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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
Another good entry in the Court Gentry series. I highly recommend this book and the entire series!
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Zoya is really annoying - wishing she would disappear from this series
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.
Spoilers ahead:
Gentry is on his way back to the US and has to share the charter plane with another operation which is bringing a Dutch banker back as well. However the plane is attacked at the English airport and the banker is taken away. Gentry decides to investigate the kidnapping.
Meanwhile Zoya is in a safe house in the US. She asks for the CIA file on her dead father who was head of the GRU. This triggers an attack at the safe house where almost everyone is wiped out. Zoya escapes and makes her way to England. She is going to England to see an old friend of his father's because based on the death scene photos, she does not believe her father is dead.
Both Gentry and Zoya find clues that lead them to a solicitor named Cassidy and meet there accidentally. The long and the short of the plot is that Zoya finds her father alive and a longer time sleeper agent whose motive is now to avenge his family by using poison gas to kill all the top brass of the Five Eyes intelligence community at a high level meeting in Scotland.
As usual the writing is easy to read and follow. The action is fast and the violence is ruthless. I did not like the switching of the timeline back and forth to show Zoya's father setting up his scheme. I think the story could have been better written from the allied point of view.
Apart from that, I thought it was rather frightening that enemy sleepers probably are already active all over the Five Eyes countries. And actually currently in the news, two long term Russian sleepers have just been caught after taking identities from dead infants and they were even defense contractors. And these are not the first ones I've read about, thanks to our open policies.
4 stars and on to the next book!
Gentry is on his way back to the US and has to share the charter plane with another operation which is bringing a Dutch banker back as well. However the plane is attacked at the English airport and the banker is taken away. Gentry decides to investigate the kidnapping.
Meanwhile Zoya is in a safe house in the US. She asks for the CIA file on her dead father who was head of the GRU. This triggers an attack at the safe house where almost everyone is wiped out. Zoya escapes and makes her way to England. She is going to England to see an old friend of his father's because based on the death scene photos, she does not believe her father is dead.
Both Gentry and Zoya find clues that lead them to a solicitor named Cassidy and meet there accidentally. The long and the short of the plot is that Zoya finds her father alive and a longer time sleeper agent whose motive is now to avenge his family by using poison gas to kill all the top brass of the Five Eyes intelligence community at a high level meeting in Scotland.
As usual the writing is easy to read and follow. The action is fast and the violence is ruthless. I did not like the switching of the timeline back and forth to show Zoya's father setting up his scheme. I think the story could have been better written from the allied point of view.
Apart from that, I thought it was rather frightening that enemy sleepers probably are already active all over the Five Eyes countries. And actually currently in the news, two long term Russian sleepers have just been caught after taking identities from dead infants and they were even defense contractors. And these are not the first ones I've read about, thanks to our open policies.
4 stars and on to the next book!
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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.
Continued enjoyment of the series, The Gray Man is one of the best series I have read in along time. I hope Mark Greaney continues with Count Gentry. Can't wait for his next adventure!
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No