This is the 4th installment of the Orphan X series but could be read as a standalone. I actually missed reading 3 but had read 1 and 2. This book was a thrilling fast-paced, and suspenseful! This series is really really good and I highly suggest reading it and although you do not need to start with the initial book, I highly recommend it.

Orphan X is one of my favorite characters and series! 

This really should be a movie franchise. It's that good. Going up against the President of the United States; not to mention a criminal organization, Orphan X has the odds stacked pretty high in this one. Under extreme pressure, lethal circumstances with dire consequences, you really get to see who Evan Smoak is. He shines under these kind of "pressure cooker" type situations. Gregg Hurwitz has mastered the character revelation of Orphan X.

In each book you get to see more about the infamous Orphan program the President is trying so hard to eradicate. In Out of the Dark we meet Orphan A, the program's very first highly trained asset.  I was also pleased to see the return of Orphan V, a.ka. Candy McClure, make a return appearance. 



Can't wait to where Hurwitz takes the rest of this series!

Another thoroughly Orphan X tale.

Over the course of the last few books, Evan has been dealing wth the increasing threat from those who wish him dead. In this book, he deals with the source of that threat: the President of the United States. As with previous stories, Evan demonstrates his extreme competence...and his humanity.

There are some surprises and more changes in Evan’s personal journey. I can’t wait to read more.

Out of the Dark continues Evan Stoak’s journey as the Nowhere Man. But now, there are more complications added to the mix, such as Evan wanting to kill the President of the United States in order for the President not to kill him and the other Orphans. This scenario made me arch my sceptical, really? eyebrow, even though I enjoyed the tactical intricacies and other such details.

I wasn’t as charmed by this instalment as I was with the previous one, even though some of the things that I wished to happen for Evan did occur.

In my opinion, Hurwitz went overboard with the action sequences, there was so much packed in, on the East and West Coast of America, oh, yeah, plus a quick trip to Europe. Evan never seemed to sleep. I know he’s some kind of superhuman, nevertheless, I grumbled about certain aspects of the novel I found incongruous. I did enjoy seeing Evan’s emotional growth, but that in itself would have taken a mental/physical toll on him, so it didn’t make sense to me that he’d still be able to do all the many things he did in this novel.

Even though this latest volume in the series was my least favourite, I’m looking forward to finding out what Hurwitz has in store for the Nowhere Man.

3.5 stars

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.

I love this series so much.

If you’re new to it, Orphan X is kind of like the equalizer with heart. While I recommend starting with book 1 just because it’s awesome, you can absolutely start here. The author does an excellent job of giving just enough backstory for new readers without boring longtime fans of the series.

As usual, the book is full of drama, intrigue, and pure thrills. The author brings back a character I loved and gives us a new character who almost broke my heart.

Expect non-stop action and things that go boom!

Very happy with this series and looking forward to another book!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley

The defunct Orphan project developed super-killers for the USA, assassins who could kill anyone with a pen ten different ways, who were also clever enough to outthink, outplan, and outrun any adversary. In this, their top assassin was Evan Smoak also known as Orphan X:

"He sensed the men approach’s before he heard them. A vibration of the floor. A scent in the air. A pressure against his skin. He heard the melody of a slender rake tickling lock cylinders at the back door. Beneath the kitchen window, a boot tread compressed a dead leaf. In the living room, the pane issued a complaint as it pressed against the frame."

His and his fellow Orphans' purpose was to serve the government until that was deemed too dangerous for the men in power. Then, instead of decommissioning them to return to the normal lives of American citizens, the nation's president decided they must be eliminated, every one of them. Many are killed before one of them--Orphan X, Evan Smoak--decides to put a stop to it by killing the President (well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but for the purposes of this review, I've distilled the plot to a thimble). Opposing him is another Orphan, Orphan A, with all the same skills that Evan has but with also the power and brawn of the US Government to support his effort. Evan has retired, hiding from would-be government killers, and now calls himself the Nowhere Man, using his prodigious skills to help those with nowhere else to go for aid. He does it for free with their promise that they will send others in need to him. It's his way of atoning for what he now considers past sins. As he arranges for the President's murder, he gets a call from a high-functioning special man whose family--about a dozen of them--were mass-murdered by drug dealers. To Evan, as important as it is to rid the nation of a leader who is irretrievably corrupt, it is equally important to help this man who has done nothing to deserve what has happened. 

