Orphan X

Gregg Hurwitz’s new thriller Orphan X is an edge-of-your-seat tale of action, adventure, double-crosses and betrayal. The premise of the book is as follows. A top-secret government program takes orphans from orphanages and trains them to become assassins for the U.S. government. The orphans assassinate anyone that the government deems a threat. One such recruit is the protagonist of the novel, Evan Smoak, known as Orphan X. However, the program doesn’t last very long and is shut down, forcing Smoak to become a freelancer. While still having access to the program’s weapons and funds, Smoak tries to redeem himself and restore his good name. He goes on a variety of missions to help regular people. In one such case, he saves teenage girls from a dirty cop who trafficked them in for his own dirty deeds.

Orphan X has lots of suspense, action, crosses and double crosses, as well as twists and turns. Hurwitz does a phenomenal job balancing the action and suspense with strong character development. Evan Smoak has demons that plague him, and Hurwitz brilliantly captures that in his novel. Throughout the book, we see Smoak transform, and by the end, he is not the same character he was at the start of the novel. I really enjoyed reading Orphan X as it was filled with unpredictability. Orphan X looks to be a promising series, and I really look forward to reading the next installment as soon as it comes out.

If you are a fan of Jason Bourne novels, then you will surely love Orphan X.