Rating: 4 1/2 stars (Spotlight Review)

Meet Court Gentry. When Court was a boy, his father was a SWAT instructor. Court trained with tactical officers on a daily basis and was instructing S.W.A.T. teams in close-quarters-battle techniques by the time he was sixteen. At eighteen, Court fell in with a bad crowd and was thrown in jail for the shooting death of three Cuban drug dealers.

Snatched out of prison by some CIA big shot, Court was sent to work in a secret division within the Operations Directorate working covert ops around the world; mostly black bag jobs. For years Court was a member of the CIA’s best wet unit until he outlived his usefulness--now there is a shoot on sight directive with his name on it.

Out of work with the CIA, Court has gone to work for Sir Donald Fitzroy, owner of Cheltenham Security Services who provides employment for those who have Court-Gentry-like skills, under the guise of a normal security outfit. At Cheltenham, Court builds a legendary name, "The Gray Man", by carrying out impossible missions with great success. The legend of the Gray Man grows with every hit he completes and so does the intensity of the mission along with it. The Gray Man isn’t just a low-life hit man though; he has a criteria that has to be met before accepting a mission. An assassin with a conscience, the Gray Man only targets those he believes committed crimes which demand the ultimate punishment--death.

Enter Mr. Lloyd. A barrister for the Laurent Group, Lloyd has a major deal that will fall apart if they can't provide the head of the Gray Man to the Nigerian Minister of Energy. It seems the Gray Man’s last successful kill was the minister’s brother and he wants revenge. Lloyd contacts Fitzroy about bringing in the Gray Man so his company can close the big deal but Fitzroy will have none of it. Lloyd kidnaps Fitzroy’s family in an attempt to get him to do his bidding. This is where all the games of cat and mouse, deception and kidnapping begin and the book really takes off.

Follow the Gray Man from one side of the world to the other, as he attempts to save his children and the only part of his life that has (momentarily) been normal. The story provides an exciting ride from one page to the next, as Court Gentry tries to evade the CIA and crack hit squads that have been provided to Lloyd for a chance at an incredible payout; as well as bragging rights as to who killed the Gray Man. The accuracy of the weapons and the incredible fight scenes are done in such detail one would think they're literally watching it unfold; the only thing is, you have to stop and turn the page, reminding you this is a book and not a movie.

The Gray Man is a fast read that you can’t put down once you open the cover. Move over Jason Bourne, we now have a new action hero with heart!
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Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Jove; Original edition (September 29, 2009)
ISBN-13: 978-0515147018