Throughout the story, we get glimpses into Orphan X's past. Where we would be tempted to drop him into a box labeled "hopeless murderer", we find that can't be done. We even end up empathizing with his passion and goals. As a result, he becomes not a nasty bad guy, not a lovely good guy, but a mashup in between. Proof that I was siding with him was later in the novel when he ended up in a life-and-death footrace with Feds and I found myself rooting for him.

In this book, Greg Hurwitz has an enviable way of phrasing thoughts and ideas into amazing paragraphs. Some of his books, this hasn't worked as well but in Out of the Dark, with Evan Smoak, Hurwitz has found a character that is exactly right for him and his prodigious writing talent. This is an excellent read, a page-turning thriller like I haven't enjoyed in a while. I can't wait to read more of this character.

--to be reviewed on my blog, WordDreams 4/19/19

--I received an ARC copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review

This the fourth installment in the Orphan X series! If you enjoy a lot of action in your reading material, this series should be on your ‘to be read’ list. Evan Smoak (Orphan X) was a government trained assassin who has reinvented himself as The Nowhere Man. He helps those who are in desperate need and have nowhere else to find help. In this installment Evan is dealing with trying to stay ahead of people who are trying to eliminate all of the remaining orphans from the disbanded Orphan Program. He has become the top priority on the elimination list and needs to find out why. If that’s not enough to keep him busy, he has a new client who desperately needs help from the Nowhere Man. One of the aspects I enjoy in this series is Evan’s humanity. He may be a highly trained assassin, but has retained a core of humanity and a sense of justice. He continues to develop and struggles to find his place in the real world where the rest of us live. Pick up a copy of this book, I think you’ll be glad you did.

Out of the Dark is the latest in the Orphan X series, one that I have come to enjoy considerably. The Orphan series is not exactly a fresh idea: a boy is taken from foster care and trained to become a covert assassin for the government. What keeps me coming back is Evan's personal development as the stories continue. Evan craves emotional bonds with those around him he just doesn't know how to accomplish it. I have grown attached while watching Evan struggle to find meaning in his life.

As the Nowhere Man, a mantle he takes up after going rogue, Evan has become a type of avenging angel. Whether he is protecting a young man from those who murdered his family, saving an abuse victim and her child from their abuser or going after those who threaten the remaining Orphans, Evan thinks well on his feet and excels at planning. He is formidable when adversarial, using both his brain and his physical training to master any situation. Although some circumstances require a suspension of disbelief, Evan's journey is worth the experience.

Random spoilery thoughts: I appreciated when Evan explained to his foes how he would defeat them, and doing exactly that. The boldness of the act was fun to witness.

Mia needs to find a way to deal with the sense Evan works outside of the law, or she needs to stay away from him. It does neither of them any good doing their back and forth.

I am most pleased that in the end, Evan prevailed with his smarts rather than his brute force.

I was granted a copy of this book by St. Martin's Press, through NetGalley, for my honest opinion. I suggest all readers come to their own conclusions.

Evan Smoak has a busy schedule: in between his regular job, protecting a vulnerable young man from a psychotic gangster, he has to dodge other Orphans who may or may not be trying to kill him, tending to his fragile friendship with a beautiful widow and her son, provide long-distance emotional support to his feisty teenage ward, keep his potted succulent Cera alive, oh and figure out how to kill the President of the USA!

This is the best so far of the Orphan X books, which should definitely be read in order if you want to understand who Evan is, and why he does what he does.
This one had it all - spectacular action scenes, cunning traps for the bad ‘uns, sly humour, definite progression of Evan’s story arc and emotional development, the return of some previous characters now taking surprising new roles, and the creation of interesting new ones, especially Secret Service Agent Naomi Templeton and autistic savant Trevon. The President is wonderfully evil and self-serving and watching him get what he deserves is supremely satisfying.

I like that Hurwitz features a range of strong women to complement his action hero, as well as showing a very common problem for modern career women, that of having to care for elderly parents as well as hold down a demanding job. We see the hard female assassin who can’t get close to anyone and the tough prosecutor who has to face rape threats from the criminals she convicts and still decline the offer of vigilante justice.

I gather the author has signed up for several more books in the series, which is great news, as I can’t wait to see who Evan will face up to next. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
Out of the Dark is available now.

