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

Review of "This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist's Journey to the Edge of Reality" by Michael Dine

Michael Dine is an American theoretical physicist and a physics professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.


Author Michael Dine

Theoretical physicists invent theories, predict the results of proposed experiments, and compare experimental results with their hypotheses. Experimental physicists, on the other hand, design, build, run, and analyze data from experiments. Dine extolls the value of theoretical and experimental physicists carpooling together, for a valuable exchange of ideas. 🙂


Michio Kaku is an American theoretical physicist, futurist, and popularizer of science.


Luis Alvarez was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor.


Carpooling colleagues can profit from discussing their work

As a theoretical physicist, much of Dine's research is devoted to (among other things) thinking about things like: What might account for the mass of the Higgs boson? What might the dark matter [in the universe] consist of and under what circumstances might we hope to find it? Is string theory subject to experimental test?

Dine also teaches physics, and in this book he reaches out to a general audience, attempting to explain the universe - its origin, evolution, contents, and ultimate demise. Dine discusses concepts like the Big Bang, formation of stars, formation of galaxies, fundamental particles, particle charge, particle spin, energy, fields, radiation, electricity, magnetism, gravity, dark matter, dark energy, multiple dimensions, Einstein's theory of special relativity, Einstein's theory of general relativity, quantum entanglement, the Standard Model, supersymmetry, string theory, magnetic monopoles, and much more.


The Big Bang


Quantum Entanglement

Most advanced physics relies on mathematical concepts, and Dine tries (with varying degrees of success) to explain things in plain English.



Dine also touches on experimental methods used by physicists, like the particle accelerators that create the tiniest bits of matter and then measure things such as their size, mass, and how they interact, decay, and so on (things that happen in trillionths of a second). CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland contains a 27-kilometer ring in which particles collide at super-speeds.


CERN's Large Hadron Collider

Some interesting concepts in the book:

⦿ On the surface of a neutron star, a teaspoon of water would weigh about 10,000 tons, and time would slow down dramatically. What normally takes an hour might take two hours (or much longer). If a human should approach the surface of the neutron star, the force of gravity would be far greater on the feet than on the head, and the person would be ripped apart.



⦿ A black hole is an even more extreme environment than a neutron star. It distorts space and time in such a way that it disappears forever from view. The center of a black hole is a singularity where Einstein's equations break down.



⦿ The universe is expanding. It started out infinitesimally small 13.5 billion years ago, and has been expanding and cooling since the Big Bang.


The universe is expanding

In the early universe particles like protons, neutrons, and neutrinos formed, but these were unstable, constantly colliding and recombining and gaining and losing charges. Neutral atoms formed about 100,000 years after the Big Bang, resulting in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR).


Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

⦿ On very large scales of distance, the universe is the same everywhere and in all directions. That is, matter is distributed uniformly and in the same way in all directions.


The universe looks the same in all directions

⦿ Energy is not a continuous scale. Energies can take only particular discrete values like 1.0, 2.0, etc. (not 1.1, 1.2, 1.3.....1.9, 2.0). The lowest energy packet is a 'quantum' of energy. And light comes in discrete quanta called photons.





⦿ Quantum mechanics is the study of the motion and interaction of subatomic particles, which is much different from matter we're accustomed to in everyday life. For instance, we cannot determine both the position and velocity of an electron at the same time. This uncertainty is built into the laws of quantum mechanics and applies to all subatomic particles. Moreover, it applies to almost anything about a quantum mechanics system we might hope to measure. Thus we can only deal with probabilities when it comes to the tiniest particles.


We can't know the exact position of an electron, only that it's somewhere in the electron cloud


Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist.

⦿ There is about five times more dark matter than ordinary matter in the universe. Dark means that, whatever it is, it doesn't emit light....but we don't know what it is. According to Dine, dark matter is almost certainly some new kind of elementary particle that has mass but no electric charge. In fact, dark matter must interact hardly at all with ordinary matter except for its gravitational pull.


The universe is composed largely of dark matter

⦿ Everywhere in space, there should be an infinite amount of dark energy, and this energy would come with a negative pressure, to explain the observed acceleration of the expansion of the universe.



⦿ The future of the universe is bleak (from a human point of view). In a few billion years our sun will burn out as will the stars around us. New stars will form for a time, but eventually - when the universe is 1,000,000,000,000,000 years old - there will be no more stars. Even if other galaxies were blazing with light (which they won't be), we couldn't see them because of the expansion of the universe. So live it up while you can. 🙂


The universe will eventually go dark

Dine gets quite technical about (what I consider) advanced physics, and I had to toggle back and forth between the narrative and Google to understand what Dine was saying......but I enjoyed the learning experience. My general impression is that theoretical physicists try to formulate equations to explain the universe, and when the equations require new particles or concepts to make sense, experimental physicists go out and find them. 🙂 A lot of this is ad hoc for now, but holds the promise of eventually coming together in a real 'Theory of Everything.'

Dine generously cites the major scientists who contributed to our knowledge of physics and the universe, and sometimes includes a little blurb about their personal lives. For example, Sir Isaac Newton - an English mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who discovered the classical laws of motion and gravity - became Master of the Mint and went after counterfeiters, who were arrested (and often executed);


Sir Isaac Newton

Marie Curie was a Polish-French physicist and chemist whose husband Pierre dropped his own work to help Marie do research on radioactivity;


Marie and Pierre Curie

English theoretical physicist Paul Dirac - one of the most important scientists of the 20th century - was a legendary introvert who was dubbed 'The Strangest Man';


Paul Dirac

Theoretical physicist C.N. Yang, at 98-years-old, is still a force in Chinese Science;


C.N. Yang

American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman played the bongos;

Richard Feynman

American astrophysicist Andrea Ghez (along with German astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel) won the 2020 Nobel prize for their discovery of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way; and more.


