We ended things by talking about Agent in Place, which, by the way, was originally titled ‘Weaponized.’ I asked Mark why the title changed, and he said there were two main reasons. I hear from readers all the time who think that’s my best book,” he said, “and I think that’s because it’s the one that has the most personal story for the hero. It’s sort of all about him finding these answers, his identity, and all that stuff. It’s all so personal, and it’s a lesson for aspiring writers. The more important you can make the stakes to the hero, not just life and death, but more important than life and death, the more your book will resonate with people.” Perestroika is sweeping over the Soviet Union and both covert sides of the Iron Curtain are wondering where their place will be. The status quo in the spy and military agencies love the steady employment, prestige, and money that come from having a permanent enemy. But Gorbachev is dismantling that seemingly perpetual machine.

Death a thousand times to the hired Muslim Brothers, Death a thousand times to the Muslim Brothers, the criminal Brothers, the corrupt Brothers.” – Hafez Al – Assad. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, especially his treatment of the Syrian Civil War. He animated this conflict including how mercenary groups are coordinated and deployed. Two months after his CIA operation in Hong Kong, freelance mercenary Court Gentry is hired for a contract job in Paris by a group of Syrian exiles through former French intelligence officer Vincent Voland. His job is to kidnap Bianca Medina, a Spanish fashion model and Syrian President Ahmed al-Azzam's mistress, and then deliver her to the exiles so that they can gather information from her about a secret meeting between President Azzam and the Supreme Leader of Iran, in which she was present. They believe that the revelation of Azzam's secret talks with the Iranians, in which he permitted them to build military bases in Syria, would anger the Russians, who were his allies in the civil war, for betrayal; this would then cause discord among the three parties and lead to the destabilization of Azzam's regime. Ben Coes, New York Times bestselling author of international espionage thrillers featuring Dewey AndreasThings take a complicated turn when Bianca refuses to help the Free Syrian Army, revealing that she recently gave birth to a son who, against her wishes, is still inside Syria — which has been reduced to a chaotic war zone. For the mistress to comply, she demands the Halabys find a way to have her son rescued and brought to her. It’s an impossible task, no doubt, and the Halabys know just the person for the job. Court delivers Bianca Medina to the rebels, but his job doesn’t end there. She soon reveals that she has given birth to a son, the only heir to Azzam’s rule—and a potent threat to the Syrian president’s powerful wife. Full Force and Effect was a fun one because the research was fascinating to do, and I got the book in on time, so my blood pressure stayed nice and low. So, yeah, that was probably my favorite.” Characters? Quite a few standouts this time around but for brevity’s sake, I shall focus on four. First, Courtland Gentry. Gentry in this story has an interesting character arc of sorts, one that is self-serving but noble in a strange way. After book 7 where he got rudely reacquainted with the dubious nature of the work he had once done as a government employee, in this story we start with him trying to find a job that will boot his spirits and reaffirm his idealism, a morally righteous mission that will be achieved for his own damn satisfaction, rather than that of his new handler in Langley whom he grew to hate after their first run together. He gets more than he bargained for, finding himself agreeing to an ultimate high-risk proposition which would kill any ordinary soldier or intelligence officer after a week.

I’m hoping they go through with it, and the director they got is somebody who can make any movie he wants to make by snapping his fingers and saying he wants to make it. So, I think it’s sitting pretty.” Dr. Tarek Halaby: Cardiac surgeon, co-director of the Free Syria Exile Union, husband of Rima Halaby

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Agent In Place is a story about a former CIA paramilitary officer working on a freelance contract for an organization fighting against the evil Syrian regime,” said Greaney when I asked him to explain what the book is about. “His work takes him from Western Europe directly into the heart of the Syrian Civil War, one of the most dangerous places on earth.

I researched it on location in Paris and did a great deal of research about the different players in the war in Syria. It’s a spy novel and an action novel, but at its core, it’s a story about valor and vengeance, and the perseverance of the human spirit despite the horrors of war.” The book is well written and plotted. The pace is very fast with constant action. This a series that has each book capable of being a stand-alone book. It is obvious Greaney does a lot of research to make his books accurate politically, weaponry, spy craft and also the geography. The characters are interesting and realistic. I am always amazed at Greaney’s ability to write such intricate plots. He is a master storyteller. Mark Greaney continues his dominant run with Agent In Place, the best Gray Man thriller yet and one of the top must-read thrillers of 2018. So Court, against his better judgment but feeling a responsibility to help people against the murderous regime ruining Syria, agrees to try to get in and sneak the baby and his nanny out of the country in Mark Greaney's 2018 Gray Man novel, Agent in Place.Of course, as we talked, Greaney laughed while recalling that at the time, Miller didn’t offer any details about why or how, or who these guys coming after the Gray Man should be. Mark still had to figure all of that out, which he did, and later released his first Court Gentry thriller, The Gray Man, in 2009. As our conversation pivoted towards Courtland ‘The Gray Man’ Gentry, I asked Mark about writing his first book (which he did at a popular coffee chain each morning), and how he came up with the name for his series protagonist. Part of a thriller author’s job is to stay ahead of the headlines, which can be hard to do when you’re writing a book more than a year before it’ll actually be published. It’s something a lot of writers struggle with. Plus, the genre is so full of talented writers and popular series right now that it can be challenging to come up with something truly different than what everyone else is doing.