Gunmetal Gray by Mark Greaney

Published by Berkley on February 14, 2017

I typically roll my eyes at thrillers that require the hero to defeat dozens of highly trained fighters, as if he were a superhero. I make an exception with Gray Man novels because rolling my eyes would divert my attention from the fun, fast-moving story. Besides, Gunmetal Gray strikes me as being more credible than most action thrillers, simply because it illustrates how badly intelligence agencies foul things up when they try to meddle with the rest of the world.

Having resolved his little misunderstanding with the CIA, Courtland Gentry accepts a contract to carry out its latest scheme. Fan Jiang, the best hacker working for the Chinese government, has bolted, making his way to Hong Kong with a head full of secrets. When Gentry arrives in Hong Kong to look for him, a Chinese colonel offer him a contract to kill Jiang. The person offering the contract is someone who doesn’t mess around, but neither does the Gray Man.

An elderly British assassin, a female Russian spy, and Triad gangsters all enter the plot before a hundred pages have passed. And that’s only the beginning of the criminal and intelligence organizations that step on each other’s toes as they try to use or kill Fan. The difference between the spies and the gangsters is often negligible, but Gentry tries to rise above it all to carry out a mission of his own — one that departs from the expectations of both the CIA and the Chinese colonel.

To recover Fan, Gentry frequently finds himself caught between paramilitary operations run by the Chinese and Russians, not to mention the Triad, the Vietnamese army, heavily armed Cambodian and Thai thugs, and the Mafia. All in a day’s work for the Gray Man.

Of course, there are things Gentry doesn’t know about the full scope of the CIA’s plan, because the CIA worries that he’ll go off reservation — again — if he learns the truth. And, of course, the CIA is right about that. The truth matters to Gentry, and being told to be a good little patriot and do what he's told doesn't sit well with him. There’s plenty of action in Gunmetal Gray, but also a fair amount of intrigue.

Readers who are familiar with the series know what to expect from Gentry, but Gunmetal Gray introduces a female SVR agent who is a worthy adversary, or ally, depending on her mood. Gentry and the Russian don’t know what to make of each other for much of the novel. And while Gentry works alone by preference, he finds himself admiring the Russian’s skills (and curves). That adds a bit of spice to the story.

The plot takes the usual twists and turns that a reader expects from Mark Greaney. He’s a clever writer who doesn’t view the world through the narrow lens that impairs most action/thriller writers who focus on international intrigue. The plot is reasonably complex and, as I noted, it is driven by the unerring ability of intelligence agencies to make a mess of things. But political intrigue aside, most of the novel is about the Gray Man doing his thing, and it delivers action in large helpings.

Notwithstanding that this is an action novel, the ending reveals truths about powerful governments that, regardless of ideology, place a higher value on winning their games than they place on moral behavior. The Gray Man is driven by a moral code and is inevitably disappointed that the CIA is not. A nation’s values mean nothing when they are sacrificed for the illusion of security. I loved the way that lesson is revealed in the novel’s ending.

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Back Blast by Mark Greaney

Published by Berkley on February 16, 2016

As the Director of Clandestine Services, Denny Carmichael is “the top spy at CIA.” He’s also the most powerful person in the agency, more powerful than his boss, or for that matter, anyone else in the intelligence community. That power gives him the ability to pursue his own intelligence agenda without worrying about the laws that should constrain his conduct.

Court Gentry, a former asset who has been given the ridiculous code name “Violator” and the slightly less ridiculous nickname “Gray Man,” has an understandable grudge against Carmichael. For years, the CIA has tried to kill him. Now he’s back in the United States to find out why. Back Blast is the fifth and possibly last of a series that follows the Gray Man's exploits.

Everyone is petrified because they fear this “one man killing machine” is probably targeting Carmichael. Despite their panic, the CIA don’t want to bring in the FBI or any of the thousands of the law enforcement agents who can legally act within the nation’s borders. But the CIA does bring in a dozen elite members of the military, allegedly with presidential authorization to engage in domestic law enforcement, because the Violator is a real badass. Unbeknownst to the rest of the intelligence community, Carmichael wants Gentry to be killed rather than captured, and so he covertly arranges for Saudi intelligence agents to go on a search-and-kill mission in downtown D.C. to terminate Gentry. It seems like Carmichael is the one who should be called the Violator, given all the laws he violates in the name of protecting the CIA (and his own career).

The setup to Back Blast is so preposterous that I feared I would be unable to suspend my disbelief and enjoy the story. That fear lasted about ten minutes. Preposterous setup or not, the novel is captivating. Carmichael wants Gentry dead, Gentry wants to know why, and the reader hangs in the middle, wondering what’s going on while watching the body count rise.

Still, when Gentry parachutes onto a roof, knocks out one guard with an uppercut, forces another to drop his weapon by shooting him in the arm, and uses his suppressed .22 handgun to shoot a gun out of a third guard’s hand, all while nursing a rib injury, I had to guffaw. The scene would be great in a movie, but a novel gives the reader a chance to reflect upon how implausible Gentry’s heroics become. Gentry can hit any target while aiming on the fly, but teams of professional shooters can’t manage to hit Gentry. The makes it difficult to take the story seriously, although this kind of spy novel isn't meant to be taken as seriously more thought-provoking works.

The story mixes ordinary action scenes with a few that are more creative (I particularly liked one that takes place inside a McDonald's). Key characters include a crime beat reporter and a national security reporter who begin to connect the threads of all the D.C. killings, a CIA analyst whose job is to assess domestic threats against the CIA, and a CIA assassin who wants a chance to take out Gentry despite his belief that Gentry is the good guy. None of the characters are deep but they are deep enough to carry an action novel.

The ending neatly resolves the mystery that plagues Gentry through the course of the novel. The ending is marred by the wholly unbelievable notion that a Washington Post reporter would decline to write a story about the massive crimes that Carmichael commits, including multiple domestic murders, because telling the truth might “harm the CIA.” Mark Greaney seems to believe that exposing governmental misconduct in an intelligence agency is a bad thing because Congress might respond by cutting the agency's budget. That's unlikely to happen but even if it did, democracies can't function if the illegal acts of government officials are concealed from the public. Weaking a democracy is a greater sin than weakening the CIA. Reporters understand that. Back Blast’s suggestion that a respected reporter would decline to report a Pulitzer-worthy story about outrageous governmental misconduct is beyond fantasy, and if he thinks that would be a good outcome, Greaney is delusional. Still, despite the number of times I had difficulty suspending my disbelief in the story, Back Blast is a ton of fun. It earns my recommendation on that basis.

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