Fabulous reads – Secret agent novel has all the thrills
Book review - Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz.
Orphan X, Evan Smoak #1, Penguin Random House, ISBN 9781 4059 10712
EVAN Smoak is taken as a young boy from an orphanage by a handler named Jack, who enrolls him into the Orphan programme.
Known to his trainers only as Orphan X, he is forced to endure and train under the most extreme circumstances from childhood into his late teens. This will ensure he moulds into a perfect, silent instrument who will be used in covert missions for a government who easily denies his very existence.
Once his training is complete and he has eliminated a slew of the government’s enemies, things turn sour for Evan. He no longer believes his work is as righteous as he’s told and does the unthinkable – he uses his training to disappear. But with a large bank balance and the know-how, he soon puts his skills to better use and helps people who are in desperate need of his services and have nowhere else to turn – allowing him to take on the nickname, the Nowhere Man.
Things go awry after his latest mission and Evan, for the first time in a long time, is forced into the defensive. Someone is out there hunting both him and his client.
It took a short while to become accustomed to Hurwitz’s in-depth writing style, but a few pages in it almost forms part of Evan’s character and allows you to see the way he views the world – clinical, precise and to the point. The world has been beautifully and painstakingly crafted, and Evan, or Orphan X as he is commonly known by his enemies, has a wonderful depth and is easily likeable, despite his profession in killing.
The pace of the book picks up quite dramatically halfway through the 354 pages but in places it can feel quite predictable. It is however enticing and thrilling enough to keep you glued to the pages – and waiting with bated breath for the as yet unannounced sequel.
If it were to be likened to anything, it would be a mash-up between the more modern adaptations of the Bourne Legacy with some added gadgets from James Bond. A definite must-read.
