One
Minute Out: A Gray Man Novel #9. Mark Greaney. Penguin Publishing Group. February
2020. pb, 512 pp.; ISBN: 9780593098912.
Court Gentry,
the Gray Man, is a hired assassin whose initial job is to take out a former
criminal responsible for war crimes that destroyed hundreds of families. However, as this job is panning out, he
discovers that this criminal is involved with something much worse, that of
trafficking sex slaves. This reviewer has a tough time with this subject as
these young women are stuck in a situation that is horrific to say the
least. Anyway, Gentry knows he has a
problem with a soft conscience but that means he can’t let this go. So he starts out by killing the leader and
many of his so-called guards. Then he
gets information on the fact that this business is far bigger than he had
imagined. In fact it’s world-wide. We meet many of the leaders in the plumbing
line, men who are interested in cruelty to these young women and beyond greedy
for the millions they are making for their small part in planning and
organizing the movement of this “product” as it’s called. Add to that that each leader has no idea who
the others are or from where they are operating. This keeps the secret under wraps, but they
are not used to the “Gray Man” who keeps showing up in the places where the
product is being shipped.
Some may say
the girls were partially responsible for being snared into this hellish trap
but one has to find this unacceptable when realizing how they are now
living. Add to this garbage the fact
that the CIA, with whom Genry doesn’t have the greatest relationship, has an
active interest in this group because they are also an active terrorist threat
and so don’t want him near the top man of this trafficking organization known
as the Consortium.
Two things work
very well in this international crime novel.
One is the fact that Gentry is one wild agent whose fighting abilities
are the best you’ve ever encountered.
The next is that he thinks everything out and really cares what happens
to thee young women, wanting them to get to live a normal life that has no
connection to sex trade. He also
acknowledges that he has dark secrets in his past and so can excuse a certain
amount of same when he meets in these women individually.
The novel
doesn’t have a perfect ending but it’s a satisfactory one for the young girls
and we learn that the CIA has an even “bigger” job coming up soon. So stay tuned for another action-packed
international crime thriller! Mark
Greaney has the plots ready and adds some very human elements that make this a
huge success. Yes, it’s somewhat
stereotypical but so are most of the books and movies of the same nature. It’s a good, adrenaline-pumping story that
one could envision in film form! Nicely
crafted, Mark Greaney!
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