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

  

This novella is #11.5 in the 'Orphan X' series. In the story, assassin turned vigilante/rescuer Evan Smoak helps a young man who borrowed money from the wrong people.

Background: When Evan Smoak was a scrawny twelve-year-old living in an orphanage, he was removed 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, settled in Los Angeles, and set himself up as 'The Nowhere Man' - a badass who helps people in trouble. Persons needing assistance can call Evan on his uber-encrypted RoamZone phone, or Evan might find desperate people himself.



The novella opens with an amusing scene. Evan - a vodka aficionado - is at Tinsel Town Tipples, which advertised a bottle of Kauffman Vintage vodka on its website. Evan notes the bottle has been emptied and refilled with an inferior brand, so he hands it back to the Middle Eastern clerk and walks out, with the clerk's angry curses following him.



Outside the liquor store, Evan sees a middle-aged man quaking in front of a loan-shark enforcer, and The Nowhere Man can't let it go. While Evan is battering the tough guy, the Tinsel Town Tipples clerk comes out with a bottle of Chopin vodka, and when Evan rejects it, the clerk curses once again.



Finally, while the loan-shark enforcer - who has a broken nose - is crawling through shattered glass and vomiting in the street, the liquor store clerk comes along with a bottle of Dash vodka, and makes a sale for thirty dollars.



After this, Evan learns the enforcer is Cyrus, the middle-aged man is Rusty, and Rusty's son Blake took a 'street loan' to start a high protein-bar business that failed.

Rusty admits he's been a terrible father, an alcoholic who wasn't there when Blake needed him. But now Rusty's sober, and would do anything to help his son. So Evan, Rusty, and Blake meet in a diner, and the aspiring entrepreneur admits he borrowed money, can't pay it back, and sees no way out.



Evan gets his 17-year-old protégé Joey - a computer hacker extraordinaire - to locate the loan shark and his henchmen. Evan then takes care of Blake's problem in his usual fashion.



All this makes Evan think of his own father, Jacob Baridon, whom Evan met once in his life. Evan recalls saying "My name is Evan. I might be your son." Baridon - a rodeo bronc rider - shrugged it off, and since he had a woman coming over, rushed Evan out after asking for twenty bucks.



Recalling Baridon, Evan asks Joey to look him up, and she locates Baridon in "Count Your Blessings Hospice Home" in Texas. Joey finds out Baridon is dying from stage four lung cancer. She also hacks into Baridon's phone, and discovers he googled Evan three times. Joey KNOWS Evan has nothing but disdain for Baridon, but she texts Evan the hospice's address. And Evan has to decide what to do.



The relationship between Evan and Joey has evolved over the course of the series, from mentor and mentee to something akin to uncle and niece. It's nice to see them becoming more like a family.

This is a fast-moving, exciting story, recommended to fans of the Orphan X series.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Scott Brick, who does his usual good job.

Thanks to Netgalley, Gregg Hurwitz, and Macmillan Audio for an ARC of the book. 

Rating: 3.5 stars