Review of "The Nowhere Man: An Orphan X Novel" by Gregg Hurwitz

This is the second book in the 'Orphan X' series. It's best to read the books in order.

*****

Evan Smoak was once part of the government's 'Orphan Program', a secret operation that taught boys and girls to be highly skilled assassins.



Evan, known as Orphan X, began his training at the age of twelve and started doing jobs at nineteen - backed by every kind of cutting edge technology and unlimited access to cash.



After ten years or so, Evan quit the Orphan Program and settled in Los Angeles, where he uses his special skills - and bottomless bank accounts - to help people in dire straits. Calling himself 'The Nowhere Man', Evan carries an untraceable RoamZone phone, where a tormented person can call and ask for assistance.😫



At the beginning of the book, Evan is contacted by 15-year-old Anna Rezian, who's about to be sold into sexual slavery by Hector Contrell.



Evan assists Anna and terminates Hector's operation with extreme prejudice. Evan then discovers that Hector just sent off a 17-year-old girl named Alison Siegler, whose shipping container prison is scheduled to arrive in Jacksonville in sixteen days.



Evan has every intention of being in Florida to rescue Alison, and dispatch her buyer.🔪

Just as Evan is making this plan, he's abducted and locked up in a highly sophisticated 'prison.' Evan's room has a bed, bathroom, desk, fireplace, and patio, as well as custom-made clothes in his size.



There are also surveillance cameras, vents that can pump in knockout gas, and Narco guards outside his room and all over the property.

Evan soon discovers that he's being held by a sociopath who calls himself René. René is a paunchy, balding middle-aged man who's desperate to look and feel young so he can enjoy his opulent lifestyle, including a lavish home, expensive furnishings, priceless art, fabulous food, excellent liquor, attractive lovers, fancy cars, and so on.



René's method of maintaining his 'youth' includes using concealer, hair-filler, lotions, and tonics - as well as infusing himself with youthful blood. To finance all this rigmarole, René kidnaps wealthy people and forces them to hand over their fortunes. 🤑

René somehow learned about one of Evan's secret bank accounts - which contains 27 million dollars -and he plans to force Evan to do a wire transfer. René has badly miscalculated however. He thinks Evan is an arms dealer or drug trafficker, and has no idea that Orphan X is one of the deadliest assassins in the world.

Evan makes excellent use of his training and abilities to kill René's Narcos and bodyguards, but the psychopath just keeps replacing the dead men.




Evan also cleverly discovers his geographical location, and tries to formulate an escape plan - which will have to succeed if he's going to save Alison Siegler.

The story has chapter after chapter about Evan's clever maneuvers - like shinnying up a chimney, palming a poison mushroom, and doing incredible things with a Lexan vault.



There are also innumerable fight scenes, all of which are described in minute detail. For me, a lot of this was repetitive and over-the-top (though I admire author's ability to choreograph Byzantine combat scenes).

In a side plot, Charles Van Sciver - the current head of the Orphan Program - is tasked with hunting down and killing 'retired' Orphans, because they know too much. Van Sciver is especially determined to bump off Orphan X, with whom he has a long history.



So, when Van Sciver gets a cyber-sniff of the extremely elusive Evan Smoak, he sends out sexpot Candy McClure to try to locate/capture/kill Evan. Candy is quite a girl, very confident about her ability to bamboozle men with her voluptuous body. 💋



For me, the most exciting part of the book was the final quarter, where things got REALLY interesting. Nuff said without spoilers.

The story is chock full of action, but has a very thin plot, and isn't as good as the first novel in the series. Nevertheless, I'd recommend the book to Evan Smoak fans. He's a hero worth rooting for. 👍

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Gregg Hurwitz) and the publisher (Minotaur Books) for a copy of the book. 

Rating: 3 stars