Gregg Hurwitz is yet another writer who read the Jason Bourne books and said “Me too!”. Evan Smoak is Orphan X, an orphan raised by a secret wing of the US gov’mint to become a soldier in the shadow wars. After one mission too many goes against his principles, Evan goes rogue. Today Evan helps those in need of his very special training – a heroic vigilante known only to desperate innocents and, very briefly to evil-doers, as The Nowhere Man.
But nobody walks away from the Orphan programme and, after years of staying under the government’s radar, Evan finds himself in the crosshairs of his old taskmasters. His latest client is being used as a pawn to lure him out of hiding – how can he save them and still remain out of their clutches? And of course make sure this doesn’t happen again…
I know Gregg Hurwitz from his Batman comics (some of which are really good – I recommend Batman: The Dark Knight, Volume 3: Mad and Penguin: Pain and Prejudice) so it’s pleasantly surprising to discover that he’s a pretty decent novelist too! Maybe not THAT surprising given that the only real difference between Evan Smoak and Bruce Wayne is the name!
Orphan X isn’t amazing but it’s certainly not a bad book either. Evan is your generic action man, no different from Jason Bourne, Jack Ryan, Jack Reacher, John Wick, etc. and his stoicism and mechanical-like efficiency doesn’t make him the least bit relatable or knowable – he’s not a great character. And “The Nowhere Man” is just a cheeseballs label!
Speaking of cheese, the hot single mom couldn’t have said Predictable Love Interest more obviously – her inclusion was hella clichéd - and her kid was so annoying! The villain was your usual bad guy – like all the other characters, nothing special – with Hurwitz going with the “mirror image of the hero” stereotype. Hmm…
I’m not a huge fan of action thrillers usually just because it’s not interesting to read pages and pages of descriptions of people fighting one another – “Evan turned, threw a jab, parried the right hook, leaned forward, etc.”. Got it: they fought. And that’s another thing – 400+ pages is much too long for this story. Side plots like the thugs threatening hot pants single mom don’t add much and only rack up the page count (though I thought it amusing that the thugs were called Axel Alonso and Mike Marts – both comics editors, no doubt buds from Hurwitz’s time in the biz).
It’s not a bad story though. Hurwitz’s writing is very slick, the plot is fast-paced and the question over whether the innocent he was helping was really on the level or whether she was part of the trap was a nice touch – a little paranoia goes a long way in a thriller! The ways Evan prepares for and deals with the many threats are imaginative and I liked the flashbacks to his youth, getting trained up. He is a little too capable though – nothing stops this guy and whatever’s in his path gets effortlessly demolished, which doesn’t make for the most tense read.
It’s not the most consistently entertaining story, and there’s nothing original about it, but Orphan X is an enjoyably decent action thriller.
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