Out of the Dark: An Orphan X Novel (Evan Smoak, Book 4)

Evan Smoak has been known as Orphan X and the Nowhere Man. As Orphan X, he has “killed generals, foreign ministers, captains of industry” to name a few. He was the best in a program that produced only the best. Orphan X has been hunted for three books now, at first, he didn’t know why, but as he was able to put the pieces together, he realized someone is erasing the Orphan program and disposing of all the orphans. Some have walked away from their life as word class assassins and have tried to create a normal life, some have even built themselves a family. Realizing that these orders are coming from the very top of the Government structure, Out of the Dark sees Evan transition from the hunted to the hunter. As the Nowhere Man, Evan helps people in desperate need, grasping for a lifeline before they went under for good. Reaching him on his durable RoamZone, each client he helps is tasked with finding someone like themselves that needs the Nowhere man, the phone number 1-855-2-NOWHERE. In Out of the Dark, the mission is a brutal one. When Evan gets that call on his RoamZone, he is immediately forced to break the Seventh Commandment, continuing with the ultimate Nowhere Man mission, perhaps the biggest solo mission in history and helping his new client. The action is nonstop, the intensity continuously climbing. With Evan, nothing is as it seems, when you think he’s cornered, when you can’t possibly imagine how he will get out of the situation, he surprises you and his adversary, but before he does. He asks them; “Look into my eyes. And ask yourself: Do I look scared?” The new client, Trevon Gaines also lives by a set of rules established for him in an effort for him to live a normal social life. Living with an intellectual disability of sort, but ‘high functioning’ he lives a structured life, following his ‘goals for the day’ given to him, whether it’s at his job, at home, or social cues to help him be accepted by others. At work Trevon found himself filling in for another co-worker that got food poisoning who was supposed handle a task in a specific manner. Trevon was given these new directions, but his ‘disability’ if I can call it that, prevented him from breaking the rules. As I mentioned, Trevon lives a life of structure, only being able to move forward when one task is complete properly. Since Trevon did not complete this task in the manner laid out by his co-worker, his boss decided to make an example out of Trevon to sway any other employee from making such choices. In what I can only describe as a man of pure rage, he jumps from normal to rage in a blink of an eye and decides to literally erase Trevon’s entire lifeline from existence by brutally murdering his entire family and loved ones. At this point, Trevon and his boss realize he has only one family member left that is currently out of the country. His boss’ intentions are clear, his threat real because he has already slaughtered his entire family. Trevon is now hopeless, lost, unsure of what to do, then, a stranger appears, a man with a mission of his own. Find someone that needs the Nowhere Man like he did, and Benito Orellana, the man whose son Evan saved from the gang in Hellbent, asked Trevon “can you remember a phone number?” The U.S. President, Jonathan Bennet hellbent on killing Evan puts together two teams, one official, led by SAC, Naomi Templeton, the Secret Service agent that has been put in charge of finding this threat against the President. The other team, unofficial led by Judd Holt aka Orphan A, this team consisting of a team of misfits, convicted rapists and murderers. With the President driving the bus, Orphan A has all the tools he needs at his disposal to mount an attack on Orphan X. In one instance, utilizing a DoD supercomputer where Orphan A gave it specific hypotheticals that only an Orphan would be able to come up with, this supercomputer spit out a reservation for a hotel Evan was bedding down in. Attacking Orphan X however proved to be a suicide mission, killing his intruders and getting away from Orphan A in the nick of time. Orphan A, working for the President as well as being on a personal mission to kill Orphan X is resilient and won’t stop. However, it’s been proven time and time again that Orphan X is the best and Out of the Dark proves that once again. With Evan announcing his intentions to take on the most powerful man in the world, by sending him a clear message, multiple times. First, by placing a rifle on his route intended to send a message only the President will understand. The second, Orphan X mounts an attack on the President that is risky, but very impressive and brilliant. This mission, while successful, seems like a failure. It does however make the President become very paranoid. Forcing his people to check, double check, then triple check everything from the food delivered to the White House, to its water supply, the chemicals used in the pool, his clothes, even a suit tie made him scared of Orphan X. Which is exactly what Evan wanted! Returning characters not yet mentioned include Joey, introduced in Hellbent as a runaway Orphan. She is back with a foul mouth and brilliant cyber capabilities which Evan utilizes to gain an advantage against the multiple parties pursuing him. Joey, bored with her current predicament, but staying put for the time being will hopefully (fingers crossed) return in future Orphan X novels, maybe even get her own short story that Gregg Hurwitz sometimes gives us. (Check out – Buy a Bullet & The Intern). Another returning character, Candy McClure also known as Orphan V. As elusive and deadly as Evan himself, she and Evan have had a long history of trying to kill each other, one of those times, back in Orphan X, Gregg Hurwitz’s first Orphan X novel, Evan was defending himself and kicked Candy into her own stash of concentrated hydrofluoric acid, her back and shoulders taking most of the damage, now “from the front, a centerfold. From behind, Freddy Krueger.” With Candy or Orphan V Evan must tread carefully, with the Secret Service and Orphan A and his band of misfits working hard to track him down, plus the Nowhere Man mission with Trevon, he can’t afford another target. But why exactly is Orphan V announcing herself all the sudden? This spoiler is too good to let escape in a review, order Out of the Dark and plan to take Tuesday, January 29th off from work. This is the best Orphan X novel to date, maybe the best thriller novel of 2019. It is an absolute Must Read. The only instance I can think of to not read this novel right away, is if you have not read any other Orphan X novels. While this book works just fine as a standalone, I highly recommend you start from the beginning of the Orphan X series and read them in order, you will not be disappointed

