Prodigal Son

An Orphan X Novel Orphan X, #6

by Gregg Hurwitz

Hardcover, 432 pages

English language

Published Jan. 25, 2021 by Minotaur Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-25228-9

View on OpenLibrary

(8 reviews)

Forced into retirement, Evan Smoak gets an urgent request for help from someone he didn't even suspect existed.

As a boy, Evan Smoak was pulled out of a foster home and trained in an off-the-books operation known as the Orphan Program. He was a government assassin, perhaps the best, known to a few insiders as Orphan X. He eventually broke with the Program and adopted a new name – The Nowhere Man―and a new mission, helping the most desperate in their times of trouble. But the highest power in the country has made him a tempting offer - in exchange for an unofficial pardon, he must stop his clandestine activities as The Nowhere Man. Now Evan has to do the one thing he’s least equipped to do—live a normal life.

But then he gets a call for help from the one person he never expected. A woman claiming to have …

Forced into retirement, Evan Smoak gets an urgent request for help from someone he didn't even suspect existed.

But then he gets a call for help from the one person he never expected. A woman claiming to have given him up for adoption, a woman he never knew—his mother. Her unlikely request: help Andrew Duran—a man whose life has gone off the rails, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, bringing him to the deadly attention of very powerful figures. Now a brutal brother & sister assassination team are after him and with no one to turn to, and no safe place to hide, Evan is Duran’s only option. But when the hidden cabal catches on to what Evan is doing, everything he’s fought for is on the line—including his own life.

2 editions

SLaSZT reviewed Prodigal Son by Gregg Hurwitz (Orphan X, #6)

Felt lazy, poorly edited and relied on too many boring thriller/drama tropes

3 stars

Not the best Orphan X novel, to be honest; it feels more like it's just there to bridge between the last book and the next rather than saying anything important about Evan or any of the other characters as people, despite what the prose might have you believe.

It's nice to imagine that Evan wants to be a regular person with real emotions, but we barely ever get to see him try, other than a few musings about getting drunk and working out less early on. Also, the loose ends basically wrapped up themselves - the Gentner siblings especially. Lazy and overdone, in my opinion - the comparison between a soap opera and the events of the plot is literally made in the book itself so I guess I don't even have to go there. Don't even get me started on Andre and Veronica. It all felt meaningless and disposable. …

The writing in this, compared to the previous books, seemed a lot more messy and left the imagery feeling rushed; I get that it's an action-thriller so the pacing is meant to be exaggerated, but I do actually need to feel thrilled and not just mesmerized by adjectives and adverbs and a distinct lack of commas. It left an impression of being nearly unintelligible in parts.

That this book ends in a weird cliffhanger that doesn't really feel very thoughtful is the stale icing on a day-old supermarket cake. That final scene could definitely have waited until the beginning of the follow-up novel and elicited just as much suspense. Hopefully this entry was a cash-grab and the next will be more developed.

ManyRoads reviewed Prodigal Son by Gregg Hurwitz (Orphan X, #6)

Review of 'Prodigal Son' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Another very good, albeit violent, Orphan X novel. These novels are quick and entertaining reads. Just do not expect brilliant literature; they are adventure, thriller novels. Enjoy.