I didn't realize this thriller was the fourth in the series. I had read the first one and enjoyed it, then read this one and enjoyed it too, even though I had missed numbers 2 and 3. In fact, I think this would be fine as a stand-alone, although reading them all in order is no doubt preferable. Anyway, this series is exciting and full of action. The main character, Evan Smoak, is somewhat unique, having worked as an assassin for the US government as part of a covert program. He regrets a good bit of his past and works to balance that out by now trying to use his skills to help others who are in desperate need of outside help. I enjoy Evan's developing relationship with his neighbor and her son and how he tries to navigate the difficulties of maintaining the appearance of a "normal" life given his background and job. Now I've got to go back and catch up on 2 and 3!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a free e-ARC of this book.

OUT OF THE DARK: An Orphan X Novel
Gregg Hurwitz
Minotaur Books
ISBN 978-250-12042-7
Hardcover
Thriller

OUT OF THE DARK will singe your hair from the moment that you crack its binding. This latest installment in Gregg Hurwitz’ Orphan X series reveals yet another heretofore hidden aspect of its protagonist’s past while in the present he is both hunted and hunter, creating an atmospheric, action-filled tale where the suspense level is ratcheted up past eleven.

Hurwitz gives us what are basically two novels in one, played out on different ends of the United States. At the same time --- and without breaking pacing --- he provides just enough information about Orphan X and the Orphan program to quickly bringing the uninitiated up to date. The main story concerns a cat-and-mouse chase between Evan Smoak --- Orphan X --- and Jonathan Bennett, a career politician and the President of the United States. It was Bennett who, as an undersecretary of the Department of Defense, had overseen the Orphan program and given Smoak and others their mission orders. After rising through the government ranks and being elected president, Bennett has begun to systematically eradicate every trace of the program, with his primary target being Smoak. Bennett is utilizing Judd Holt --- Orphan A --- for this purpose. Smoak, for his part, is equally if not more eager to take Bennett off of the map. Smoak goes after Bennett while Holt and the Secret Service go after Smoak. Hurwitz offers a new definition in broken field running in out of the dark as he places Smoak in mortal danger on any number of occasions and lets him find his way out. There is also plenty of insider intelligence with regard to the inner workings of the Secret Service and the defensive mechanisms in place to protect the life of the President, all of which make Smoak’s goal seemingly unattainable. The revelations would slow the pace of OUT OF THE DARK down in lesser hands that Hurwitz’s, who here never missteps and incorporates the details into the narrative so cleverly that it actually speeds things up. Smoak, for his part, spends a bit of time off-page traveling between Washington, D.C. and his home base of Los Angeles, where he is helping a young man named Trevon Gaines who has inadvertently run afoul of Russell Gadds, a cruel and ruthless crimelord who is seemingly untouchable. Gadds, as punishment, has wiped out Gaines’ entire family but for Gaines’ sister, who is doing relief work abroad. The ticking clock here is set by her return to the United States, Gadds has promised to kill her when she arrives and as a result Smoak must cut Gadds’ strings before her plane lands. Gaines, who is struggling with an insurmountable loss superimposed on a neurological condition which affects his ability to deal with folks, has a basic goodness and decency about him which makes him a sympathetic character even without the tragedy that has been visited upon him. Smoak, busy as he is, cannot refuse the young man when he contacts him and tells him his tragic story. Smoak, for his part, has to balance the professional and the personal on opposite sides of the country with almost no chance of reaching either goal. Witnessing Smoak’s attempts to resolve both matters will keep you reading as quickly as you can right up to the last breathless page while anticipating the next installment.

The action, suspense, and character development in OUT OF THE DARK are more than enough to warrant your time and attention, but Hurwitz supplies a bit of lagniappe just for grins and giggles. Those interested in recommendations for some top of the top shelf adult beverages will find several to add to their lists in OUT OF THE DARK, carefully curated and no doubt lovingly sampled by the author. The same applies to the catalog of high-grade weaponry which Smoak grimly utilizes for defensive response and truculent attack during the course of his daily attacks. Smoak’s difficulties with personal relationships will no doubt carry over into future books. Speaking of which, if Trevon Gaines were to make an appearance in a future installment of the Orphan X canon, well, that wouldn’t be a bad thing at all. Strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2019, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hurwitz's Orphan X series continues to deliver! This series just keeps getting better and better in all the right ways. I hate to close the last page of these books, and yet I'm completely satisfied with a tale well told. Action, adventure, and sexy times make this one freaking hawt book!

