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A review by pilebythebed
Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz
4.0
Orphan X, also known as the Nowhere Man is back for a fourth go round. For those needing a catch up, once again Hurwitz provides a primer early on. A deep secret American project to take orphans and train them to be killers. Evan Smoak, aka Orphan X, turned his back on all of that and has been on the run ever since. As the Nowhere Man he also helps people in trouble (usually in LA) as atonement for his life of killing.
Only someone is killing the orphans and their trainers off and it turned out in book 3, Hellbent (spoile alert) that the man behind this is the President of the United States. Former head of the Department of Defence, the President has some skeletons in his closet, somehow associated with Smoak’s first mission in 1997. Smoak’s personal mission now is to find out what the connection is and to kill the President. But the President knows he is coming and releases one of Smoak’s nemeses – Orphan A – along with the might of the US security services to stop him. Not only is Smoak’s plan constantly portrayed as impossible, at the same time he has a mission to complete as the Nowhere Man for a man who’s life has been turned upside down by a viscous gang of drug dealers.
Evan Smoak is a classic thriller hero. He has a Jason Bourne-eque way of using whatever is to hand whenever making his escapes (in one case this is a table, a handful of salt and a green tea cha), trying not to kill anyone who is not his target. But he is also incredibly well planned, so that everything that looks like a setback turns out to be some sort of contingency-planned fakeout. And he is constantly trying to juggle his personal mission with his commitment to solve the problems of his most recent client and try to have a normal relationship with his neighbour and her 9 year old son. Smoak, still a relentlessly effective killing machine, is slowly becoming more human from one book to the next.
Out of the Dark will delight thriller lovers. With its mix of weaponry technobabble, well written action scenes, a sly sense of humour and likeable but tortured main character and some great side characters, it ticks all of the boxes. While it can probably be read as a standalone, Hurwitz economically fills in the blanks when characters from previous books appear, but the Orphan X books are definitely better read as a series and in order.
Only someone is killing the orphans and their trainers off and it turned out in book 3, Hellbent (spoile alert) that the man behind this is the President of the United States. Former head of the Department of Defence, the President has some skeletons in his closet, somehow associated with Smoak’s first mission in 1997. Smoak’s personal mission now is to find out what the connection is and to kill the President. But the President knows he is coming and releases one of Smoak’s nemeses – Orphan A – along with the might of the US security services to stop him. Not only is Smoak’s plan constantly portrayed as impossible, at the same time he has a mission to complete as the Nowhere Man for a man who’s life has been turned upside down by a viscous gang of drug dealers.
Evan Smoak is a classic thriller hero. He has a Jason Bourne-eque way of using whatever is to hand whenever making his escapes (in one case this is a table, a handful of salt and a green tea cha), trying not to kill anyone who is not his target. But he is also incredibly well planned, so that everything that looks like a setback turns out to be some sort of contingency-planned fakeout. And he is constantly trying to juggle his personal mission with his commitment to solve the problems of his most recent client and try to have a normal relationship with his neighbour and her 9 year old son. Smoak, still a relentlessly effective killing machine, is slowly becoming more human from one book to the next.
Out of the Dark will delight thriller lovers. With its mix of weaponry technobabble, well written action scenes, a sly sense of humour and likeable but tortured main character and some great side characters, it ticks all of the boxes. While it can probably be read as a standalone, Hurwitz economically fills in the blanks when characters from previous books appear, but the Orphan X books are definitely better read as a series and in order.