OrphanX Series (Books 6-8) by Gregg Hurwitz | Book Review

“What we resist pursues us. What we accept transforms us.” ~Gregg Hurwitz, Dark Horse

I have been following The OrphanX series avidly since the first book was published in 2016. The last one I read was the 2020 release Into the Fire. Since the pandemic, my reading has experienced a major shift, resulting in my TBR soaring to towering heights. Even so, thrillers remain an important category for my annual reading.

Catching up with the pending three books in the OrphanX series was one of my reading goals for 2023. However, even though I read these back-to-back, this is not my 2023 annual binge-read. That is a different series which I have been talking about and tracking on my Instagram stories. (Check out my ‘Binge Reads’ Highlights on Instagram to know more.)

Evan Smoak was pulled out from a home for boys at the age of twelve and trained as a government assassin under an off-the-books black box program designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence asset: An assassin. Evan became OrphanX— until he broke with the program and used everything he learned to disappear.

Now turned vigilante, he is known as The Nowhere Man – deemed an urban legend few know the truth about. He uses his skills and resources to fight corruption and injustice for those who have nowhere else to turn. In exchange, he only asks that the person who received his help pay it forward by sharing his phone number (1-855-2-NOWHERE) with another person in need of his services.

In Prodigal Son he receives a call from a woman claiming to be his mother and he is unsure if she needs help or it is a trap. He has no family he knows of but plenty of enemies, and any amount of precaution he takes is insufficient.

In Dark Horse, taking on a new mission is the last thing on Evan’s mind. After surviving an attack on his life and complete destruction of his base of operations, he begins to rebuild everything with Joey’s help. Joey, a teenager introduced in Hellbent (Book 3), is a world-class hacker and an Orphan washout whom Evan saved and has been watching over since. They work well together as he attempts to focus on his missions and Joey hopes to be able to live a normal teen life without Evan’s overbearing protection.

However, he is unable to refuse when a drug Kingpin from South Texas reaches out asking to save his daughter who has been abducted by the most vicious cartels. Not only must he decide if he should help an extremely bad man, no matter how just the cause, but also impregnate the fortress of an insanely paranoid cartel leader.

Finally, in The Last Orphan, The President of the United States reaches out to him to make a deal. To restore his informal pardon, he must assassinate a billionaire who has learned to trade power for more power. This brings Evan to full circle, having started as a government assassin, to hiding in the shadows to help people, now back to working for the government, specifically POTUS herself.

Amidst the challenges thrown at him, Evan also struggles in dealing with the complicated (and deepening) relationship with his neighbour Mia Hall and her nine year old son, Peter. Just when he thinks he might have to give up everything he has begun to cherish, life throws him a curve ball pushing him to stand for what he truly wants.

Gregg Hurwitz has brought Evan Smoak a long way since his introduction in OrphanX. There are quite a few familiar faces from past missions who make an appearance every now and then.

Joey is a particularly special character, one who has really grown on me, and I enjoy her camaraderie with Evan whom she calls her Uncle-person.

Every time OrphanX decides it may be time for him to retire, Gregg Hurwitz throws a bombshell that leaves you on edge and desperate for the next book.

In these last three books, the author delves deeper into Orphan X’s personal relationships which, once you know Evan Smoak, you understand is not easy for him to explore. It is impossible to not get addicted to this series. I love the black, white and grey of Evan’s character, his sense of duty, rules of engagement, and above all – his ten commandments because how you do anything is how you do everything.

The OrphanX Series by Gregg Hurwitz. Published by Penguin UK.

Books 30-32 of 2023.

Aquamarine Flavours Rating: .

Available on Amazon*:

1. Prodigal Son (OrphanX 06) – Published 2021
2. Dark Horse (OrphanX 07) – Published 2022
3. The Last Orphan (OrphanX 08) – Published 2023

About Photo: Evan Smoak has determinedly kept to his clean lines and sharp edges but over the course of these books one can see his angles and corners are being chipped away to reveal a different side to him. I thought these chamfered corner cubes perfectly represented this new side to Evan’s rules of engagement.

The cubes are cut from 220gsm cardstock and folded in two different patterns to form chamfered corners.

About the Author: Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Times #1 internationally bestselling author of 23 thrillers including the OrphanX series. His novels have won numerous literary awards and have been published in 33 languages. Gregg currently serves as the Co-President of International Thriller Writers (ITW). Additionally, he’s written screenplays and television scripts for many of the major studios and networks, comics for AWA (including the critically acclaimed anthology NewThink), DC, and Marvel, poetry, political and culture pieces for The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Bulwark, and others, and he helped write the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup.

You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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