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A review by topdragon
Agent in Place by Mark Greaney
4.0
A rare re-read for me. I had originally read this novel back in 2017 when it came out. I had received an Advanced Reader's Copy and gave it a go even though I hadn't read any of the previous six books in the series. I really enjoyed it back then but felt like I was probably missing some nuances of the character as well as general background on how the legend of the Gray Man came to be. So I chose to go back to the beginning of the series and read them all, at least as far as I continued to enjoy the experience. Happily, I've really liked all of them. So, while my initial review is still valid, I found this re-read to be absolutely worth it. Needless to say, I'll be continuing the series.
Original Review:
Several weeks ago I participated in a cover survey with Penguin books and apparently that entered me in a drawing for an ARC of the book. The next thing I knew I had received a copy of the book in the mail and a letter notifying me I had been selected as a winner of the drawing as well as a request for a review. At first I thought this was book number two in a series so I tried to borrow book one from the library (I have a fairly strict policy of reading series books in order so that I can experience the larger cross-volume story arcs) only to discover this was actually book number seven! Well, I wasn’t going to read the first 6 in the next week in order to get to this one so I just plunged in and hoped for the best.
I was fully expecting to be underwhelmed by this novel. I’ve read numerous thrillers such as this appeared to be over the last 20 years or so and frankly, they’ve grown rather stale for me. I had never read any books by Mark Greaney but did know he had been a coauthor of the later Jack Ryan novels. Despite my preconceived notions, I found myself pleasantly surprised with the opening chapters and was soon engrossed in the story. True, the hero, Court Gentry (the Gray Man) was much like many other heroes of the genre; i.e. best in the world at what he does. The plot unfolded nicely and for the most part was unpredictable (with a few notable exceptions), the cast of characters was interesting, and the author’s style was engaging. The plot did seem to bog down quite a bit in the middle and I struggled with understanding Court’s motivations but it picked up again over the final chapters for a swift conclusion.
While I enjoyed this book overall, I suspect I would have liked it even better had I read the rest of the series and been invested in the main characters. I may go back and try book number one just to see how it all gets started and to better understand who Court Gentry is and what he’s all about but doubt I will invest the time and energy to follow yet another series like this amidst all of the other series I am trying to maintain.
This book is scheduled to be available for sale on 2/28/2018. By the way, the book has an awesome cover :)
Original Review:
Several weeks ago I participated in a cover survey with Penguin books and apparently that entered me in a drawing for an ARC of the book. The next thing I knew I had received a copy of the book in the mail and a letter notifying me I had been selected as a winner of the drawing as well as a request for a review. At first I thought this was book number two in a series so I tried to borrow book one from the library (I have a fairly strict policy of reading series books in order so that I can experience the larger cross-volume story arcs) only to discover this was actually book number seven! Well, I wasn’t going to read the first 6 in the next week in order to get to this one so I just plunged in and hoped for the best.
I was fully expecting to be underwhelmed by this novel. I’ve read numerous thrillers such as this appeared to be over the last 20 years or so and frankly, they’ve grown rather stale for me. I had never read any books by Mark Greaney but did know he had been a coauthor of the later Jack Ryan novels. Despite my preconceived notions, I found myself pleasantly surprised with the opening chapters and was soon engrossed in the story. True, the hero, Court Gentry (the Gray Man) was much like many other heroes of the genre; i.e. best in the world at what he does. The plot unfolded nicely and for the most part was unpredictable (with a few notable exceptions), the cast of characters was interesting, and the author’s style was engaging. The plot did seem to bog down quite a bit in the middle and I struggled with understanding Court’s motivations but it picked up again over the final chapters for a swift conclusion.
While I enjoyed this book overall, I suspect I would have liked it even better had I read the rest of the series and been invested in the main characters. I may go back and try book number one just to see how it all gets started and to better understand who Court Gentry is and what he’s all about but doubt I will invest the time and energy to follow yet another series like this amidst all of the other series I am trying to maintain.
This book is scheduled to be available for sale on 2/28/2018. By the way, the book has an awesome cover :)