Andrea Ghez

Dine has a good sense of humor, and tries to add a light touch to the book. I also have to give Dine a thumbs up for standing up for women physicists who (at least historically) suffered from professional discrimination and the chauvinism of their male colleagues.

For folks interested in physics, the book gives a nice overview of the current state of affairs

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Girl, 11: A Novel of Suspense" by Amy Suiter Clarke

More than two decades ago, a serial killer dubbed The Countdown Killer (TCK) plagued the twin cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.



TCK seemed to have an obsession with numbers. He took three female victims each year, of increasingly younger ages (20, 19, 18, etc.). In addition, the girls were abducted three days apart, and the body of each victim was found seven days after her kidnapping.

Finally, one of TCK's abductees, an eleven-year-old girl, escaped......and the murders stopped. There was speculation that TCK had committed suicide, but there was no definitive proof of his death.



Now Elle Castillo - a self-styled investigator who hosts a true crime podcast called 'Justice Deferred' - is revisiting the TCK case. Elle thinks TCK is still alive and she broadcasts a podcast about one of his victims every week. Elle then invites the public to help track the killer down.



One listener sends an email claiming to know the identity of TCK, and Elle arranges to meet him at his house.



However, when Elle arrives at the informant's home just an hour later, he's dead. Elle calls the police, then helps investigate the murder, thinking it might be connected to TCK.



Things go from bad to worse, because Elle's podcast seems to inspire someone to begin the abductions again. An 11-year-old girl disappears, and Elle and the police are frantic to catch the perpetrator.



The narrative is interspersed with episodes of Elle's podcast, which have increasingly dramatic revelations each week. In addition, the segments occasionally feature Elle's husband Martin Castillo, a medical examiner who contributes his expertise to the show.



The narrative is interspersed with flashbacks to a frightening incident in Elle's past as well as anecdotes about TCK's history - which help explain his crimes.

Elle is so determined to catch TCK that she becomes reckless, thrusting herself into dangerous situations without backup. This is a bugaboo of mine about fictional female characters, but Elle at least packs a gun. 😊



This is an enjoyable fast-moving thriller, recommended to fans of the genre.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "The President's Daughter: A Thriller" by Bill Clinton and James Patterson

This review was first posted on Mystery and Suspense. Check it out for features, interviews, and reviews.https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/th...


President Matt Keating was a Navy Seal, a Congressman from Texas, and Vice President before he ascended to the presidency, and he means to protect America.





So Keating orders a drone strike on vicious Libyan terrorist Asim Al-Asheed, who captured and crucified a Navy Seal and slaughtered women and children in cold blood.



The attack misses Asim but kills Asim's wife and two daughters. Keating is appalled by the death of innocents and goes on TV to apologize.



Given the mood of the country this is a bad idea, and Matt's disloyal Vice President, Pamela Barnes, challenges him in the next election and wins.



Matt is now living in a wooded retreat in New Hampshire, his wife Samantha - an archaeologist - is supervising an important dig in Maine.....



......and the Keatings' 19-year-old daughter Mel is a student at Dartmouth College.



Mel is too old for Secret Service protection, and when Agent David Stahl - who's in charge of Matt's Secret Service detail - tries to safeguard Mel with trainees, the Barnes administration makes him stop.



This is unfortunate because Asim Al-Asheed, who's furious about the death of his wife and daughters, has been planning his revenge for years.



Thus when Mel is hiking in New Hampshire's White Mountains with her boyfriend Tim, Asim kills Tim and kidnaps Mel.



Asim makes demands, but President Pamela Barnes, under advisement from her machiavellian Chief of Staff Richard Barnes, who's also her husband......



.......doesn't take the steps Matt expects her to.



In the meantime, China sees Mel's abduction as an opportunity. The United States has been putting pressure on China by filing lawsuits over copyrights and patents, complaining to the World Trade Organization, and running ships and planes near Chinese bases in the South China Sea. Chinese officials want to improve relations with America......



......and order their agent in Libya, Jiang Lijun, to make a deal with Asim Al-Asheed and rescue Mel. However Jiang blames America for the death of his father, and engineers plans of his own.



When President Pamela Barnes drags her feet over meeting the terrorists' demands, Matt reaches out to his friends in Saudi intelligence and Mossad, who agree to help search for Mel.



Matt then launches a secret rescue operation of his own.....



.....which is discovered by Pamela. The president is vexed, fearing a heroic Matt would vastly outshine her, and she's willing to do almost anything to stop him.



Meanwhile, Mel is in the clutches of Asim Al-Asheed and his cousin, but she's not the shrinking violet they expect. When Matt became president, the Secret Service told Mel what to do if she was kidnapped, and these directions - along with Mel's innate smarts, nerve and bravery - serve her well.



Not everything in this book is as it seems, and Matt's side has some nifty moves of its own, with planes, helicopters, satellite images, drones, weapons, a certain thumb drive, sheer nerve, and more.



The story is told from the rotating points of view of the major characters, and zips along at a steady pace.

My major quibbles with the novel are the stereotypical characterizations of the wicked foreigners, and the depiction of President Pamela Barnes - who lets her pugnacious husband Richard call the shots.



A male president would NEVER be portrayed as following directions from his wife.

That aside this is excellent escapist literature, an exciting page-turner that would appeal to fans of thrillers. 

Rating: 4 stars