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.
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