Mark Greaney
Mark Greaney is an American novelist. He is best known for collaborating with Tom Clancy on his final books during his lifetime, and for continuing the Jack Ryan character and the Ryanverse following Clancy's death in 2013. He is also known for the Gray Man series of novels.
Biography
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, he is the son of Ed Greaney, a presence at WMC-TV Memphis for over 50 years and the namesake for the station's current newsroom. Greaney has degrees in political science and international relations, which would later play a major part in his writing career.
Greaney previously worked as a waiter and bartender for ten years, then later in a surgical technology company, while working on two novels in his spare time. After finishing one of them, titled Goon Squad, he gave the first 20 pages of his work to his favorite author Ralph Peters's agent, Scott Miller, in a book conference in September 2006. Miller liked the book but later did not go forward with it, saying that "it was unmarketable," according to Greaney. But he urged Greaney to write another one based from a character in Goon Squad named Court Gentry, which would later be The Gray Man. After finishing this novel, Miller agreed to represent him, and later found a publisher, Jove Books. The national success of The Gray Man made Greaney quit his job in the medical devices company and make the transition to becoming a full-time writer. He was later given a three-book deal by his publisher in 2009.
Greaney has been a fan of Tom Clancy for years, and has read all of his books, beginning with Patriot Games. So when Clancy was looking for a new co-author, Greaney found out that his editor at Berkley Books, Tom Colgan, was also Clancy's editor at G. P. Putnam's Sons. His editor later referred to his agent, who asked Greaney to be Clancy's co-author. They later collaborated on Clancy's last three novels before his death in October 2013
After Clancy's death, with the backing of his family and estate, Greaney continued the Ryanverse left behind by Clancy, and wrote four more novels as of 2016. On February 19th, 2017, Greaney announced his exit from franchise. At Greaney's recommendation, he was replaced by Marc Cameron.
Bibliography
- Locked On – with Tom Clancy (2011)
- Threat Vector – with Tom Clancy (2012)
- Command Authority – with Tom Clancy (2013)
- Support and Defend (2014)
- Full Force and Effect (2014)
- Commander in Chief (2015)
- True Faith and Allegiance (2016)