The Gray Man

Courtland Gentry, a former CIA officer, now takes money to kill people. In the covert world he goes by the Gray Man, and no one is considered better at the work. His latest contract targets the brother of a Nigerian official, and it drops him into a dispute pitting a private security firm against his old employers.

Lloyd Hansen, another ex-CIA man, works for the LaurentGroup and wants Gentry dead. He leans on Gentry's handler, Sir Donald Fitzroy, to arrange it. Gentry's own side turns on him, and he survives the first attempt on his life.

From there he is hunted by hit squads from Syria and Turkey. The chase runs through Prague, Budapest, Switzerland and Paris, and it ends at a chateau in Normandy.

The book is a fast, brutal international thriller made of long pursuits, ambushes and loyalties that shift under pressure. Gentry is an anti-hero whose lethal skill sits alongside a conscience.

It is the first novel in the Gray Man series, published in 2009 by Jove Books, and On Target follows it. The question driving every chapter is whether one man with no allies can outlast everyone sent to erase him.