Mark
Greaney’s Gray Man is the fastest growing thriller series in the publishing industry
and Berkley is thrilled to publish the latest installment, MISSION CRITICAL, (Berkley Hardcover; February 19, 2019; ISBN: 978-0-451-48894-7; $27.00),
featuring Courtland “Court” Gentry.
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When
Mark’s previous book, AGENT IN PLACE,
hit the Publishers Weekly bestseller
list this past year, PW highlighted
his first-week sales increases over the preceding years—an upward trajectory of
double-digit percentage growth for each new Gray Man book since 2013’s DEAD EYE.
Each
Gray Man book receives stellar reviews with Mark being praised for his
“high-octane storytelling” (Washington
Post), described as “among the top authors of espionage” (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) and “the
best in the business” (Suspense Magazine).
The series has continuously drawn comparisons to the giants of the field including
Brad Thor, Daniel Silva, and, of course, Tom Clancy. Certainly the Clancy
comparisons are no surprise: Mark
co-wrote Clancy’s final three Jack Ryan thrillers before the venerable legend’s
death and then carried the mantle for another four novels.
For years, Court Gentry was the CIA’s best
covert asset. Then, without warning, the agency put him at the top of its kill
list. Court fled the country and became an enigmatic killer for hire known as
the Gray Man. However, after a tense reconciliation, of sorts, Court
begrudgingly finds himself working for his former government overseers.
MISSION CRITICAL opens with Court on a CIA transport plane when a
security team brings a hooded man aboard. The mysterious passenger is being
transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a
mole in Langley. Upon landing at an isolated airbase in the UK, they are
attacked by a hostile force that kidnaps the prisoner. Gentry, the lone
survivor, is ordered to track down the assassins and rescue the asset.
At the same time, Court’s sometimes lover (and
fan favorite) Zoya Zakharova escapes an attack at a CIA safe house in Virginia
with a team of killers following her. Both Court and Zoya, each on a different
continent, are battling blind against their pursuers—but each may be holding
the piece the other needs to survive.