Mark Greaney. Back Blast. Berkley, 2016.

We have reviewed a few books by Mark Greaney, but they have all been posthumous or coauthored “Tom Clancy” works. Here was something that Greaney did that had no connection to Jack Ryan, Jr., or the Clancy mythos.

Back Blast actually will remind readers of the Jack Ryan, Jr., stories, especially ones about the Campus. Like some of those books, there is just about nonstop action involving secret agents operating on the limits of legality. In this case, there is not a clandestine organization like the Campus, but simply a CIA apparatchik who has created his own bureaucratic kingdom and can do pretty much whatever he wants and get away with it. It is a reminder how much evil government workers can do when they no longer see themselves as serving the people.

Dennis “Denny” Carmichael leads a division of clandestine services within the Central Intelligence Agency. He has it in for Courtland “Court” Gentry, one of the best covert operatives in the CIA until Carmichael gave the order to terminate him. For five years, Gentry has been on the lam in foreign countries, escaping from CIA assassins and others. The problem is that he has no idea why the Agency suddenly turned on him. It becomes clear to him that Carmichael is behind it, but he cannot imagine why.

It turns out that this is the fifth of at least seven novels about Gentry, who becomes known as the Gray Man. This is the first in the series that I have read, and there is nothing lost by reading this book out of order. The narrative provides enough background so that the reader is up to speed pretty quickly.

Speaking of speed, Back Blast is a true page turner. Gentry decides it is time to return to the United States to see if he can straighten things out with the CIA—provided, of course, that no one tries to kill him first. People are trying to do that even before he lands in North America.

Gentry is clever, skilled with weapons, and physically fit. He makes for a kind of ideal character in an entertaining story. Of course, things get complicated right away. Gentry arrives in Washington, D.C., more or less under the radar, and tries to stay that way. However, he is not terribly successful at that.

Some muggers try to rob him one night. Big mistake. He injures one of them, and gets the other to tell him who the drug dealer behind their action is. Gentry sees an opportunity not just to get even and maybe help law enforcement a bit, but perhaps to get a hold of some ready cash since pushers usually have a lot of Benjamins on hand. He does accomplish his goal at the house of the drug dealer, but the FBI and CIA both see this as evidence of Gentry’s work. Macheath’s back in town, so to speak.

Carmichael has one of Gentry’s former associates, Zack Hightower, assassinate the CEO of a security firm often used by the CIA, and the Agency blames it on Gentry. Gentry also happens to be in a convenience store late one night when three thieves try to rob it. He successfully thwarts the robbery, but again his skills and methods make it clear that the robbers had encountered a trained counterterrorist.

It gets more complicated. It becomes clear that Carmichael has some secrets he does not want exposed and is willing to kill to keep them secret. He comes to depend on an associate from Saudi Arabian intelligence who has diplomatic immunity to do some of his wet work. He even has men disguised as D.C. Metro Police to hide the fact they are hit men.

A young reporter from the Washington Post assigned to the D.C. crime beat becomes suspicious that the official story he is getting from the police and FBI is at the very least not the whole story. He is able to enlist the help of one of the most experienced reporters whose specialty is the intelligence bureaucracy. They begin to discover things that may eventually answer some of Gentry’s questions.

There are few narrow escapes. The body count gets higher. While most of it is blamed on Gentry, the only ones he seems to have actually terminated or injured were armed criminals like the drug dealer and the convenience store holdup men.

Greany is very good at showing us how Gentry attends to detail. He manages security cameras well—hiding his face from them and even setting up a meeting during the time of day that the sun’s glare obscures a camera’s image. He is very stealthy, but also does some extreme things to heighten his stealth by creating distractions. He is a very entertaining character.

There is also a classical element here. Carmichael’s near obsession with Gentry, who appears innocent of any wrongdoing, reminded this reader of Javert’s obsession with Jean Valjean in Les Miserables or Lt. Gerard trying to catch Dr. Kimble in The Fugitive. (I believe the film based on the TV show Gerard is a U.S. Marshal, but the idea is the same.) Like Richard Kimble, Gentry tries to stay ahead of various plots to capture or kill him while at the same time trying to find evidence that will exonerate him.

To tell much more would get into spoiler territory, but Back Blast is a blast to read. For anyone who enjoys the derring-do and action of the Jack Ryan, Jr., stories or the books about Jason Bourne, this will be a lot of fun and hard to put down.