In the Gray Man series, Court Gentry, the Gray Man, is an elite assassin and undercover operator. So far, he has worked both for and against the CIA. The series is written by Mark Greaney and currently spans 11 works.
Court Gentry is working in Syria and Iraq. To his surprise, he discovers that a squad sent in to rescue him plans to eliminate him instead. Gentry is on the run when he discovers that massive powers are going against him. The Gray Man eludes teams of assassins and lethal traps with great survival skills. The reader begins to root for this unexpected hero. The simple but satisfying plot is filled up with cinematic battles and escapes. Greaney provides little details to demonstrate Gentry’s human side. This is all contrasted with his rivals’ petty rivalries and selfishness.
Almost every law enforcement agency wants to kill Gentry and win the Agency’s prize. They all have reasons to despise and hunt the Gray Man. However, there are reasons why Gentry was the best CIA operator ever. He’s fast, brilliant, and very creative. The volumes are based on a lot of research into the Gentry’s tactics, weapons, and practices.
Gray Man Books in order
Court Gentry / Gray Man
- The Gray Man (2009)
- On Target (2010)
- Ballistic (2011)
- Dead Eye (2013)
- Back Blast (2016)
- Gunmetal Gray (2017)
- Agent in Place (2018)
- Mission Critical (2019)
- One Minute Out (2020)
- Relentless (2021)
- Sierra Six (2022)
Similar authors
- Terminal List by Jack Carr follows James Reece, the former Navy SEAL. He wants revenge after he discovers that the government is behind the deaths of his team. See Jack Carr Books in Order.
- Gregg Andrew Hurwitz’s Orphan X features Evan Smoak, a man with skills and resources. He’s a man with a dangerous past, but will always help those with nowhere else to turn. See Orphan X Books in Order.
- Scot Harvath by Brad Thor follows an ex-Navy SEAL Secret Service agent, a covert counter-terrorism agent.
See also: Ben Coes Books in Order.
Most recommended books:
- Sierra Six (4.61 Goodreads score)
- Back Blast (4.52 Goodreads score)
- Relentless (4.50 Goodreads score)
- AwardsMission Critical (4.46 Goodreads score)
- One Minute Out (4.45 Goodreads score)
Movies based on the novels
The series is being adapted into a newly developed franchise. It stars Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, and Ana de Armas in the lead roles. The movie will be released on Netflix on July 15th, 2022.
Latest releases
On February 15th, 2022 the Gray Man returned to action in Sierra Six, the 11th book in the series.
Book summaries
The Gray Man (2009)
To those who lurk in the shadows, he’s known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always.But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there’s no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive….
On Target (2010)
When an old comrade Court Gentry thought was dead returns to haunt him, his own life is put in the crosshairs.The man wants Court to complete a mission, with one crucial catch to his orders: Instead of a difficult assassination, the job will entail a nearly impossible kidnapping–and Court must return his quarry to the very CIA team that turned on him.
