Orphan X Series by Gregg Hurwitz

I read Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz in July and really liked it so I continue the series.  My review of Orphan X.

A little background from a description:  As a boy, Evan Smoak was taken from a children's home, raised and trained as part of a secret government initiative buried so deep that virtually no one knows it exists. But he broke with the programme, choosing instead to vanish off grid and use his formidable skill set to help those unable to protect themselves.

The Nowhere Man proved to be less interesting.  Evan has been drugged, kidnapped, and imprisoned in luxury in an isolated location.   The majority of the book is one ingenious (failed) escape attempt after another.  Evan must escape in order to continue his mission to save a young girl, but the plot became repetitive with one escape attempt after another.  Of course, in the end he does escape and save the day, but while I wanted to believe events in the first book, The Nowhere Man was just too far-fetched for me.   

Despite having had problems with The Nowhere Man,  I was inclined to hope for more with the latest installment.  And Hellbent proved to renew my interest in the series.

Hellbent provides a little more background on Evan's relationship with Jack Johns, the father-figure and mentor who took the young boy and trained him as an assassin for the black ops, but also taught Evan to remain human.  Jack has recognized the corruption of the original Orphan Program and the attempt to terminate all of the Orphans.  Jack wants Evan to save his last protege.  

Joey, a sixteen-year-old girl and gifted hacker, is the current target of Charles Van Scriver, the Orphan in charge of terminating all traces of the program.  Joey is a handful, but she becomes a useful partner in this novel and a means for Evan to develop more emotional depth.  

In Out of the Dark, Evan (Orphan X) is prepared to go after the head of the snake--Jonathan Bennett, the man who originated the Orphan Program and has since decided to eliminate all of the Orphans and their trainers to protect himself.  The problem?  Jonathan Bennett has risen to the highest, most powerful position in the country.  Taking him down will not be easy.

To be successful, Evan needs help and gets it from the most unexpected place, an old enemy turned ally.  Candy will presumably appear in future books; she is a distinctive character with her own agenda.  Also interesting is Joey's appearance at her school in Switzerland--not exactly where you would expect to find her fitting in as seamlessly as she does, but all Orphans have a chameleon-like ability.  :)

I look forward to the next book, which will hopefully go back to the original mainstay of Evan helping those who find themselves in precarious situations.   The idea of each victim that "the Nowhere Man" helps giving his name to the next person in need of help allows a variety of settings, adventures, and characters.  

These are violent books that fit in the Thriller genre.  Orphan X is not realistic, but the plots are intense and with the exception of The Nowhere Man, I've been engrossed in each book.  My thanks to NetGalley for providing many hours of exciting plots and a variety of good and bad characters.  

Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz

"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."  --from description

Orphan X is a black ops assassin trained from childhood by an off-the-books government program that, as so many of these secret programs do, goes awry.  When ordered to kill another "orphan,"  Evan Smoak decides the problems in the program run too deep to ignore.  Using the training and finances he has received, Evan builds an untraceable life.  

What to do with the skills he has mastered?  Since he doesn't have an alternate career path, Evan embarks on missions to protect the innocent, his only requirement is that whomever he helps must pass his Nowhere Man name and number to someone else in difficult circumstances.  One mission at a time, Evan pursues the despicable evil-doers.

What I liked:  Exciting and full of adventurous action.  Kind of...action fantasy.

What I disliked:  1)  The emphasis on the aesthetic treatment of alcohol.  I mean, Evan doesn't drink much, but when he does the alcohol is really special--distilled 7 or 9 times, blah, blah, blah.   2)  Too many, too detailed fight scenes.  While realizing the need to establish his fighting skills and variety of techniques, describing it punch by jab becomes filler rather than fun.  I get it.  Hurwitz knows what he's talking about and/or has expert researchers.

OK--so Evan Smoak is a high-tech Jack Reacher.  Hurwitz gets a lot of background and details established in this first book and it is fun when things are moving.  It took me a little while to decide whether or not I liked it because of the excess of information setting up Evan's knowledge of alcohol, martial arts, and weapons, but I did end up enjoying it. Don't we all wish for a superhero kind of vigilante to defeat and punish the bad guys?

Once you accept that this is fantasy-vigilante-hero stuff--Orphan X is great fun.  I liked Evan Smoak and cheered him on, but a lot of bad people die.

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press

Techno-thriller.  2016.  Print length:  367 pages

Into the Fire by Gregg Hurwitz

The latest in the Orphan X series!  I've reviewed previous entries here.   I've thoroughly enjoyed The Nowhere Man who gives his help to those who need it.

From Description:
Taken from a group home at age twelve, Evan Smoak was trained as an off-the-books government assassin: Orphan X. After breaking with the Program, he reinvented himself as The Nowhere Man, a figure shrouded in shadows who helps the truly desperate. But the government didn’t let go of him easily, sending their best to hunt him down and eliminate him. All of them failed. With his deadliest enemies behind him, Evan is facing a new challenge—what is he going to do now that no one is after him?

Poor Evan, his training did little to help him adjust to an ordinary life, but it has given him the skills to help others against overwhelming odds.  When he accepts the call to the Nowhere Man from Max Merriweather, he intends for it to be his last mission.  

But...each time he thinks he has completed his assignment, he discovers there is another angle, a higher-up that must be taken care of before Max is safe.  While the books are not realistic, the reader roots for Evan Smoak as he dedicates himself to saving others, one innocent at a time, and Coleridge's term "suspension of disbelief" is eagerly accepted.  

I have no idea where Hurwitz will take Evan next, but please don't leave the Nowhere Man behind.

Read in September; blog review scheduled for Jan. 

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books
Thriller.  Jan. 28, 2018.  Print length:  400 pages.

Prodigal Son by Gregg Hurwitz

Another action-packed adventure with Orphan X.  I was worried about whether he would resume his role as the Nowhere Man after excepting a pardon from the president.  As circumstances unfold in the latest book, the call for help to the Nowhere Man comes from a most unexpected source: a woman claiming to be his mother.

She wants him to help a man called Andrew Duran, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and now has a dedicated brother and sister team out to assassinate him. 

I'm not at all as sure about the mother/son business, but I'm very happy to see Evan Smoak take up his mantle as the Nowhere Man again! 

Read in August;  blog review:  Jan. 11.

Keep 'em coming, Mr. Hurwitz!

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press
Mystery/Thriller.  Jan. 26, 2021.  Print length:  432 pages.