This series just gets better and better. How the author keeps coming up with ways to complicate Evan Smoak's life and keep readers entertained, I will never know. To say he's a wordsmith would be an understatement. After defeating and eliminating what Evan thought was his main threat, a new more powerful one emerged. So now he is tasked with making sure that he and all remaining Orphans are able to go about their lives without looking over their shoulders. This book, like the others, had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The action, the execution of defeating threats, the growing of Evan's human side, I loved it all. I was filled with anticipation of Evan being victorious in all of his current dilemmas. The one drawback in this book, which seems to be evident in each of the books as I make my way through, is the repeating of things about Evan we already know. Each book keeps repeating his quirks and certain aspects of things over and over, more than once in each book. This series is not a set of standalones. This series is a continuing series, so the repeating of menial stuff is unnecessary and annoying. I am so into this series. I don't think I ever want it to end. Between the hero aspect, the spy aspect, and the personal aspect, these books have a little bit of everything.

This is the first of Greg Hurwitz's popular series that was good enough to go in my rereads pile. An appealing setup attracted me since the first entry, Orphan X, was released in 2016. A young orphan was snatched and trained from an early age, but was fortunate enough to have a decent, caring handler who became his surrogate father, and after years of grueling preparation was sent off to kill any one who got on the wrong side of Uncle Sam or his designated flunkies. After one too many ambiguous assignments X's basic decency surfaced and promptly rebelled and he went dark. Having to live beneath the radar was easy with his skills and the money he had socked away during a busy career as a hired sociopath. His new life had everything except a purpose and he had none of the skills needed to live a normal life so he decided to put his talents to work standing up for innocents that got on the wrong side of power. While his career as a modern day Lone Ranger was progressing, Orphan X became aware that the unknown power who had misused him in the name of the national interest was rolling up the Orphan network, killing all involved who had knowledge that could prove embarrassing to the wrong parties. He decides to fight back and goes after the folks on his trail. The bad guys/girls have the resources and legitimacy of the federal government on their side, but Orphan X has a few pluses on his side as well. Episodes up until now have interspersed this duel with the rescue of a fresh innocent in peril each outing. All the books to date have had skilled writing but had frequent plot holes that shook their believability, added to stretches in mid book that dragged, and usually finishing off with excessive reliance on an over the top, made for the big screen, mass blow out for a grand finale. These things combined had me debating giving the series a pass. This latest release, Out of the Dark, has restored my faith and is easily my favorite Greg Hurwitz work to date. Pacing was well done with no sections that put me to sleep, and serious time and effort was put into Orphan X's maturation as a decent human being with doubts, fears, and dreams of being a better person living a normal life with people he loves and that care for him in return. Aficionados need not worry, there is still action galore with multi digit body count that would make Son of Sam blush but the intense action is interspersed with humanizing passages that do not drag but instead add depth and breadth to the work as a whole. The ending where Orphan X closed a door to a chance for normalcy was done impressively low key with a subtle, unsaid, reading between the lines sophistication that was masterful and bodes well for Mr. Hurwitz's potential. Well done, sir.

