Mark Greaney delivers the most explosive installment of his #1 New York Times bestselling Gray Man series yet with Midnight Black, a pulse-pounding thriller that opens with a bang—literally—and never lets up for a single second.
“She’s not dead.” Set after the events of The Chaos Agent (2023), those three words drive Courtland Gentry, an assassin known better as the Gray Man, serving as a mantra of sorts, willing him to find a way aboard the Mygan, a ship that’s soon heading for Turkey. Ultimately, that boat, if Court can get on it, is his best bet to eventually getting into Russia, and there is nothing Court won’t do to get into Russia, where he has reason to believe that his lover, Zoya Zakharova—callsign, Anthem, a former SRV officer and CIA contact agent—is being held.
As it turns out, Zoya, who was previously thought to be dead, may actually be a prisoner in a brutal Russian gulag called Penal Colony IK22. If she is still alive, Court knows that she won’t be for long unless he can reach her. “She’s not dead,” whispers the Gray Man as he identifies five targets in a dive bar outside Piața Romană. Finishing his whiskey, Court—who had battled the pain of heartache for months until the recent, unexpected glimmer of light shined through the darkness, giving a desperate man the one thing that, along with his unique rage, would make him even more dangerous: hope—puts his suppressed Sig Sauer P365XL to work, eliminating all five targets before the distant clang of midnight church bells could finish alerting the people of the surrounding town of the 12 o’clock hour.
Court’s “swift and judicious marksmanship,” however, caught the eye of Dorin Balan, a Romanian mafia boss and the very man Court had made a deal with to secure his place on the Mygan. But in a less-than-shocking twist, the crime lord suddenly wants to renegotiate the terms of their original agreement, even after Court wiped the floor with the mafia’s competition. Reneging on their deal, surrounded by his own men atop a parking garage shrouded in darkness sans the thick, white snowflakes falling all around them, Balan tells Court that the new price of one ticket aboard the ship he must be on the following day is the assassination of Balan’s number one enemy, a Calabrian capo who’s been holed up in a Ferentari safehouse.
“She’s not dead,” Court reminds himself, keeping his focus on Zoya. But she will be if he’s not on that ship—which means the Gray Man has exactly zero you-know-whats to give, and soon, all hell breaks loose on the parking garage—a fitting and heart-thumping appetizer to the five-star, high-body-count meal that’s to come as Courtland Gentry travels a thousand miles, across a frozen and deadly wasteland in hopes of getting to his girl before the Kremlin can get what they want out of her.
While readers are free to debate who they think is the most badass character in print these days, I’m ready to cast my vote for Courtland Gentry. No disrespect to other authors and their respective heroes, but Greaney is a special talent, with a protagionist that is uniquely lethal and helplessly fun to follow. Not since the days of prime Vince Flynn has a character so demanded attention, and to be frank, the Gray Man might be the only name in print right now capable of going toe-to-toe with genre icons such as Mitch Rapp and Jason Bourne. Sarcastic and witty, the Gray Man is a leading man unlike any other, and Greaney deserves heaps of praise for the way he’s able to bend the line between hero and anti-hero, simultaneously making his franchise character likable and intimidating, a man of few words but hip to today’s pop culture vernacular, calculated but willing to take risks, an agent of justice, but also a stone-cold killer who will literally do anything to save Zoya—even if it means staining miles of snow-covered terrain with the blood of anyone standing in his way.
It is obviously too early to crown Greaney’s book the best thriller of 2o25, but I’d bet the house that when it’s all said and done, Midnight Black will stand among the very best titles the year has to offer, and I seriously doubt anyone will find a way to top this all-out, savage, ruthless, unputdownable adventure from the best author in the thriller game right now.
If there was any doubt whatsoever, Midnight Black—one of the best books I have ever covered—cements Mark Greaney’s place as one of the premier titans in the genre today. This is the book that Gray Man fans have hoped for, and rest assured, Greaney dials it way up, fully unleashing Court Gentry and holding nothing back to give his readers an unmatched experience that not only resets the bar but will, in all likelihood, ultimately prove to be the measuring stick future thrillers are judged against.
Book Details
Author: Mark Greaney
Series: The Gray Man #14
Pages: 528 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0593548189
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 18, 2025
Praised as “One of the hardest working, most thoughtful, and fairest reviewers out there” by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline, Ryan Steck has “quickly established himself as the authority on mysteries and thrillers” (Author A.J. Tata). Steck also works full-time as a freelance editor in addition to running TRBS. He is the author of FIELDS OF FIRE, which #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr says “will leave you speechless and begging for more,” LETHAL RANGE, OUT FOR BLOOD, and TED BELL’S MONARCH. For more information, follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and BookBub. To interact with other readers and talk about your favorite books and authors, join The Real Book Spy’s Discord server.