But Greaney doesn’t skimp on character development either, and I appreciated that three major characters are women, all quite different from one another. Court is a solid, appealing hero, sensitive enough to admit his loneliness and brutal enough to kill those who need killing. Trigger Warnings: This book mentions &/or contains murder, violence, gore, drugs, alcohol & addiction. A UN summit in New York will finalize an agreement between the West and Russia to restore Russia’s most favored nation status in exchange for Russia’s agreement to end its war with Ukraine. While Ukraine is not a party to the agreement and will likely fight on its own to regain its lost territory, the agreement does not require Russia to restore the land it seized. This is a bad deal for Ukraine, but the West wants Russian oil and gas. I can understand that premise, but when he plotted Burner, Mark Greaney probably didn’t know that western nations would get by just fine without Russian oil. Maybe the novel’s prediction will still come true, but those who hope for justice in Ukraine will be outraged if it does. This book was one hell of a ride with non stop action and at the end of the book I was at the edge of my seat. But the only man who can put the information together and share it with the world is 4000 miles away in New York City. There’s no way a Swiss banker like Velesky can hope to stay ahead of the killers on his trail for that long.

So I started the book in a way that even I didn’t expect, at the beginning of the story they have gone their separate ways and each is the worse for it. It soon becomes clear that the only thing that may ease their pain is some field work, but with these two, pain has a tendency to increase not decrease. It’s a shame there isn’t more non-fiction around in the espionage genre. After all, real spy thrillers can be just as fast and furious as Mark Greaney’s Gray Man and the Burner. However, they don’t have to be as placid as John le Carré’s novels and shrouded in delicate diction and sophisticated syntax. The only thing this book was really missing was an appearance from my favorite side character in the series and I expected a little more from the climax action sequence than what we got. Otherwise this book was a very good time.Right and wrong are rarely clear-cut issues in the Gray Man’s world. No one understands that better than Court and Zoya. Clear-cut or not, choices must be made. They’ll have to decide where their loyalties lie. Because one thing’s for sure. If they’re going down, they’re going down together. This was... fine, but far from one of my favourites in the series. Maybe it was the fever curtailing my attention span, but this felt like it dragged on for entirely too long. And of course, I've never been all that great a fan of Zoya or the romance subplot that just won't die... Burner by Mark Greaney feels like an impressive ode to spy craft in the midst of an absolutely captivating & thrilling tale. This was my first Gray Man novel, but it won’t be my last. This was a fun fast paced action suspense thriller. The writing style is fantastic and can’t be missed. Its well-researched and very vividly done so you feel like you are right there. I fell that the main character, Court, was also well done. The amount of emotional depth that was shown in his character was phenomenal and thoroughly thought out. Strap in and hang on tight . . . Mark Greaney delivers another heat-seeking thrill ride that’s not to be missed.

Greaney is masterly at writing action, with scenes like a car chase on a winding, hilly road in Saint Lucia coming alive in cinematic fashion. An epic gun battle on a train is so prolonged, it’s actually exhausting, involving as it does submachine guns, broken glass and mayonnaise. There are some consistency issues in this book. The Brewer character is altered from earlier books to fit the plot. Court Gentry has been de-aged a few years. There are also plot holes, but the pace of the book rips past, and are easily missed. Greaney is fantastic at writing action and once he starts he seldom lets up. Court seldom has a chance to catch a breath. The fight on the high speed train will have you gasping for breath - it never lets up.One person who recognizes the good in him is Zoya Zakharova, former Russian foreign intelligence officer, deadly killer in her own right, and Court’s lover. When I started writing Burner, my first thought was that I wanted to explore their relationship in a way I’ve never done before. It is easy to see why Netflix chose to make a movie from the first book since the twelfth book in the series is full of explosions, shootouts and the main characters barely making it out of situations alive . Immediately targeted by Russians determined to kill him and reclaim the data before it can leak out, Velesky finds himself hunted throughout Switzerland. His only chance of survival seems to lie in rogue intelligence officer Zoya Zakharova, a woman hunted by her former employers in both Russia and the CIA, who is determined to get him and his information to New York, where it can be deciphered and released. But Velesky and Zoya soon find themselves being stalked by an elite unit of Russian military operators who have no qualms about killing anyone in their way.