The Gray Man

Mark Greaney

Sep 2009 · Gray Man Book 1 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

THE FIRST GRAY MAN NOVEL FROM #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR MARK GREANEY—Now a Netflix Film Starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans

“Hard, fast, and unflinching—exactly what a thriller should be.”—Lee Child

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

But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness.
 
But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive....

Ratings and reviews

Call me crazy, but I read a short story from Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon called "The Grey Man", and it was about an assassin in the 1940s who had to fight one of his own kind. I watched the movie and the similarities are not a coincidence. I'm not going to sugarcoat this, "The Gray Man" is only such a great story because it was ripped right from "The City of Mist" and modernized. This is as close to plagiarism as you can get without it being plagiarized. Carlos is not here to congratulate Mark on his success because he died in 2020.

I have often found that movies adapted from books to be only shades of the original source material, but sadly in this case, the movie only improved dramatically on the book. 2 dimensional characters, simplistic plot. While I could appreciate that the "uberkiller" that is the Gray Man often shows to be only human with a strong will and determination to deal with adversity, that's about the deepest you get with this character. The villains were ridiculous and cartoonish, even if the motives presented were plausible. I can see why the screenwriters diverged so dramatically from the novel. So....disappointing.

Non stop adrenaline fueled action, thrills, suspense. Just keeps getting better and better with every nail biting page turned. One of the best action thrillers I've come across after a long time to rival Ludlum. Excellent reading.

About the author

Mark Greaney has a degree in international relations and political science. In his research for the Gray Man novels, he traveled to more than thirty-five countries and trained alongside military and law enforcement in the use of firearms, battlefield medicine, and close-range combative tactics. He is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Tom Clancy Support and Defend, Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect, Tom Clancy Commander in Chief, and Tom Clancy True Faith and Allegiance. With Tom Clancy, he coauthored Locked On, Threat Vector, and Command Authority.