Review of "Dark Horse: An Orphan X Novel" by Gregg Hurwitz

In this 7th book in the 'Orphan X' series, Evan Smoak has to infiltrate a dangerous Mexican drug cartel. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is beneficial.

*****

When Evan Smoak was a spindly twelve-year-old living in an orphanage, he was 'rescued' and placed in a black ops program that trained orphans to be highly skilled assassins. Evan was dubbed Orphan X.



After doing his assassin job for many years, Orphan X left the black ops program and set himself up as 'The Nowhere Man', a badass who helps people in trouble. When a person in dire straits is given Evan's number by a former client, the call goes to Evan's uber-encrypted RoamZone phone, which he answers with the phrase "Do you need my help?" The 'help' always involves Orphan X killing people, so it's frowned on by the authorities.



After being pursued by government operatives for years, Evan made a deal with President Victoria Donahue-Carr, who agreed to pardon Evan if he gave up being the Nowhere Man.



But in a world full of people in trouble, Evan couldn't keep his word.

As the story opens Orphan X is refitting and upgrading his fortress penthouse after an explosion destroyed it. Evan is interrupted in the midst of this task by a phone call from Aragón Urrea, a drug lord in Eden, Texas, whose residents view him as a hero for helping the Eden community.



A weeping Urrea tells the Nowhere Man his 18-year-old daughter Anjelina - the light of his life - was abducted by a Mexican drug cartel run by the Familia León. The Leones are trying to infiltrate the American Southwest, and Urrea fears Anjelina was taken to give them leverage.

Orphan X is conflicted about helping a narcotics trafficker, but Anjelina is an innocent girl. So Evan agrees to help Urrea if the drug lord destroys a stash of drugs worth $160 million dollars.....and Urrea does it.



Evan is assisted in the proposed rescue of Anjelina by his 16-year-old protégé Joey, a girl who can hack into any computer anywhere, including those in cartel headquarters. Joey is a rebellious spirit who loves Twizzlers, Red Bull, and her dog (named Dog).





Evan asks Joey to oversee his apartment's renovations while he's gone, and in one of the book's lighter moments, Evan comes home to find a disco ball and Velcro jumping wall installed in his living room. Joey and Peter - the 9-year-old son of Evan's neighbor Mia Hall - are in Velcro suits, throwing themselves against the jumping wall....much to Evan's dismay.



After making elaborate preparations Orphan X infiltrates the Leones drug cartel in a manner reminiscent of the old TV series 'Mission Impossible.' Orphan X finds that cartel leader El Moreno is a cruel and depraved man, who keeps women in chicken coops and feeds people to a lion.



Evan locates Anjelina, and in usual Orphan X style, mounts an elaborate rescue operation. As always in this series, the story is full of violence, derring-do and death as Orphan X accomplishes almost impossible feats.



Over the course of the series Orphan X has evolved from a complete loner to a man who cares about others, especially his neighbor Mia and her son Peter.





The relationship between Evan and Mia is problematical because Mia is a prosecutor and Evan is a shady character, but they're drawn to each other anyway. In this book Mia experiences a health scare, and Evan gets even more involved with the prosecutor and her boy.

The end of the book foreshadows more trouble for Orphan X, and it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Thanks to Netgalley, Gregg Hurwitz, and St. Martin's Press for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars