One Minute Out (Grey Man Book 9)
Mark Greaney
Berkley Pub.
Feb 23rd, 2019
One Minute Out by Mark Greaney, one of today’s top authors, is an intense thriller. His style is distinctive in that the reader gets a glimpse into the protagonist’s mind as Court Gentry speaks directly to them.
The story opens as “The Gray Man” is in Croatia, hired as a private contractor. Deciding to fulfill his mission by assassinating a Serbian war criminal up close and personal, Gentry comes face to face with girls who have been human trafficked. This global human trafficking ring is known as “the Consortium.” Because it is one of the most profitable criminal enterprises, netting billions of dollars, a black-market pipeline is established. The criminal leaders do not consider the snatched girls as people, but rather slaves, merchandise, and products. Knowing he cannot morally ignore these captured girls, Gentry decides to right a wrong by rescuing them. In the process, Court meets a young woman whose sister is among the many girls captured by the Consortium. Talyssa Corbu, a young Europol analyst is determined to find and save her sister. Knowing she will be eaten up alive by the bad guys and killed, Court agrees to work with her to find her sister and the other girls. Needless to say, this is where the action takes off as Talyssa and Gentry hunt down the evil-doers.
“I wanted to show how the demand for human traffickers also involves people who do not just wear the black hats. He has a family and lives a “normal life.” First, he worked in illegal finance by laundering money. But then he tweaked it to become more involved with human bondage. His organization was also violent using assassinations, turf wars, and executions of those women who would not or could not work. I put this book quote in for emphasis, “The American in the Hollywood Hills was a supervillain masquerading as an everyman, albeit an outrageously wealthy one… (He) compartmentalized his criminal behavior and his home life, and nothing was more vital to him than keeping those two worlds apart.”
Greaney is one of those authors who creates a suspense filled story where the action never lets up. The characters are always well developed. Anyone who has not read a Gray Man book is missing out.