Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Orphan X


GR summary:
The Nowhere Man is a legendary figure spoken about only in whispers. It's said that when he's reached by the truly desperate and deserving, the Nowhere Man can and will do anything to protect and save them.

But he's no legend.

Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He's also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as part of the off-the-books black box Orphan program, designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence assets—i.e. assassins. He was Orphan X. Evan broke with the program, using everything he learned to disappear.

Now, however, someone is on his tail. Someone with similar skills and training. Someone who knows Orphan X. Someone who is getting closer and closer. And will exploit Evan's weakness—his work as The Nowhere Man—to find him and eliminate him. Grabbing the reader from the very first page, Orphan X is a masterful thriller, the first in Gregg Hurwitz's electrifying new series featuring Evan Smoak.

I read this for my 2017 Popsugar Challenge, an espionage thriller. This isn't normally a genre I seek out, but I was blown away by this book and by The Nowhere Man. The characters and mystery as outstanding, and had me hooked from the very beginning. I loved that our leading man was Bond-esq, without being Bond or a bad parody of Bond.

4/5

I have been hooked on this series. I love Evan. He is the perfect Bond not Bond character. It actually reminds me more of Jason Bourne without the memory loss.