Lone Wolf by Gregg Hurwitz

Published by Minotaur Books on February 13, 2024

Gregg Hurwitz brings a couple of interesting themes to Lone Wolf. One is foreshadowed in the title. Series hero Evan Smoak, a/k/a Orphan X, has always been a loner. He prefers his own company to that of people and their infinite capacity to annoy him. He feels pity for people who fill their lives with pointless tasks to distract themselves from their loneliness.

A few books ago, Smoak became responsible for a teenage girl who was part of the Orphan project that turned Smoak into a killing machine. That responsibility carries with it the discomfort of a quasi-parental relationship he’s ill-equipped to handle. A few books ago he also started a halting relationship with a woman in his building but allowed it to fizzle away, in part to protect her from the violence he attracts. In Lone Wolf, after a brief visit to the disagreeable father he never knew, Smoak finds himself dealing with a brother he dislikes and his brother’s daughter, another teenage girl but one who lacks coping skills. The extent to which he will allow his family to touch his life is part of the unfolding drama, although it doesn’t get in the way of the action.

I admire the way Smoak’s personality has evolved during the series. Characterization is a cut above the usual for thriller tough guys. Apart from recognizing that he might be missing out on the humanizing value of relationships, Smoak is starting to feel old. He doesn’t recover from injuries as quickly as he once did. Aches and pains are accumulating; some will likely be permanent. Smoak recognizes a physical decline in his arms supplier (one of his few friends) and is haunted by the knowledge that he will face a similar future if he survives into old age.

The other theme develops when Smoak meets two billionaires who fancy themselves to be masters of the universe. One brags about his ability to earn profits by manipulating behavior through clandestine data collection. The other laments the softening of young people who are glued to screens and anxious about body image. One of them might be a murderer but orchestrating the murder of a few people might be less immoral than gaining wealth by surreptitiously controlling the behavior of millions.

The novel isn’t just about weighty themes and strong personalities. The plot is in constant motion. The action is credible and cinematic. Hurwitz weaves humor into a plot that starts with Evan’s niece pleading with him to find her lost dog. Naturally, the search brings Hurwitz to the home of a man who has just been murdered. He saves the man’s daughter but can’t prevent an injury that destroys her vocal cords. The encounter begins a war between Smoak and the assassin, Karissa Lopatina, a/k/a the Wolf. The story sends Smoak on a search for the person who hired Lopatina and on a mission to prevent her from returning to kill the dead man’s daughter. And yeah, to find the dog. The perfect blend of action, drama, and humor make Lone Wolf the best entry so far in what has become a strong series for thriller fans.

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The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz

Published by Minotaur Books on February 14, 2023

After an uncertain start, the Orphan X novels have followed an upward trending arc. Gregg Hurwitz continues that ascent in The Last Orphan.

The action begins when Evan Smoak visits the hospital where the woman who won his heart is receiving care. Despite taking precautions, Smoak is captured after a chase through hallways and stairways and streets and a parking ramp. His captor is Naomi Templeton of the Secret Service. Being captured, even by an elite team of counter-assault agents, makes Smoak wonder if he’s losing his edge, as does missing a small target from a distance of twenty feet, a shot that he is fully capable of making.

Smoak is on a sort of special parole, the terms of which he has repeatedly violated. Rather than sending him to Gitmo, Templeton puts him on a video call with the president, who wants a favor from Smoak — a favor he can trade for his freedom, albeit on a leash. Smoak, of course, will immediately slip the leash.

The favor involves finding and assassinating Luke Devine, a wealthy man who might be a psychopath but is certainly a narcissist. Devine is skilled at manipulating others to get what he wants. Deniable blackmail is one of his tools. The president believes Devine has become too powerful. Perhaps he is simply inconvenient. In any event, Smoak agrees to make his own assessment.

The story reunites Smoak and sixteen-year-old wunderkind Josephine Morales, who has been exploring her boundaries since the end of the last novel. He also gets an assist from Candy McClure. Both Jo and Candy are, like Smoak, former participants in the Orphan program that trained them in the art of killing.

The story features the usual blend of Jo’s computer hacking and Smoak’s exploits as an action hero. The plot becomes a bit deeper than controlled mayhem when Devine makes a credible case that the president has not ordered his assassination with clean hands. How Smoak will process that information sets up the novel’s resolution.

Smoak continues to develop as a character. Smoak alternately enjoys and is irritated by Jo’s teen snark, but she gets under his skin in ways that make him question his life. Smoak is anal and compulsive — traits that probably keep him alive — but his emotional limitations also limit his ability to connect with others. As he confronts the fury that drives his life, he begins to suspect that his hatred of feeling vulnerable is standing in the way of the openness to others that demands vulnerability.