Ballistic (2011)
After Court Gentry was betrayed by his compatriots and forced to take on a near-suicidal covert mission by the CIA, he thought he could find refuge living in the Amazon rain forest. But his bloody past finds him when a vengeful Russian crime lord forces him to go on the run once again. Court makes his way to one of the only men in the world he can trust—and arrives too late. His friend is dead and buried.Years before, Eddie Gamboa had saved Court’s life. Now, Eddie has been murdered by the notorious Mexican drug cartel he fought to take down. And Court soon finds himself drawn into a war he never wanted. But in this war, there are no sides—only survivors…
Dead Eye (2013)
Court Gentry has always prided himself on his ability to disappear at will, to fly below the radar and exist in the shadows—to survive as the near-mythical Gray Man. But when he takes revenge upon a former employer who betrayed him, he exposes himself to something he’s never had to face before: a killer who is just like him.Code-named Dead Eye, Russell Whitlock is a graduate of the same ultra-secret Autonomous Asset Program that trained and once controlled Gentry. But now, Whitlock is a free agent who has been directed to terminate his fellow student of death. He knows how his target thinks, how he moves, and how he kills. And he knows the best way to do the job is to make Gentry run for his life—right up until the moment Dead Eye finally ends it…
Back Blast (2016)
Five years ago, Court Gentry was the CIA’s best covert asset. Then, without warning, his masters at the Agency put him at the top of their kill list. Court fled his country and became an enigmatic killer for hire known as the Gray Man.Determined to find out what made the Agency turn against him, he plans to get his hands on the men who sent him on his last mission, Operation BACK BLAST. What he doesn’t realize is that the questions that arose from his time as an American assassin are still reverberating in the U.S. intelligence community, and he’s stumbled onto a secret that powerful people want kept under wraps. The result: everyone has Court in their crosshairs…
Gunmetal Gray (2017)
After five years on the run Court Gentry is back on the inside at the CIA. But his first mission makes him wish he had stayed on the outs when a pair of Chinese agents try to take him down in Hong Kong. Normally the Chinese prefer to stay eyes-only on foreign agents. So why are they on such high alert? Court’s high stakes hunt for answers takes him across Southeast Asia and leadsto his old friend, Donald Fitzroy, who is being held hostage by the Chinese. Fitzroy was contracted to find Fan Jiang, a former member of an ultra-secret computer warfare unit responsible for testing China’s own security systems. And it seems Fan may have been too good at his job—because China wants him dead. The first two kill teams Fitzroy sent to find Fan have disappeared and the Chinese have decided to “supervise” the next operation. What they don’t know is that Gentry’s mission is to find Fan first and get whatever intel he has to the US. After that, all he has to do is get out alive…
Agent in Place (2018)
Fresh off his first mission back with the CIA, Court Gentry secures what seems like a cut-and-dried contract job: A group of expats in Paris hires him to kidnap the mistress of Syrian dictator Ahmed Azzam to get intel that could destabilize Azzam’s regime.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.Now, to get Bianca’s cooperation, Court must bring her son out of Syria alive. With the clock ticking on Bianca’s life, he goes off the grid in a free-fire zone in the Middle East–and winds up in the right place at the right time to take a shot at bringing one of the most brutal dictatorships on earth to a close…
Mission Critical (2019)
Court Gentry’s flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley.When they land in an isolated airbase in the U.K., they are attacked by a hostile force who kidnaps the prisoner. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers, but what can one operative do against a trained team of assassins? A lot, when that operative is the Gray Man.
One Minute Out (2020)
While on a mission to Croatia, Court Gentry uncovers a human trafficking operation. The trail leads from the Balkans all the way back to Hollywood.Court is determined to shut it down, but his CIA handlers have other plans. The criminal ringleader has actionable intelligence about a potentially devastating terrorist attack on the US. The CIA won’t move until they have that intel. It’s a moral balancing act with Court at the pivot point.
Relentless (2021)
The first agent disappearance was a puzzle.The second was a mystery.The third was a conspiracy.Intelligence operatives around the world are disappearing. When a missing American agent re-appears in Venezuela, Court Gentry, the Gray Man, is dispatched to bring him in, but a team of assassins has other ideas. Court escapes with his life and a vital piece of intelligence.Meanwhile, CIA agent Zoya Zakharova is in Berlin. Her mission: to infiltrate a private intelligence firm with some alarming connections. The closer she gets to answers, the less likely she is to get out alive.Court and Zoya are just two pieces on this international chessboard, and they’re about to discover one undeniable truth—sometimes capturing a king requires sacrificing some pawns.
Sierra Six (2022)
Before he was the Gray Man, Court Gentry was Sierra Six, the junior member of a CIA action team. In their first mission they took out a terrorist leader, at a terrible price. Years have passed. The Gray Man is on a simple mission when he sees a ghost: the long-dead terrorist, but he’s remarkably energetic for a dead man. A decade of time hasn’t changed the Gray Man. He isn’t one to leave a job unfinished or a blood debt unpaid.
