The novel puts its main character Court Gentry at the forefront of the civil war in Syria, as he helps a group of expatriates take down the Syrian president's brutal regime.

[1] Two months after his CIA operation in Hong Kong, freelance mercenary Court Gentry is hired for a contract job in Paris by a group of Syrian exiles through former French intelligence officer Vincent Voland.

After delivering her to the FSEU, led by husband and wife doctors Tarek and Rima Halaby, he berates them for giving him faulty information about the attackers and then leaves them, finished with his job.

The attackers were found out to be provided information on Medina's whereabouts (albeit presented as her being a concubine of the emir of Kuwait, who was an enemy of ISIS) by Azzam's powerful wife Shakira, who wanted the Spanish model dead after finding out about their affair and fearing that she might replace her one day as first lady of Syria.

Desperate to earn her cooperation, the Halabys try to retask Gentry with another job: spirit away Medina's infant son from Syria in what is considered a suicide mission, which Court initially refuses.

He later rescues the Halabys from being tortured for Medina's whereabouts by two French police officers sent by Swiss bank consultant & Shakira's right-hand man Sebastian Drexler.

Since communication devices were not allowed in the military camp where he was staying, Court later steals a phone from an Arab soldier on a night out with his fellow contractors in order to contact Medina, instigating a barfight in the process.

Amidst clearing a ruined refinery with his fellow contractors, Court gathers information about President Azzam's upcoming trip to a Russian military base in Palmyra from a Desert Hawks battalion command post stationed there.

After identifying himself to his captors as an American with military experience, Court manages to call his boss in the CIA, Matthew Hanley, to authorize his assassination of President Azzam.

Once I changed that, ‘Weaponized’ no longer meant anything to the story.” The title Agent in Place was suggested by his editor Tom Colgan, who thought fit the story, since the term refers to an operative who has penetrated into an intelligence target, which is Gentry’s role in the novel.

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly praised it as a "can't miss", citing "Greaney’s steady escalation of the risks that Court faces, and the exceedingly clever ways he tackles them.

"[5] Kirkus Reviews stated that "Readers of the great Tom Clancy will salivate over this fast-moving and well-plotted yarn, which is part of a consistently appealing series in which each assignment is billed as the most dangerous ever.