The author seemed to really want to cover Serious Material. Which is fine. Except... it simply was not believable. Maybe at first - with the trafficked girls, sure, I can see their treatment being like that, but as Court follows them across the world and we see more about the "indoctrination" process the traffickers use, well... it just goes off the realism rails.

How do they indoctrinate? Violence, most often sexual, and drugs. Period.

That said, it was still a justice-is-served story and Court behaves pretty much exactly how we have come to expect him to. There is nothing to let you down here - just don't be expecting it to be a "spotlight" on sex trafficking processes. ( )

Wonderful book. The Gray Man takes on international sex traffickers. Great action and detail, as always. ( )

Gotta say, this book had three strikes against it for me going in.

The first is, this is the ninth Gray Man adventure. You'd really think Greaney would be having issues stitching together a solid, captivating narrative. You'd be wrong.

Second, this one involves a very real, very terrible crime. Human trafficking. It would be easy for Greaney to get a little preachy here. He does not. Yet he still gets the sickening message across effectively.

Finally, Greaney decides—rather strangely—to let us inside Gentry's head for the first time. This is the first book where the book is told from the first person narrative.

So, the first person POV kind of put me off a touch near the start, but not for long. Then Greaney downshifted, put his foot to the floor, and revved the shit out of the Gray Man narrative machine, and ended up giving us one of the best damn entries into this series he's ever done.

Well done. ( )

Oh this Gray Man is exceptional! I was in for a surprise when Gray Man started talking. He's talkative AND surprisingly a funny man. For starters, Prince Harry?, rofl. Then he was Harry all the way to the end. It took a little while to get use to this format, but I welcome the change. Plot is heavy - sex trafficking and the corrupted rich and powerful people. Parts of it made me thought of Epstein. ( )

Court Gentry, The Gray Man, a sometimes CIA assassin, accepted a free-lance commission to assassinate retired Serbian general Ratko Babic, a war criminal responsible for the mass execution of eight thousand men and boys. Ensconced on a hillside above Babic’s compound, with Babic in his sights, Gentry can’t bring himself to take the shot. He wants Babic to know death is eminent and to realize that he is helpless to prevent it.

Gentry penetrates the extensive security apparatus protecting Babic and completes his mission, but in the process, he finds 25 women imprisoned in the basement of Babic’s headquarters. The women are captives of an extensive human slavery operation. The women refuse to attempt an escape with Gentry because they fear members of their families will be killed as a punishment for their escape. Haunted by his failure to secure their freedom, Gentry resolves to rescue the women and destroy the human trafficking organization.

The premise of “One Minute Out” is interesting and the plot is intricate, but the book is a disappointment. After the initial setup the pace drags as unnecessary scenes and details proliferate. In well-crafted action-oriented thriller the excitement builds throughout the book and the book becomes almost impossible to put down when reaching the final third. The reverse occurred here. I found it hard to read more than 40-50 pages as the book moved towards a climax. This book seems to reflect an, “If I can think of a scene I might as well throw it in,” mentality.

I’ll give this series another chance, but Greaney and The Gray Man are closer to dropping off my reading list than to becoming a “must read.” ( )