The action scenes are on a par with Reacher and Gray Man novels — making the story fun to read and easy to visualize — but Smoak is developing a stronger personality than most other fictional tough guys. The novels are moving away from their unoriginal foundation — Jason Bourne meets the Equalizer — and are carving out a unique space in the action hero genre. Smoak’s continued evolution as a character makes the series a good choice for action hero fans.

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Dark Horse by Gregg Hurwitz

Published by Minotaur Books on February 8, 2022

The 7th Orphan X novel offers what fans of the series expect: action; spats between Evan Smoak and his teenage ward Joey; more action; introspective moments as Smoak tries to understand himself; more action; philosophical moments as Smoak tries to help others understand themselves; and, of course, a whole lot of action.

The plot is far-fetched. That isn’t unusual for Orphan X novels. In Dark Horse, Evan returns to his Nowhere Man gig, helping people who can’t help themselves.

A cartel leader in southern Texas named Aragón Urrea wants Evan to retrieve his daughter Anjelina, who was kidnapped by a rival cartel leader in Mexico. One might think that Urrea would be more than capable of helping himself and wouldn’t qualify for Evan’s services. Urrea has funding and manpower to attack his rival, although a frontal assault would probably not work out well for Anjelina. He decides he’d rather send one guy, apparently having heard through the grapevine that Evan is a superhero.

Evan agrees to take the job if, at least to some degree, Urrea will change his evil ways. Urrea reluctantly agrees because nothing is more important to him than his daughter, at least until later developments cause him to question his parental loyalty. At that point, Evan helps the cartel boss get back in touch with his root love of his daughter. Those scenes a bit hokey but they advance the plot so the hokeyness is forgivable. Because Urrea is only “sort of” a cartel leader, not like the evil cartel leader in Mexico who traffics in young women and feeds his enemies to a lion, the reader can “sort of” get behind Urrea, or at least not despise him.

The portrayal of Urrea as a gangster with a heart (at least when it comes to family) is forced, but it leads to an interesting discussion of the relative morality of drug dealing. Urrea profits from feeding addiction, but so do the Sacklers. Urrea’s mother points out that Urrea, as a good crime boss, at least uses some of his profits to support needy families who are loyal to him. I appreciate that point of view. Evan isn’t into moral relativism but he listens. In fact, he spends a good bit of the novel learning to listen, particularly when the petulant Joey demands that he respect her ability to make mature decisions. The continuing effort to develop Evan’s character helps the reader maintain an interst in Evan.

Evan’s ability to infiltrate the Mexican cartel and his immediate bonding with (and ability to manipulate) the cartel boss strained my willingness to suspend disbelief. I did so only because the novel works so well as an action story. Evan’s ability to wipe out a couple of dozen bad guys also strains credibility, but that’s the nature of the modern thriller. The story is entertaining and, in the end, that’s all that counts.

There is a Romeo and Juliet feel to the story (more than that I won’t say for fear of spoiling it). Apart from the main plot, the story advances Evan’s “sort of” relationship with his neighbor Mia and her son Peter while adding a bit of drama regarding Mia’s uncertain future. The story also advances Joey’s desire to be independent, a desire that clashes with Evan’s protective nature. All of that gives the book (and the series) enough substance to elevate it to the upper tier of thrillers that feature action heroes.

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Prodigal Son by Gregg Hurwitz

Published by Minotaur Books on January 26, 2021

Prodigal Son is the sixth Orphan X novel. Gregg Hurwitz seems to have gained confidence in his material as the series has progressed. The early novels were a bit gimmicky, placing a routine, indestructible thriller hero in two overlapping roles: protector of the weak (along the lines of the Equalizer) and victim of a government plan to turn kids into deadly assassins (along the lines of Jason Bourne). The novels have steadily drifted away from those clichéd themes while developing the hero’s personality in greater depth. Prodigal Son is the best in the series so far and will probably be hard to top.

A man named Andre, working a dead-end security job at an impound lot, watches a man die in a way he can’t explain. The death is caused by an advanced military weapon. Andre doesn’t know that, but he knows enough to flee. Having been the only witness to a killing on U.S. soil committed with secret technology, Andre becomes a high value target of the weapon developer.

None of this should concern Evan Smoak, who has removed himself from the savior business he started while operating as the Nowhere Man. But Andre happens to know Evan’s mother, and Evan’s mother wants Evan to help Andre.

Wait, Orphan X has a mother? Yes, we learned that at the end of Into the Fire. Fans of the series will understand why Evan has some issues regarding his mother, but they reunite in Argentina and Even agrees to help Andre until he decides not to help him until he decides to help him again. Andre and Evan knew each other as orphaned children but Evan, who has an understandable coldness in his soul and an unfortunate superiority complex, views Andre as a loser until Evan’s ward Joey reminds him that compassion has greater value than smugness.

