Tuesday, February 19, 2019

MIssion Critical - Spotlight and Excerpt


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.