REVIEW:

Orphan X is the type of book where an unassuming dude with a particular set of skills does a shoulder roll from one room to another to avoid a spray of bullets. Seeing as how my tumbling days are behind me now that I’ve started receiving mail from the AARP (seriously tho, why???), I like to live vicariously through this type of character from time to time.

Published in 2016, Orphan X lays the groundwork for a series that is now six books long and, from what I hear, just keeps getting better. I get it. Our shoulder roller, Evan Smoak aka The Nowhere Man aka Orphan X, is as altruistic as he is badass. How can you not like a weaponized human who’ll take time out of his busy butt-kicking schedule to babysit his neighbor’s kid?

Is the storyline entirely original? No. Can I rattle off a dozen similar guys? You bet. But who cares? Gregg Hurwitz certainly doesn’t, given that he even dedicates the book to the various Bournes, Bonds, and Bauers that have previously blazed this vigilante trail.

Now will I follow Orphan X to read Book 2 in the series? Sure. I’m down for following the Nowhere Man wherever he’s headed.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

The Nowhere Man is a legendary figure spoken about only in whispers. It's said that when he's reached by the truly desperate and deserving, the Nowhere Man can and will do anything to protect and save them.

But he's no legend.

Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets—i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear.

Now, however, someone is on his tail. Someone with similar skills and training. Someone who knows Orphan X. Someone who is getting closer and closer. And will exploit Evan's weakness — his work as The Nowhere Man — to find him and eliminate him. Grabbing the reader from the very first page, Orphan X is a masterful thriller, the first in Gregg Hurwitz's electrifying new series featuring Evan Smoak.