Bok Review: Prodigal Son | Gregg Hurwitz | an Orphan X novel

Have you read any of the Orphan X books by Gregg Hurwitz? I hadn’t until I had the opportunity to read Prodigal Son which I learned is actually the sixth book in the series. Let’s just say that I will now be going back to read the other five because I have to read more about Evan Smoak!

About the Book

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 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.

Reflection

Well I’ll start off with what you are probably wondering—how was it jumping into a series on book 6? Surprisingly, it wasn’t a problem at all! While I can’t speak for all five books before this, I certainly felt this story worked as a standalone.

The book opens with a young Evan Smoak, who we learn is an orphan who was taken from foster care at the young age of 12 and trained by Jack Johns, known as the Mystery Man, to be a deadly assassin that frankly seems super-human. Part of this stems from the fact that Evan’s more human traits (empathy, caring) to make him a government-sponsored killing machine. This was all through a secretive operation known as the Orphan Program.

After years as the assassin known as Orphan X, Evan has broken free and repurposed himself as an avenger of those in need. Now, Evan has left both of these persona behind to live the life that got taken from him when he was just a boy.

When a woman calling herself Veronica LeGrande reveals herself to be Evan’s mother who gave him up for adoption, she asks for help from the boy she abandoned many years ago. Her request seems strange—she asks him to help a man who was a resident at the same foster home that Evan lived in before he became Orphan X. This man, Andrew, is not an ordinary man. His life has put him directly in the path of a deadly assassin team, and Evan is his only hope. However, helping Andrew and Veronica may mean putting his own life and freedom on the line…

Fast-paced action and heart-pounding suspense—Prodigal Son is that perfect sort of escapist thriller where you can slip into a world much different from your own. I found Evan to be a surprisingly relatable character (I mean, as much as myself, a doctoral student quarantined at home can relate to a deadly orphan assassin), which wasn’t necessary but enhanced the book for me. I found this book had a surprising amount of emotion and sensitivity, and I really felt for this boy who was taught to disregard his desire to connect with other humans. Seeing him reclaim that as an adult was wonderful, until that phone call that launches this new adventure…

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Kaye Publicity for my copy. Opinions are my own.