Other series characters return in Prodigal Son, including the formidable Orphan V, the dog who helps Joey embrace her soft side, and the neighbor who would like to be Evan’s girlfriend if he weren’t always running around the world and killing people. All of the collateral characters are growing into their individualized personalities (except fo the dog, who displays the constancy of a dog). I particularly enjoy Joey’s teenage snark. Andre promises to be a good addition to the cast.

It is Evan’s character development that sets Prodigal Son apart from most action novels. There’s plenty of action in a plot that has Evan infiltrating a military base (twice), dodging advanced weaponry, and using controlled violence to teach bullies that their actions have consequences. But the story is enhanced by Evan’s struggles to understand why his mother abandoned him, his recognition of the impact that abandonment had on his controlling and obsessive personality, and his realization that he needs to make some changes if he wants to live his best life.

Not all of Prodigal Son is credible, but that’s a charge that can be lodged against most modern thrillers. I was particularly unwilling to believe that the developer of secret technology for the military so easily consented to meet with Smoak (posing as a tech writer) and gave him a tour of classified projects. On the other hand, various technologies that appear in the story reflect impressive research by Hurwitz. They help the plot seem plausible.

The story ends with a cliff-hanger and with another link to Evan’s past that might be explored in a future novel. This is a series that I will continue reading regardless of cliff-hangers in the hope that Hurwitz can continue writing with the depth he has shown in recent Orphan X novels, and particularly in Prodigal Son.

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Into the Fire by Gregg Hurwitz

Published by Minotaur Books on January 28, 2020

The Orphan X series has evolved into an enjoyable interpretation of the tough-guy action thriller. The series began by combining two unoriginal premises. The first positioned the protagonist, Evan Smoak, as a hero in the Jason Bourne mold: trained from an early age to be a deadly force in the service of a shadowy program. The second had Smoak giving away his services to victims who find themselves in threatening situations, in the manner of the Equalizer and other vigilante heroes. Two eye-rolling premises is at least one too many.

Thankfully, Gregg Hurwitz laid the Bourne premise to rest, at least as a plot-driver. Smoak extracted himself from the clutches of his would-be masters in Out of the Dark, putting an apparent end to Smoak’s concerns about being assassinated by the conspiratorial forces of evil that created him.

What used to be a subplot — helping the unfortunate by smiting their oppressors — turns into the main plot in Into the Fire. The series benefits from the new focus.

The story begins with a fellow named Terzian (a/k/a “the Terror”) bringing Grant Meriwether to the hospital for treatment after torturing him. He resumes the torture after killing the doctor who patches Grant up. Terzian wants a name from Grant, which he finally gets: Max Meriwether, Grant’s cousin. In an effort to avoid the same fate as Grant, Max contacts Smoak, who goes by the name The Nowhere Man.

While Smoak started the series as a fairly standard action hero (the kind of tough guy who isn’t known for depth), he has become a contemplative, self-questioning tough guy, giving him a more interesting personality than someone like Reacher, who has never had a moment of self-doubt in his life. Smoak became the Nowhere Man to seek something like redemption, an “imperfect word” to describe his need to confront the world “with his own code, illuminating the darkness with the guttering light of his own morality,” a process of becoming “less sharp. More human.” To that end, he is thinking that helping Max might be his last mission.

Smoak is attracted to a neighbor named Mia, although she is appalled when she learns just how much violence he exercises to solve the problems he confronts. Mia is a law-and-order prosecutor, but she becomes more forgiving of Evan after he does her a violent solid involving her endangered son.

The attention that Hurwitz gives to characterization does not shortchange the action. The story moves crisply as Smoak unravels the mess that Max inherited from Grant. After stumbling upon the corpse of a journalist who had been communicating with Grant, Max gives Smoak an envelope that contains an object the Terror would like to retrieve. Smoak successively battles Terzian’s thugs, a dogfighting ring, Terzian’s boss, a couple of bent cops, and the top boss, who is safely imprisoned and not easily killable. Each time Smoak solves one problem (violently), another pops up. Along the way, he sustains a concussion, and then another, creating the practical problem of which bad guy to shoot when he’s seeing double.

Smoak’s young hacker friend (and former Orphan) Joey Morales adds some youthful snark to the story, while a dog rescued from the dogfights softens the characters of both Smoak and Joey. I always say that the addition of a dog makes every story better. Of the various ways to manipulate readers into caring about characters, portraying a character as a dog lover is the best.

Will Smoak give up being the Nowhere Man and retire to a life that doesn’t require him to kill people every day? It looks that way until Smoak gets a startling call in the last chapter. I assume that means the series will continue. In my judgment, that’s a good thing.

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