For those of you who have found the increasingly unreal and violent books about Jack Reacher to be offputting, don’t even think about getting acquainted with Court Gentry.

Created by Mark Greaney in 2009, the Gray Man series is now out in its 12th annual version. This debut novel is a non-stop, action packed story that unrolls without any letup  for 464 pages  of violence, mayhem, killing and maiming.  On the other hand, when it was mentioned by one of my monthly book reading sharers, I thought it would  be perfect for a trip and I was not disappointed. It was only upon returning home this week that I found that Greaney had been the featured interviewee in ‘By the Book’ in the March 2, 2025 NYT.  Timing….

Gentry, the Gray Man, is a paid assassin, and his moniker refers to the fact that he has been impossible to identify, locate, and assassinate.  Once with the CIA, he was made the scapegoat of a failed mission and targeted by them for murder.  If that wasn’t bad enough, he seems to have angered a major French international company by killing Nigeria’s president’s corrupt brother on a contract, and now Laurent, LLC has hired hit squads from 12 different countries to hunt down and kill Gentry.  To ensure that this will be successful, a bad guy from Laurent kidnaps Sir David Fitzhugh, formerly of England’s MI-5 and Gentry’s handler, as well as Fitzhugh’s son, daughter, and 8 year old twins.  Gentry, despite knowing he is facing dozens of deadly killers, fights his way to the chateau in Normandy where they are being held and saves them. Along the way he eliminates half the killing squads (good by Kazakhs, Libyans, South Africans, et alia) and most of the 30 Byelorussians at the Chateau.  Not for the weak stomached reader.

This is a good read, not great literature and not even remotely believable as Gentry storms a chateau after he’s been stabbed twice, shot once, beaten to a pulp, cut his feet and knees on broken glass—well, you get the idea.  Despite these minor inconveniences, Gentry wins and survives to make it to book two, which follows.   Hurrah!