.

The first chapter begins with something happening in the future (Court Gentry is in some serious pickle), and then the story goes on to catch up to what lead to that very moment. Now, normally, I don’t like to read books that start with the ending because, obviously, the spoiler has been, well, spoiled. Despite my misgiving about this issue, I continued reading.

And soon, being fully engrossed in the storyline, I forgot all about the spoiler. And when I got to the part that the book actually started with, I realized that things are never quite as they seem with a Gray Man book. I should have known better and kept my faith in the author from the start.

With Court, things never go as planned, and he is well aware of it. In fact, he is expecting to have to constantly improvise. And boy does he improvise in the book. He meets a lot of shady people who can help his job. He lies and steals. Yet, he has never lost sight of the values he holds most dear to him. This is another reason why it’s important to read the series from the start. You will get to see Court Gentry grow, really come into his own, and take on more and more dangerous contracts with every book. He is really a feast for the eyes.

As usual, when I finish a Gray Man book, I am a bit sad because I know that I’ll now have to wait for yet another year before I get to read a new entry in the Court Gentry series.

Agent in Place by Mark Greaney
Series: The Gray Man #7
Published by Berkley
Published: 2018
Genres: Thriller
Source: Purchased
Also by this author: Back Blast, Gunmetal Gray, Mission Critical