Prodigal Son is the first book I've read in the Orphan X series. Even though there are multiple novels and short stories prior to this installment, Prodigal Son stands on its own with strategically placed backstory pieces and short flashbacks to provide sufficient information of Evan Smoak's progression from foster child, to Orphan X assassin, to The Nowhere Man, and his now retirement following a presidential pardon. Prodigal Son picks up with Evan trying to reintegrate himself into a normal life.

The story follows Andrew Duran, a man who has had bad turns of luck for the better part of his life. While working the night shift as an attendant at a vehicle impound, he witnesses a mysterious murder that forces him to flee for his life. In the meantime, Evan is attempting to acclimate to everyday life. Until he receives a phone call from Veronica, a friend of a friend who asks for the help of The Nowhere Man. The storylines cross when Evan accepts the assignment, but nothing could have prepared him for what he uncovers about his own life.

The story kept a steady pace, intermingling action-packed, high-tech, gadget-filled scenes with relationship building ones to show Evan's strength and skills as an assassin while also providing glimpses into his humanity and his desire to have emotional connections. Some of the scenes, mainly those with Joey and Peter, were especially memorable. At times, the writing became a bit much with so much brand dropping and detailed explanations, but once I found the author's rhythm and style, I just went with it and enjoyed the journey.

While this is a superb action story that will keep you turning the page, it is also a story about family—both those born from blood and those forged over time. 

/I received an advanced edition of this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my opinion of the book or content of my review./

I've been a big fan of the Orphan novels and this one was no exception. After the last novel I wondered if this series was getting long in the tooth. The answer is 'No!' Great pacing in this one, fleshing out the leads story really helped. If you are new to the Orphan series, this is a good starting point..you will want another book immediately after this one ends ... won't say any more!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Evan Smoak is one bad dude. He was an assassin for many years until he retired. Then he used those skills to help people who were in trouble and nowhere else to turn. He had to retire from that when the President of the United States told he had a pardon as long as he never did it again. He is trying to fit back into society as a regular person, but it isn't easy.

Now he gets drawn back into that world again. This time, it becomes personal.

This book is well-written. The story moves. Be aware that there are some language issues.

i did not finish. i couldnt concentrate on this book i will pick it up later and try again sorry

I am going to be honest, I was unable to finish this book. There were many swear words in the first chapter, some I haven't really heard of before. Then on to other chapters, I felt the story just jumped around so much it was hard to follow. I would seriously have to flip back to previous chapters to look at characters names to see how they fit in to the book. It just confused me so much, I eventually gave up.

Hurwitz never fails to amaze with his contrast between cold-blooded violence and empathetic concern shown by one of the all-time great actions figures ever created - Evan Smoak! Orphan X draws two other orphans into his Nowhere Man plan to save yet another poor soul, who turns out to have been raised in the same orphanage as Smoak. The antagonists are so diabolical that Orphan X needs assistance against man and machine (i.e., artificial intelligence), thus utilizing other orphans to escape what could be a death scene twisted out of The Terminator series.
I became inthralled with the writing of Gregg Hurwitz in The Tower, published over 20 years ago. He writes adventure like no other and keeps you guessing to the very end. I told myself that this was one author that I was going to read everything he ever wrote. When one finds an author like a Hurwitz, you almost pray that he has been around for a length of time sufficient to produce several more books than the one you are currently reading, just so you have more to read before he finishes his next novel. This is one of those writers that never fails to excite and yet leave you wanting and waiting for the next of his works.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, Minotaur, and the author, Gregg Hurwitz for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.

This book is part of a series, and I wasn't aware of that when I first started reading the book. However I don't feel that you have to read the series in order, as you can just pick up one of the books, and start with that one and not feel as if you have missed anything.

If you're into this type of thriller, this hit expertly on all points; this type of book just isn't something I normally read. I did make it through the book, and enjoyed the premise of the book, and felt like the author wrote brilliantly.

