Orphan X

Starred review from November 9, 2015
Bestseller Hurwitz (Don’t Look Back) melds nonstop action and high-tech gadgetry with an acute character study in this excellent series opener. Evan Smoak, who was trained to be an assassin under the government’s secret Orphan Program, is now a rogue operator known as the Nowhere Man with a mission to help those in need. As payment, each of his clients refers him to another innocent person in trouble. But Evan becomes the hunted when he tries to help Katrin White, whose father will be killed unless she pays gambling debts. A sense of authenticity permeates the story, no matter how outlandish the tech toys or over-the-top the action. Evan is an electrifying character who chooses daily to do good. Run-ins with his L.A. condo board add a bit of levity while a growing relationship with neighbor Mia Hall and her eight-year-old son, Peter, reinforce that a normal life is just out of Evan’s reach. Movie rights were sold to Warner Bros. 100,000 first printing. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency.

May 30, 2016
This series opener by Hurwitz (Don’t Look Back) features as its protagonist a former licensed-to-kill member of the government’s covert Orphan Program, who has been on the run from his homicidal ex-associates since he broke free. Known by his foes as the Nowhere Man, he has given himself a new name, Evan Smoak, and has constructed an elaborate technological security wall around himself. He has also decided to atone for past homicides by helping those in need—in this case Katrin White, a gambler whose father will be killed unless she pays her gambling debts. Considering his past life, it’s understandable that Smoak is a dark, moody guy, a point underlined by reader Brick’s chilly, no-nonsense approach to the character. Likewise, his sustained dramatic delivery effectively adds power to the action-filled and suspenseful moments. However, it also highlights the book’s somewhat distractingly detailed descriptions of weaponry, technology and products; these undercut scenes such as Smoak having to deal with his condo board, which offer needed light relief from the novel’s ultra-noirish mood. A Minotaur hardcover.