Prodigal Son

Starred review from October 1, 2020
The Nowhere Man, the former government assassin otherwise known as Orphan X, is now Mr. Ordinary. He's retired from defending the innocent, a vocation he took up after he spectacularly resigned from government service. Well, it wasn't really Evan Smoak's choice to give up his altruistic line of work. It was more like an ultimatum from the American president: quit being a crusader-for-hire and face no charges for some recent activities. It's been a rough transition, too, from regularly putting his life on the line to spending his days as a wealthy man with nothing much to do. So when the woman who gave him up for adoption?presumably his mother, whom Evan never knew?asks him to help a man in trouble, Evan has mixed feelings, but he finds the prospect of getting back into action to be exhilarating. No matter the potential cost. From the first Smoak novel, 2016's Orphan X, this has been one hell of a series, each volume (this is number six) revealing more about Evan's deeply troubled past. The writing is pitch-perfect, too, which should come as no surprise to followers of Hurwitz's career (he's also written outstanding stand-alones, including They're Watching (2010) and The Survivor (2012). Nuanced and energetic, this is a great thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

October 26, 2020
In bestseller Hurwitz’s engrossing sixth Orphan X novel (after 2020’s Into the Fire), former black ops assassin turned crime-fighting vigilante Evan Smoak is lured out of retirement by an unlikely individual: his mother. Given up when he was a newborn—and eventually recruited into the top-secret Orphan Program, where he was trained to be a government operative—Smoak is initially skeptical about his mother’s sudden appearance. But the man she asks him to help turns out to be Andre, a kid he knew from childhood when they lived in a Baltimore group home. After witnessing a murder while working at an impound lot, Andre has disappeared, and Smoak soon becomes entangled in a grand-scale conspiracy involving cutting edge military technology. The pacing is breathtakingly brisk throughout, and the action is relentless, but the real hook is how much Smoak has matured emotionally, particularly in regard to his love interest Mia Hall, a district attorney who lives in Smoak’s building, and Joey, his 16-year-old hacker protégée. This series continues to impress. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary.

October 1, 2020

Evan Smoak is trying to adjust to his newly imposed "retirement" from life as assassin and spy when he receives several calls from a woman claiming to be the mother he never knew. She wants to meet him. When they do meet, she asks him to help Andrew Duran, a friend who is in serious trouble. She knows only that he needs help, not the type of help he needs. Though it's right up his alley as the "Nowhere Man," Evan agrees to look into the situation only reluctantly; it might endanger the tentative presidential pardon he's been granted, and powerful people want Andrew dead. Trying to undo a previous bad choice, Andrew makes another one, which puts him on the radar of some very bad people. VERDICT Fans of Tom Clancy or Lee Child will love this latest installment of the "Orphan X" series by Hurwitz ("Tim Rackley" series), which offers twists and turns, danger and adrenaline, and gadgetry worthy of James Bond. There is an underlying examination of the meaning of family that lends extra depth to the book.--Elizabeth Masterson, Mecklenburg Cty. Jail Lib., Charlotte, NC

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2020
Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man, crashes out of retirement to battle a violent threat even less human than he is. Some agents are trained assassins. Evan is better described as engineered by Jack Johns, the Mystery Man who spirited him off from the Pride House Group Home when he was 12, honed the skills that made him a superlative killing machine, neglected less desirable aspects of his personality (like the ability to make small talk or show empathy), and turned him loose on a world in need of a superavenger. Now that he's finally hung up his blood-soaked laurels, Evan just wants to be left alone, but that's not on the agenda of Veronica LeGrande, the attractive 62-year-old who suddenly reveals herself as his mother so that she can beg him to protect Andrew Duran, a fellow alumnus of Pride House whom he hasn't seen for many years. It's a big ask, partly because Andre, as Evan once knew him, doesn't want to be protected and partly because the enemies Andre was exposed to in his unlikely role as the midnight guard on an impound lot are seriously mean. Shortly after Andre accepted the promise of $1,000 from brother-and-sister killers Declan and Queenie Gentner to tell them when Jake Hargreave picked up the Bronco he crashed and abandoned, Hargreave returned, Andre made the call, and Hargreave's throat was cut in the lot by a tiny, murderous drone. The man behind Mimeticom, drone king Brendan Molleken, has clearly studied all the villains in the James Bond movies, and there's no limit on the possible carnage when Evan meets Molleken, the Gentners, or any of those drones. Exhilarating pabulum for action fans weary of heroes who bother to maintain social lives.

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