Sheets of rain push past the leaves of the trees, pummeling the ground and turning the dirt to a muddy, slick mess. Running through the dense forest, he hears hundreds of bullets, each one looking to strike him dead. He hears the roaring of a helicopter that he hopes is approaching to extract him. Just before he finally reaches the safety of what he now knows to be an American MH-47, a glowering militiaman grabs his ankle. Suddenly, the chapter ends. A good thriller leaves you wanting more, and Mark Greaney’s “Gray Man” does just that.

Greaney, a White Station High School (WSHS) graduate and Memphian, is the author of the bestselling “Gray Man” series, “Josh Duffy” series and standalone novel “Red Metal.” Greaney has published and written numerous books, which have been translated into over two dozen languages, and he is currently working on book 26. Each of Greaney’s books fall under the thriller genre, focusing on global politics, military and major current events.

“I find something big I want to write a story about … like my hero needs to rescue somebody out of a penal colony in Russia or something like that — a big general idea — and then you just think about your character’s motivations, think about the villain’s motivation, things like that,” Greaney said. “I just build the story from there and I’ll write a little outline. I kind of have to [write an outline] ‘cause I have an editor and he wants to know what I’m writing.”

Greaney was born and raised in Memphis, where he still lives with his wife, three stepchildren and three dogs. While attending WSHS, he was a member of the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) club and played drums in a rock band. Recently, Greaney attended a class reunion tour at WSHS.

“[At WSHS] I was very shy, so I didn’t know many people; I had my little clique of D&D guys,” Greaney said. “In my junior year, we had a talent show and I signed up for the talent show, and I won it just doing a drum solo. So suddenly, people knew me as the ‘drummer guy.’ So my senior year, people knew who I was just because I played in this talent show.”

Greaney’s father, who was an important figure at WMC-TV, or Channel 5, gave Greaney a Luger pistol he took off a Nazi officer in World War II. This gift — and maybe his subscription to “The Economist” — helped ignite Greaney’s passion for history and his love for nonfiction books. 

“I became a big fan of reading nonfiction … when I was … [at WSHS], literally in this [library],” Greaney said. “It wasn’t until I was in college [when] I got a book by Tom Clancy … and I really loved it, so then I was like, ‘Well, what other novels are out there that are in this genre?’ and then I just read every [Tom Clancy book].”

Greaney enrolled in Memphis State University, now known as the University of Memphis, in 1985 and graduated in 1992. He majored in international relations and political science, which proved to be beneficial to his writing later in his career.

“For the longest time, I would joke about my college degrees doing nothing for me,” Greaney said. “It was just an interest of mine; it wasn’t really very practical, but now I use it all the time. I’ll be writing something and I’ll just remember … this and this and I’ll work that into the story.”

Becoming an author was not Greaney’s original career goal; prior to his explosive success, he worked in multiple restaurants and at Medtronic, a medical device company. Greaney also attempted to join the US State Department but failed the oral exam; he attempted to be a military officer but was not accepted. His shift in career to an author did not occur until he met his agent, Scott Miller, who encouraged Greaney to rewrite his third book — none of the three were ever published. Greaney’s fourth attempt, however, was “The Gray Man.” 

“When I was in college, I got an idea for a book, so I started that in 1990, and that book I worked on for 15 years like off and on and off and on,” Greaney said. “I never thought it would turn into anything, but I kept going back to it. When I finished it, I immediately put it aside and wrote a second book in seven months.”

Throughout his career, Greaney has traveled across the world to do research for his books. He has been inside of The Pentagon to speak with government officials; he has flown in the back of an F-18, which is a type of fighter aircraft used by the Navy; he has been on a Destroyer, a type of Navy vessel; he has traveled to Africa to speak with the State Department. Greaney also has first-hand experience in training with firearms and continues his shooting practice in Memphis.

“I started asking a colonel this question, a very specific question about intelligence and stuff like that, and he was like, ‘Alright, at this point you’re gonna have to back out of that conversation and ask me something else. I cannot talk about that at all,’” Greaney said. “So then you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s cool, I think I hit the nail on the head.’”

