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.
Part of me wishes I hadn't reread this one. I mean, I still enjoyed it but I did get caught up more in the bullshit moments and with just how bad Evan's judgement was. It was pretty bad. I still plan to keep rereading the next two books in the series so I can dive into the fourth. It's been out for a while now and I've been staring at the ARC paperback the publisher sent me. It's taunting me as a symbol of just how far behind I am in my ARC reading. Just so many books and so little time...
This is book one in series about Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man. It opens with Smoak avenging a young girl who is preyed upon by a crooked cop, freeing her and her sister from certain abuse. He gives her his magic phone number, telling her to give it to the next person she finds who is in dire straits, preyed upon by evil.
Turns out, he was trained in the Orphan program, where they take promising orphans and train them to be super killers, for off the books governmental black ops. Evan eventually gets a guilty conscience and wants to get out. But when he tries to tell his handler, and surrogate dad, his plan, the handler is killed and he is on the run.
Soon he has to juggle the next victim he is trying to unsnare, as well as escape assassination by other Orphans, tasked with erasing the …
This is book one in series about Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man. It opens with Smoak avenging a young girl who is preyed upon by a crooked cop, freeing her and her sister from certain abuse. He gives her his magic phone number, telling her to give it to the next person she finds who is in dire straits, preyed upon by evil.
Turns out, he was trained in the Orphan program, where they take promising orphans and train them to be super killers, for off the books governmental black ops. Evan eventually gets a guilty conscience and wants to get out. But when he tries to tell his handler, and surrogate dad, his plan, the handler is killed and he is on the run.
Soon he has to juggle the next victim he is trying to unsnare, as well as escape assassination by other Orphans, tasked with erasing the program.
But the coolest part is the juxtaposition of this deadly world of cloak and mostly dagger, with Evan playing the part of an importer of industrial cleaners in a condo building. So he has to do things like put up with the berating of an old biddy in the elevator, while trying to keep the blood from his sliced open arm from dripping on the floor. Or when he becomes attracted to a single mom, who just happens to be a DA, and her 7 year old son. You can imagine the complications when she starts to suspect he may not be what he appears to be.
It started off a little slow and I almost gave up - ho hum, some super killer avenging the preyed upon, while pretentiously drinking wildly expensive vodka (of all things) in his impregnable penthouse condo. But the front he tries to keep up, and his attempts at maintaining some kind of connection to humanity, really made it worth while. I am almost physically allergic to the uses of italics to indicate seriousness, especially whole chapters of them, ever since first coming across them [b:The Bourne Identity|7869|The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne, #1)|Robert Ludlum|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1335860740s/7869.jpg|859111]. But I could sort of stomach them here, at least while the story sped along.
And speed along it did, especially during the final half, where all kinds of story strands started to come together. I imagine this would make a great movie series. I immediately went out and got the short story about his start ([b:Buy a Bullet|32076616|Buy a Bullet (Orphan X, #1.5)|Gregg Hurwitz|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1476162014s/32076616.jpg|52725329]), which included the first 5 or 6 chapters of the second book, [b:The Nowhere Man|40996287|The Nowhere Man (Orphan X #2)|Gregg Hurwitz|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1532959865s/40996287.jpg|50329934]. And then immediately got that one.
I enjoyed this book, I'll probably read more as they come out (the dust jacket on Goodreads implies it's the first in a series). Overall solid thriller, probably great for a summer beach read.
I'm not really looking forward to the film or prestige tv series it will inevitably become, but happy to be proven wrong.
Intentional or not, Orphan X owes a huge debt to Shibumi - if you enjoy this, you'll almost certainly enjoy that! This story lacks some of the humor and tongue-in-cheek quality of Shibumi, but it explores some of the same themes.
I felt a little misled by some reviews, expecting a stiffer, more self-indulgent, formulaic story. It had a couple of good surprises, and was more thoughtful than overt.