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧

𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 @ https://www.instagram.com/ofdreamsandstories/
𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬@ https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/53189786-ofdreamsandstories

💙~𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐨𝐧 (𝐎𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐗 #6) 𝐛𝐲 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐠 𝐇𝐮𝐫𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐳💙⠀⠀

Publisher St. Martin's Press⠀⠀
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) Mystery &Thriller
Pub date Jan 26, 2021⠀⠀
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Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for a e-ARC copy of #ProdigalSon by @gregghurwitzbooks in exchange for my honest review!⠀⠀
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I am new to Net Galley and figuring out how and which books to request for review. Once I had this copy, soon I realized that this book is #6 in Orphan X series and I am not familiar with any of the previous 5 books. Secondly I am expanding my reading horizon and have just started venturing into mystery / thriller books. To be honest I was very skeptical getting into this book but once I started it, I am telling you guys, I was hooked- literally hooked to this fast paced thriller. ⠀⠀
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The story dives into deepest secrets of Evan Sloan's life, who is an orphan. He is picked out of the orphanage to be trained as an assassin and how he became the Orphan-X. He is retired and trying to live a normal life while he gets unexpected call from a mysterious lady who claims to be his mother. There is a lot of technology, action packed thriller and James Bond vibes to this book!!⠀⠀
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This was a very quick, gripping fast paced thriller read. Would I have picked it if not for Netgalley-No but boy how glad I am to come across this book! Rated 5 star by me, I highly recommend!! 💙📚
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This book had such a different voice from my prior read that I was almost ready to toss it aside. I left it to rest for a bit and restarted, only to find myself engrossed in the story and compelled by the writing. Hurwitz is able to weave a fun tale with humor, action, and technical prowess. Some passages had me laughing out loud, while the beyond-cutting-edge science is just a hair's breadth past reality... There were a few near-stereotypes (teenaged prodigy, filthy rich Silicon Valley twenty-something), but honestly it was so well written that they never broke that fourth wall. Cliffhanger left me anticipating a sequel - something I'd already decided on well before reaching the end. Thanks to NetGalley for the proof, in exchange for my honest review.

Evan Smoak thought he’d retired from the hero business; or at least that was the deal he’d made to stay out of a federal prison. But when you get a phone call from someone claiming to be the mother you’d never met, you’re at least curious… maybe a little obsessed. The woman in question had a job for The Nowhere Man (Evan’s last “career” before retiring): find and protect Andrew Duran, a down-on-his-luck impound lot attendant who’d had the misfortune of witnessing the murder of a client. Perhaps out of boredom, Evan took up the hunt.

It’s a hunt that would lead him to a secret military base and the lair of a psychopathic inventor, a hunt in which the former Orphan X would himself become the hunted. The brother-sister team of contract killers on Duran’s trail was nothing compared to the high-tech assassins waiting in the wings. Lucky for Evan that he could assemble a team of his own: a fellow ex-orphan, his nine-fingered armorer, and a teenaged hacker who’d washed out of the Orphan program.

If that isn’t enough, check out that cliff-hanger…

The sixth in Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series, Prodigal Son, rolls out big chunks of Evan’s backstory. That includes both the tale of his entry to the Orphan program as well as some reasons for the animosity of Charles van Sciver, the late Orphan Z. As in previous installments, Evan cuts a swathe through phalanxes of bad guys, thrives on subterfuge, and not only outfights but outthinks his opposition. Is he slowing down at thirty-eight? You sure can’t tell…

All five previous installments in the series have been fun romps featuring a hero who is only a radiation accident short of being a Marvel superhero. Prodigal Son is no exception, and it has the added bonus of imbuing Evan Smoak with just a little more humanity.

Highly recommended.

This latest installment in the Orphan X series revealed much more about the characters without losing any of the action and pace that is the hallmark of the series. Learning more about Evan’s childhood and how he found his way into the program built nicely on flashbacks from other books in the series. Tying several characters from his past with his present life made the story more engaging. Instead of just enjoying the clever and intense action, I found I cared more about the characters as they developed more and became more three dimensional.

The cliffhanger at the end, which is actually multiple cliffhangers sets the series up nicely for a transition and follow on storylines. I can’t wait until the next book is released!

Full disclaimer: this is #6 in the Orphan X series--of which I was unfamiliar, However, I thoroughly enjoyed this diverting, fast-paced read and will be seeking out other books in the series as well as Hurwitz's other novels.

