BOOK REVIEW: The Hard Line (Gray Man)
By: Mark Greaney/ Berkley
Reviewed by: Susan Gorgioski
The Reviewer: Susan Gorgioski is a writer who has worked in law and publishing in Australia. She is currently researching a novel set in WWII Shanghai. She has three amazing dogs.
REVIEW — The Hard Line is the latest instalment in Mark Greaney’s Gray Man series and it’s a crackerjack read. Fans of the series will know that the elegantly named Courtland Gentry is the Gray Man, former CIA paramilitary; former CIA Special Activities Division/General Branch; and current off-the-books for the CIA special operator.
The novel kicks off in Bulgaria. Gentry is on the trail of unfinished business when he runs into a Bulgarian mobster with his mind on revenge. The mobster and his bodyguards are schooled in the art of kick arse warfare but one death, in particular, will haunt Gentry and unleash a scythe of destruction: Whetstone, a fellow assassin roused from his retirement and intent on killing the Gray Man.
Part of the fun of this genre is trying to guess how a writer will write a rescue for the hero who will invariably end up in the most improbable of situations. Greaney is a master at writing action sequences that subvert reader expectations while exposing the bare cold horror of killing. Little details throughout the book create a world of violence, paranoia, fear and courage: the difference between cover and concealment while being blasted by 9mm Luger shells in a safe room is explained without detracting from the intensity of the action sequence.
Fans will be familiar with the cast of characters in the Gray Man universe: Courtland Gentry a gentleman assassin, Zack Hightower his former SEAL partner, and their mentor and boss, Matt Hanley. They are tasked in this book with stopping a cabal from gaining power in Washington DC. A foreign government is pulling the strings and paying the bills. The intelligence community is under attack and Hanley’s group must compete with the killers to save lives and unmask the moles. The narrative is fast paced and seamless.
A CIA asset in Nicaragua is in danger and her identity leaked by the mole. Gentry sent to retrieve the asset and a wild and novel gunfight ensues that leads to a dramatic revelation that changes the whole ball game. The foreign power’s identity is discovered, and this ratchets up the pressure.
Gentry and his fellow operators are pulled from one violent confrontation to another. Clue after clue is revealed and Gentry travels to Colorado, Northern Ireland, Nicaragua, among others but a pivotal and gripping scene takes place in Washington DC near the Ritz Hotel. Gentry and his colleagues duel with the opposition in the quiet streets. Gray Man’s strength is his apparent ordinariness. He is physically not memorable, not hyper muscled although skilled with weapons and hand to hand combat he still comes across as ordinary but gifted in his field.
Unbeknownst to Gentry, Whetstone travels from London to Oxford to the USA in his quest for revenge. These two equally lethal and flawed individuals are destined to meet. Whetstone is rendered with great sensitivity, and he is a very believable character. Forged during the Troubles in Norther Ireland with a family history seeped in blood, Whetstone is the other side of Gantry; killing to order for profit and revenge. Their eventual confrontation is expected and surprising.
A foreign government conspiring with American traitors to take control of the country isn’t the most original of storylines, but it is cleverly balanced by the very human and individual back stories of our heroes and the dangers their life of service to country creates for their loved ones. It’s good to discover more of former SEAL’s Hightower backstory in an explosive and inventive action sequence in Colorado. The personal becomes deadly in a heartbeat.
The violence is horrific and the body count keeps rising. Greaney’s prose is seamless and driven, peppered with fine details. The ending is the culmination of all we have learnt and yet there is so much more to discover as Greaney ends on a cliffhanger. Long may the Gray Man ride, drive, fly, abseil, and walk where angels fear to tread.
EDITORS NOTE: Want to learn more about Mark Greaney and “The Hard Line”? Be sure to check out Suzanne Kelly’s interview with the author in this State Secrets podcast.
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