I have been a huge Gregg Hurwitz fan for many years and have read all of his books. When the author created Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man, he literally created on the best characters in this genre. Out of the Dark is a tale of revenge, a tale of getting even, but more so, a tale of doing the right thing for himself and for many others like him. Evan is such a complicated character. He has so many facets to his personality and in this book he bares all of them. The reader can feel his pain, his loneliness, his anger, his compassion, and his caring for others. He knows that the path he has chosen is not an easy one yet, he knows he most complete this mission for all of the Orphans who suffered at the hands of one man. I was so excited that his relationship with Mia was beginning to make him whole and that Evan, Mia and her son Peter could forge some kind of bond. However, the life Evan has chosen may not include that vision of Utopia. Maybe some day but not right now. The story was just amazing and had me up many a late night. One other surprise was Agent Tempelton. I really like her and would love to see her and Evan again in another book. The Orphan X books are timeless. I hope the Gregg Hurwitz plans on continuing with Evan's journey. Thank you for many wonderful books and the time spent enjoying them. And I hope that Evan, where ever he may be, will read this and continue to fight the good fight. Because what would this world be like if you could not dial a phone and hear "Do you need my help?"

What is more important for a writer? To have a storyline that is amazing and fascinating or to have characters who seem larger than life? Author Gregg Hurwitz has both in “Out of the Dark”. The dialogue and suspense are both superb. A step back to Orphan X’s first mission shows Evan obsessed with the “why” of the mission. He knows the current President of the United States had a hand in the mission, but he doesn’t know the significance of it. He needs to find out, though. It will help him understand why the President wants him and all the former Orphans killed. So Evan has a lot of investigating to do. “Killing the President is going to be a lot of work.” While Evan is busy with his top goal, he is still the “Nowhere Man”. When a certain phone rings, he is needed to help someone in serious trouble. That someone this time, is Trevon Gaines, a mentally challenged, but high-functioning young man who made a mistake as far as a certain drug lord is concerned. Trevon pays dearly for that mistake and Evan is going to provide vengeance, if not justice. I cannot imagine why this book would get anything but 5 star reviews! It is impossible to put down, providing hours of pure entertainment, excitement, and even some humor!!

good book they keep it interesting

Evan’s mentor taught him ten basic rules that kept him, as Orphan X alive and operating at peak performance. Rule number 9 being, always play offense, and since someone has been taking out all the Orphan operatives one at a time and with X in the primary crosshairs. X set out to even the score and found the order came from the highest level of the government, literally. President Bennett was once the head of the Department of Defense and therefore the creator and operator of the Orphan program in its infancy. X has the suspicion that his very first mission is what makes the enmity between Bennett and himself personal. What was so important about that 1997 mission that Bennett needs every trace of its existence wiped from the earth? With the help of some familiar allies, X goes forth on his most dangerous and difficult mission yet. He hasn’t forgotten his day job, because that Roam Zone still game him a mission to complete. Gregg Hurwitz did a magnificent job of writing our favorite action hero doing something most Americans would find objectionable, and yet somehow making it work within an action story morality. With all the har driving, butt kicking that goes on, this author can still touch the soft places in your heart with an artist’s touch. These are great stories that I always look forward to.

Exciting descriptions were exceptional