Barb's Book Reviews: Review of "Out of the Dark: An Orphan X Novel" by Gregg Hurwitz

Friday, February 8, 2019

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

In this 4th book in the "Orphan X" series Evan Smoak - also known as Orphan X - plans to kill the President of the United States, Jonathan Bennett. The book can be read as a standalone, but familiarity with the series is a plus.

*****

When Evan Smoak was a child Jonathan Bennett - then working for the Department of Defense - oversaw a black ops program that trained orphans to be highly skilled assassins.

The children were stripped of their names and designated alphabetically: Orphan A, Orphan B, Orphan C....and so on. Evan, dubbed Orphan X, was trained for seven years and performed his first mission at the age of nineteen.

The Orphan Program has now been discontinued and Bennett is determined to wipe out the still-living Orphans because they 'know too much.' Bennett is especially eager to kill Orphan X because of something connected to Evan's first mission - the assassination of an eastern European foreign minister twenty years ago. Evan doesn't know why the mission is so problematical, but he means to find out.

In addition to targeting the President, Evan is continuing his self-assigned mandate as 'The Nowhere Man' - a sort of superhero who helps deserving people in trouble. Evan carries an untraceable RoamZone phone, where a desperate person can call and ask for assistance.

A good deal of the book is a cat-and-mouse game between Orphan X and the team POTUS assigned to kill him, which is composed of: the still-loyal Orphan A - who's as well-trained as Orphan X; Wade and Ricky Collins - murderous rapists who've been released from prison for the purpose; and several of the Collins' gangster cousins. The clashes of these foes results in much death and destruction.

Between fights with the President's kill team Evan gets a RoamZone call from a mentally-challenged port employee called Trevon Gaines. Trevon inadvertently interfered with a drug shipment headed for crime boss Russell Gadds, and the thug threatened to kill Trevon's entire family and make his life miserable forever. So in addition to targeting POTUS, Evan plans to decimate Gadds' whole operation.

All this is a lot to do and Evan gets help from his protégé, a teenage girl named Joey. Joey - who escaped the Orphan program and is now 'hiding out' in a Swiss private school - is a world-class hacker who can penetrate the deepest darkest files of the Department of Defense and the Secret Service. Thus Joey is uniquely capable of delivering information Evan needs to kill the President, who's EXTREMELY well-protected. Hurwitz describes the Secret Service's security measures for POTUS in detail, and they are VERY thorough.

During his rare moments of relaxation, Evan sometimes visits his downstairs neighbors, single mother Mia Hall and her nine-year-old son Peter. Evan and Mia hover on the precipice of a real romance, but - given Evan's circumstances- this is an extremely dangerous proposition.

For readers familiar with the series, former Orphan Candy McClure makes an appearance - and she's as sexy and capable as ever.

I enjoyed the book, which has numerous exciting combat scenes. I do have one quibble however. Though Orphan X is ostensibly a brilliant strategist, he occasionally does foolish things that allow his enemies to catch up with him - like registering for three rooms (in a single hotel) under the same name or strolling up to his childhood home in broad daylight. I know the 'bad guys' have to encounter Evan for plot purposes, but I would have liked Hurwitz to come up with more inventive ways to orchestrate these encounters.

I'd recommend the book to readers who enjoy thrillers, especially fans of the 'Orphan X' series.

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

Rating: 3.5 stars

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Barb's Book Reviews

Friday, February 8, 2019

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

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