This is my first Gregg Hurwitz novel, an advance reader's copy from NetGalley. Of course that means I'm new to the Orphan X series, which might have diminished my enjoyment. No such thing in this case -- I had fun from first page to last.

Evan Smoak seemed like a high-tech Jack Reacher -- a paladin, who (as The Nowhere Man) responds to calls for help from perfect strangers. Or, does anyone remember The Equalizer (a 1980s TV series that, according to Wikipedia, "starred Edward Woodward as a retired intelligence agent with a mysterious past, who uses the skills from his former career to exact justice on behalf of innocent people who are trapped in dangerous circumstances")?

Evan Smoak is a 21st-century Robert McCall, the character Woodward played. Gregg Hurwitz has researched his details so meticulously that I found myself blocking out some of the fight scenes to more fully test the plausibility (never done that before!)

The author's decision to open the novel with an "origin story" for Orphan X probably helped me to leap right into the storyline, and the pace never flagged. I like that the characters were so fully-rounded, not just action figures. Well, OK, the president was a bit of a caricature, but that seemed plausible, too.

So, all in all a great mix of geopolitics, technology, human nature, good impulses and bad. I have already reserved the first book in the series and plan to blast through more of Hurwitz's books.

If I'm ever in trouble, I hope someone calls Evan Smoak for me! Orphan X is back in the 4th installment of this fast paced, fun thriller series and he's going after his most hated opponent yet, the President of the United States. The story begins with a very interesting scene in Russia in which Evan is out on his first solo mission as a trained assassin for a very deep dark black ops program the US government put together and not many people know about. Evan was recruited out of foster care and trained by Jack Johns, who becomes his father figure/mentor, to be a deadly, super stealth assassin. I really enjoyed getting a glimpse into Evan as a young man because cut to current day, he's now in what I guess to be his late 30s and he's no longer in the program. He spends his days now being The Nowhere Man who carries out his own brand of vigilante justice for those who call his super secret line and are in dire need of help. The two storylines run parallel to each other and the author pulls them off brilliantly.

While Evan is doing some serious scouting of the President's agendas, day to day security details, life at and outside The White House , etc we are privy to some fascinating inside the White House details which I'm assuming are true (at least most) and were very thoroughly researched. This was one of my favorite parts of the book actually! While Evan is deciding on his best course of action to assassinate the President, the President has called in Evan's arch rival, Orphan A, to kill Evan. It's all very cut throat, fast paced, and tension filled.

Along with these 2 main storylines, we also have Evan's ongoing romantic involvement with his neighbor, single mom and prosecutor Mia, who, accurately enough, suspects that Evan isn't living the most law abiding of life styles (she has no idea how right she is) so she won't allow herself and her child to become too invested with him. I love how Hurwitz has weaved this thread of Mia and Evan throughout all 4 books because while I definitely want them to be together, I get why she often pushes him away.

If this sounds like a lot going on in one book, it is but it all works. I really enjoyed the ending as well and can't wait for the next book

Evan Smoak is a trained assassin known as Orphan X. He was part of the Orphan Program until he broke with it and used everything he had learned to reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man. Now he helps those that are desperate and have no one else to turn to. However, now someone is killing off all the Orphans, someone very high up in the government. Evan decides to strike back to take out the man behind the killings, the man who started the program, the President of the United States.

READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=67707

I'm really enjoying this series. Evan is easy to like and I have no trouble relating to his emotions. Though a lot of what happens in the series is larger than life, Evan always feels very real. This book had plenty of action as well as humor and some good serious moments.

Some of my favorite characters came back, and there was one great new character I hope to see return. The author put in a ton of detail, which helped me visualize what Evan was up against. There was violence, but it didn't overwhelm the story for me.

I look forward to seeing where the series goes from here.

A nice wrap up to an exciting series. The book was fast paced with a great element of cat and mouse, and the subplot of how Evan helps a total stranger in need of his help, and this stranger brought out a side of Evan previously never seen. I'm going to miss reading about Evan's adventures into human interaction and feelings while freeing himself of his past.

Loved this latest installment in Hurwitz’s Orphan X series. Evan Smoak is a smartly written, great character and I love the high tech stuff that Hurwitz always incorporates into these action-packed books. Hurwitz is a master storyteller.

I love Orphan X! Another great adventure. I am so excited to hear that the author recently signed a contract for even more books in the series.