Courtland Gentry goes by many names: Court Gentry, Sierra Six, Violator and, most famously, The Gray Man. The “Gray Man” follows former CIA operative Court Gentry as he becomes a world-renowned assassin-for-hire. When the CIA turns on him, Gentry must fight against former friends and new foes to ensure his survival. The series currently consists of 13 novels with number 14, “Midnight Black,” set to release on Feb. 18, 2025. 

“I was just sitting at a bar in El Salvador and this American guy came in there who looked kind of like a tough guy,” Greaney said. “He looked like he could be in the military, or something like that, so I just sat there and made up … this whole story about him. Later, I was like, ‘Oh, I wanna write a story about this guy. He’s American and he worked for the CIA, but now they’re after him for some reason. He doesn’t know why they’re after him but he’s hiding out in the developing world, you know, living off the grid … That’s where I got the idea. It was just a happy accident where I was sort of daydreaming.” 

Readers may be drawn to the “Gray Man” for a number of reasons, with one appeal being Gentry himself. Some readers and critics find that Gentry feels like a real person rather than an effortlessly suave James Bond or superhuman Jason Bourne. This authenticity comes from Greaney who places his own values into the characters he builds. Zach Hightower, another “Gray Man” character, is inspired by real military and law enforcement personnel Greaney has interacted with.

“As far as [Gentry], I have this sort of same sense of justice and right and wrong,” Greaney said. “I don’t have the ability to climb fences like he does and all these other things he can do, but I definitely am projecting my worldview on the hero … other than all his physical abilities.”

In 2012, Greaney was invited to co-write three “Jack Ryan” novels with Tom Clancy. After Clancy died in 2013, Greaney wrote four more “Jack Ryan” novels. However, in 2016, he decided to leave the Clancy universe behind, passing the torch onto friend and fellow author Marc Cameron.

“It was really hard work; some of those books I wrote in 90 days,” Greaney said. “I had to go to Russia or Germany or Algeria or China … for research, and you had to be writing while researching because the [deadlines] were really [close]. I was also trying to keep my own books going. I did seven [Tom Clancy] books in six years … while doing my own series. It was incredibly difficult.”

Not only has “The Gray Man” sold millions of copies, but it was also made into a Netflix feature film. Big names like Brad Pitt, Bradley Cooper and Chris Hemsworth wanted to be the real-life Gray Man, but each fell through. After years of going back-and-forth with agents and producers, the movie was finally announced and would feature Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Ana de Armas, releasing on July 22, 2022. Greaney, however, was not involved in the creation of the movie as production occurred during the COVID-19 outbreak. 

“The movie rights sold before [The Gray Man] book came out in 2009,” Greaney said. “So it just bounced around in Hollywood for years and years and years, and then in about 2015, the rights came back to me and then everybody wanted it … and in early 2020 … [my agent] was like ‘Ryan Gosling is really interested in it and he’s asked for some changes in the script. He did a table read of the script and everything’ … and then in July of 2020 … it was happening and Chris Evans was in it and Gosling was in it and … I had no idea that this was coming back around.”

Writer’s block, lack of motivation and lack of inspiration are all experiences every writer goes through — even ones as experienced as Greaney. He has advice for any aspiring writers, emphasizing the importance of discipline:

“Don’t wait for motivation, just find the discipline, even if it’s 10 minutes,” Greaney said. “If you work on a project for 10 minutes a day, in a month, you’ll be so much further along than if you didn’t do it … Be confident in something tangible … [because] there’s all these roadblocks and speed bumps that you hit along the way, and you have to show yourself that you can get past that.”

Life doesn’t always go as planned, whether you’re a former CIA agent on the run or a man with a few career shifts. Nonetheless, adapting to and learning from the changes that occur in life are how human beings thrive. 

“I think I want to die with a half-written book, whenever that is,” Greaney said. “I don’t think I will ever retire — I know I won’t ever retire.”

This story was originally published on The Scroll on October 14, 2024.