The Hard Line by Mark Greaney

Published by Berkley on February 17, 2026

In the delightfully over-the-top Midnight Black, Court Gentry needs to get smuggled into Russia so he can rescue Zoya Zakharova from prison. An early action scene in that novel has Gentry in Bulgaria, where his attempt to arrange transportation into Russia goes awry. Gentry kills a bunch of criminals and seriously wounds a hired bodyguard.

Early in The Hard Line, that scene is replayed, this time focusing on the bodyguard, an Irish lad named Charlie Coyle. A few days after Gentry shoots him, Coyle dies from an infection in a Bulgarian hospital. Diedre, Coyle’s wife, delivers that news to Charlie Coyle’s father, Campbell Coyle, who is living in Ireland under an alias.

Campbell was a “bad man with a dark history, and he came from a long line of men with dark histories.” Dierdre blames Campbell for her husband’s death because Charlie, despite being a good man, wanted to be like his father. Campbell blames himself for the same reason.

From the moment he hears the news, Campbell — formerly an assassin-for-hire — makes it his mission to murder the man who killed his son. Campbell is motivated not so much by revenge, but by his desire to assure that his grandson doesn’t get killed while seeking vengeance against his father’s killer.

Gentry has made enemies of almost everyone during the course of the Gray Man novels. Add Campbell to a list that also includes Scott Kincaid, code name Lancer, a “former Navy SEAL turned assassin” who correctly blames Gentry for his confinement in a Cuban prison. Kincaid gets his shot at vengeance in The Hard Line, but he’ll have to find Gentry before Campbell can reach him.

Coyle and Kincaid are among the killers who have been hired by Marcus Maragos, a broker of assassins. Their targets are members of (or affiliated with) the intelligence community. The killers are teamed with support agents from the Gauntlet Group, one of those businesses that make money by renting mercenaries to governments that want to kill people without taking responsibility for the deaths.

Gentry is settling into his role as an operative for a new off-the-books group managed by Matt Hanley. Gentry’s first mission is to extract a CIA asset from Nicaragua whose cover has been burned. While he’s in that country, Gentry learns that China is “working with Nicaraguan intelligence and a Central American drug gang, and clearly involved in a kinetic operation to kill CIA assets.” Exactly who is masterminding that operation in the US, and why recent CIA missions have been compromised, is for Gentry (and the reader) to discover as the novel progresses.

Mark Greaney’s smooth prose contributes to some of the best action scenes in the subgenre of tough guy thrillers. The story is genuinely exciting. Greaney earns extra credit, however, for character development. The most interesting chapter relates a telephone conversation between Gentry and Campbell. As Campbell explains why he needs to kill Gentry, they discuss their family members who lived productive, law-abiding lives and ponder why their isolated lives turned out as they did. Campbell opines that some of their bloodlines are “soft” in a good way, but “You and me. We’re from the hard lines.” Gentry suggests that they could both have chosen different lives, but it isn’t clear that he believes his own argument.

Greaney also explores family and isolation from the perspective of Zach Hightower, whose ex-wife and daughter are in witness protection in Boulder. Zach has tracked them down and, while rehabbing from his injuries, makes daily visits to the coffee shop where his daughter works. The daughter has no idea that Zach is her father. The shop owner wonders if he is a stalker, given the interest he seems to be taking in a teenage barista, while Zach wonders about the life he could have had if he had not chosen one of violence.

Having introduced Zach’s daughter into the story, savvy thriller fans will expect her to be endangered by the bad guys at some point. Those fans will not be disappointed.

To keep the family theme flowing, Gentry needs to convince his dad to shelter somewhere other than Florida so Campbell can’t use him as leverage. Since Gentry hasn’t talked to his father in twenty years, their reunion is touching in a subtle way. Neither Gentry nor his dad are touchy-feely — his dad taught Gentry to shoot and has retained some marksmanship skill that he will eventually put to use in an action scene — but Gentry’s time with his father provides insight into the evolution of a tough guy action hero.

The story’s resolution is enjoyable. Even without the bonus of character development, I would recommend The Hard Line as an action novel. Because it is more than an action novel, I can recommend The Hard Line as one of the best entries in one of the best series in the realm of tough guy fiction.

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