Burner by Mark Greaney

Published by ‎ Berkley on February 21, 2023

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.

Court Gentry is certain that nobody in power cares about outrage against injustice. Power invites the kind of corruption that has always plagued Gentry, both during and after his tenure with the CIA. Gentry is still subject to a CIA kill order. His current CIA nemesis, Suzanne Brewer, pauses the longstanding order whenever she needs Gentry’s services. She sends a desk jockey, Angela Lacy, to meet with Gentry after tracking him to his boat in the Caribbean, where Gentry is fulfilling a contract from a wealthy Ukrainian to sink yachts owned by Russian oligarchs. Angela has no idea that man she’s meeting is the Gray Man.

A Russian who handles financial transactions for Russian spy agencies has copied those transactions to a phone. Having had his fill of Russian deviltry, the Russian gives the phone to the Swiss banker who processed those transactions. By matching the data in the phone to the bank records, a smart forensic accountant will be able to trace payment recipients in western nations who are taking bribes from Russians. It turns out that their numbers are plentiful. Naturally, those folk want to stop the banker before the records are made public.

The Swiss banker, Alex Velesky, is a Ukrainian who has no love for Russia. He sends the bank records to the cloud and plans to deliver the password and the phone to Ezra Altman, a forensic accountant employed by DOJ who has spent years building a database of suspicious Russian financial transactions.

Velesky must overcome several obstacles. First, Brewer has hired Gentry to recover the phone after telling Gentry that the phone includes evidence of CIA financial transaction in Russia that, if exposed, would place CIA operatives in danger and imperil national security. Second, Zoya Zakharova has been hired by a rival bank (or so she thinks) to recover the phone so that the bank can use the data to poach some of Russia’s banking business. Third, the Russians have tumbled to Velesky’s plan and have sent their best man to recover the phone.

Series fans will recall that Gentry and Zoya have a thing going on. They’ve both been deceived about the nature and purpose of their missions and, naturally enough, they will eventually stop fighting each other and start fighting together. The fighting includes the stuff from which thrillers are made — gun battles, knife fights, jumps between rooftops, even the overused crawl across the top of a train car while the train is in motion. Thankfully, there isn’t a ridiculous fistfight on top of the train, as Greaney avoids crossing the line that separates improbable realism and impossible movie stunts.

While Burner is fundamentally an action novel, Zoya’s alcoholism and substance abuse (and Gentry’s fears and frustration with Zoya’s addictions) add depth to the characters. Greaney sets up Lacy to play a courageous role despite Zoya’s skepticism that she has what it takes. He also sets up an ending that demands sacrifice in the name of principle — the kind of principles for which Russians and their corrupt counterparts in the US and Europe have no use. All of that makes Burner a saccharin-free “feel good” story, although a fair amount of indiscriminate death precedes the relatively happy outcome.

Greaney is one of the best action thriller writers in the business and, unlike too many novelists who write about tough guys, he doesn’t depend on divisive politics and gun worship to attract an audience. Series fans won’t be disappointed, while new readers can easily enjoy Burner without reading all the Gray Man novels that precede it.

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