The setting: "As a boy, Evan Smoak was pulled out of a foster home and trained in an off-the-books operation known as the Orphan Program. He was a government assassin, perhaps the best, known to a few insiders as Orphan X. He eventually broke with the Program and adopted a new name – The Nowhere Man―and a new mission, helping the most desperate in their times of trouble. But the highest power in the country [a female president!!] has made him a tempting offer - in exchange for an unofficial pardon, he must stop his clandestine activities as The Nowhere Man. Now Evan has to do the one thing he’s least equipped to do—live a normal life.

But then he gets a call for help from the one person he never expected. A woman claiming to have given him up for adoption, a woman he never knew—his mother. Her unlikely request: help Andrew Duran—a man whose life has gone off the rails..."

And so it begins.

This page-turner had me hooked from the start. An action-packed thriller, and a much appreciated distraction in the time of Covid.

Loved Joey, his female, teenage sidekick. And his apartment!

Though mostly it was the action that propelled me, there were a few humorous descriptions I quite enjoyed:

"She'd had a rib resected on either side and looked as though she were perennially wedged into a Victorian corset,"

"Her perfume had been applied with biblical intensity."

"...heavy makeup and looked--at least from this distance--to have been nipped and tucked with admirable subtlety."
[noticing these are all females described--hmmm]

BUT: "..."ceiling irised open in the center..."

I can totally see this as a movie. And all the high-tech equipment [both villanous and not so much] definitely resonated as a Mission Impossible/James Bond journey.

New words:
xeriscaped
kenpo
ogive
lissajous

The end--no spoiler from me, but...

Recommend.

I was really happy to receive an advance copy of this book. I love this author, and I truly enjoy the Orphan X books.

This book was really enjoyable. I loved how we got more back story of how he became Orphan X and we got to see a more human, more caring side to Evan.

The only issue that I had was the ending. It was cliffhanger, really and I dont usually expect that from these books. I found it really disappointing. Otherwise, it was a fun, engrossing read.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and to #NetGalley for the advance copy.

I have loved this series out of the gate but this might just be the best one yet! Evan aka Orphan X aka Nowhere Man is/was an off the books black ops operative whose handler had the sense to not let him forget he was human. Evan gave up killing for the government and went to helping the common folk who had nowhere else to turn. But even that got to be too much and in the last installment he decided to retire and build himself a normal life. But Evan gets dragged back in when he gets a call from his past, his way, way, way back past from before he was X. In this one missions seem to be piling up and he relies heavily on Joey, a teen girl he's taken under his wing who was a new recruit in the Orphan program. Joey is smart as a whip and can hack anything and I absolutely love her. This book also flashes back to X's past and we find out what his life was like before he got recruited and how he got recruited which was as great as the main story. As always there is lots of fast-paced action with significant violence and for this one lots of scary drones that make you wonder what the government is really doing. So if that's not your thing you'll want to steer clear. But if you don't mind then I highly recommend this series (though I would start at one and work your way up, you'll be glad you did).

Big thanks to Gregg Hurwitz, St. Martin's Press Minotaur Books, and #NetGalley for allowing an early look at #ProdigalSon in exchange for my honest opinion. Look for this one in January 2021!

First let me say.. it needs editing.. spelling errors.. words left out etc. Secondly, let me say that this novel is going to appeal to a certain audience but the descriptions of weaponry are overly complicated and I feel need massive editing. In addition, the internet and coding particulars are beyond me.. as I would imagine beyond most people. If the author is looking for readership and book sales he needs to simplify. Now the Novel itself... far fetched and futuristic describes it. Lots of murder and mayhem.. not my favorites. However, I am sure it will appeal to some. Funny thing about this book, there were times I felt like two different writers were working on the characters and plot. There were lovely scenes of the main protagonist interacting with a young boy who had lost his father.. very touching. The rest is sound and fury.. I won’t finish the quote.

An excellent 6th installment in the Orphan X series starring Evan Smoak, former assassin and retired Nowhere Man. In this book, we get some more backstory into Evan's life, specifically more details as to how he was chosen to be an Orphan as well as an introduction to a woman claiming to be his mother.

While the adrenaline-rush of action is a bit more low-key than usual, the author delves deep into Evan's desire to be normal and what it means to have more meaningful relationships with those people already in his life and those who come into his life through the course of the book. Evan gains some real insight into himself as a person and each new revelation makes you really like him even more.

Although character development seems to be the main theme in the book, there is still lots of the thrilling action and creepy villains that we come to expect in an Orphan novel.

First of all, I want to thank Gregg Hurwitz for continuing to entertain us so well, and to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing an advance copy of this book. I cannot wait for the next book after that explosive ending!!

Evan Revisits His Past And Discovers The Future

In the Pride House Group Home for orphan boys, Evan fights to get himself chosen by the Mystery Man searching for the “right” boy for his program.

Andrew Durand is hounded by lack of money and suddenly realizes he is in deeper trouble than he ever thought he could be.

The Nowhere Man is out of business as a result of an agreement he made with the President of the United States. Now Evan is trying to find his way in the “normal” world. He sates his human desires with a woman he just met, spends some leisure time puttering around his sterile apartment, making changes and thinking about his past. Someone in Argentina keeps trying to reach him on his Nowhere Man phone. He ignores it, but his curiosity keeps nagging him. He doesn’t know it, but if he decides to answer the call it will change his life forever.

I loved this novel. The history of Evan’s beginning, the current cry for help, his resolution to quit being The Nowhere Man being challenged, all these weave together in a story that never stops. I was compelled to keep turning pages. Need to cook supper, how about ordering a pizza instead? Time to go to bed? Can’t be, it’s only a little after 3:00 AM after all. The story pulled me in and held on until the very end. If you are a loyal Nowhere Man reader you know how compelling the previous books have been, this one tops them all. If you are new to the series, this book has just enough background to help you understand what’s going on. In either case, it is a blockbuster novel you shouldn’t miss.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

We always knew OrphanX was someone’s child, given up and eventually turned into the skilled assassin and operative we’ve loved in the previous books. In Prodigal Son, we learn the back story, tied into a need to help someone in the present.A down on his luck tow lot attendant witnesses a strange murder, and realizes he is probably going to be charged with it. Evan Smoak (OrphanX) is asked to help. It turns into a wonderfully layered adventure with drones, AI, and evil Elon Musk like villain, while at the same time revealing Evan’s mother and other ties back to his real origins. This is a superb read, and leaves us wanting even more, assuming the cliff hanger ending goes the way it should.

I really enjoyed this one from Gregg Hurwitz. It was defiantly one that kept me on the edge of my seat.

I have loved the Evan Smoak series. It was great that he was retired but was called back to duty my his mother! His ability to take on the new antagonist Nowhere Man was epic. The things that he has to wade through in order to uncover and try to save the man his mother asked him to was great. I really liked the sweet relationship that formed with Joey and the relationship that was further developed during this book.

Usually, by an author's forth or fifth book the ideas that have garnered them a nice following tend to dry up and the mediocre ones loose that spark that brought them fame. I am so pleased Gregg Hurwitz ISN'T one of those authors! Even after five best selling thrillers he has enough in the tank to not only produce another winner but to take us on an ever increasing wild ride with one of the greatest characters ever put to paper. Every time you think Hurwitz has shown us the complete picture of Evan Smoak, he blows that misconception up with another revelation which sucks all the air out of the room. While you try to come to terms with the fact that Evan's mother is still alive, Hurwitz stuns not only Evan but every one of his readers with something more amazing. The complexities in these characters and how well Hurwitz crafts his tale show just how much the characters mean to him, and how much they've grown to mean to us. How Evan interacts with Mia, Peter, Joey and the newly introduced characters is the best reason to continue reading this series, even if the Nowhere Man never helped another person ever again. I refuse to give spoilers because I believe Hurwitz deserves to blow your mind himself and he absolutely WILL. But I do have to say at the end of the book when Evan gives Peter his present, I was reduced to tears and am even tearing up thinking of it now. I look forward to seeing what Gregg and Evan have in store for us next, and for one I cannot wait. If you're not reading this incredible series you are missing out on simply the best ever!