Lone Wolf (Orphan X Series #9)

by Gregg Hurwitz Narrated by Scott Brick

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

There are plenty of "man against the world" thrillers to choose from, and Lone Wolf should be added to the list, right next to Bourne and Reacher. A small mission gets big quick as Evan Smoak meets his match on the assassin stage. It’s nonstop thrills in this one.

A 2025 Audie Award winner for Best Thriller/Suspense! This program is read by multi-award-winning narrator Scott Brick.

"Brick employs perfect timing and emphasis to portray Evan and plays him with heart...Brick shines in long passages of exposition, setting up the stakes with deft talent, and quickly shifts into periodic high action."-AudioFile

"Gregg brings the series to life with his written word, so does Scott Brick with his narration. Scott's impeccable timing and ability to seamlessly flow from one character to another bringing Evan and all the characters to life while keeping the audience breathlessly waiting for the next scene to unfold is simply masterful."-The Reading Frenzy

Once a black ops government assassin known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak left the Program, went deep underground, and reinvented himself as someone who will go anywhere and risk everything to help the truly desperate who have nowhere else to turn. Since then, Evan has fought international crime syndicates and drug cartels, faced down the most powerful people in the world and even brought down a President. Now struggling with an unexpected personal crisis, Evan goes back to the very basics of his mission - and this time, the truly desperate is a little girl who wants him to find her missing dog.

Not his usual mission, and not one Evan embraces with enthusiasm, but this unlikely, tiny job quickly explodes into his biggest mission yet, one that finds him battered between twisted AI technocrat billionaires, a mysterious female assassin who seems a mirror of himself, and personal stakes so gut-wrenching he can scarcely make sense of them.

Evan's mission pushes him to his limit - he must find and take down the assassin known only as the Wolf, before she succeeds in completing her mission and killing the people who can identify her - a teenaged daughter of her last target, and Evan himself. Matched skill for skill, instinct for instinct, Evan must outwit an opponent who will literally stop at nothing if he is to survive.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Gregg Hurwitz seems to have found a new gear as he kicks things up a notch, ramping up the action and tension to deliver the most fascinating and compelling Orphan X novel to date. Think Jason Bourne on steroids... Lone Wolf is one of the year’s first must-read thrillers." —The Real Book Spy

"The series has always been a blend of Batman, the Equalizer, and Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp, and Lone Wolf reinforces why it continues to be great nine novels in. Newcomers to Evan's adventures should feel fine starting here before diving into the others." —First Clue

"Lone Wolf is a crushingly brilliant piece of fiction." —Best Thriller Books

"There is simply no one writing thrillers like Gregg Hurwitz...Evan Smoak, the fascinating, richly imagined protagonist at the heart of the Orphan X series, leaps off the page. If you haven’t read Gregg Hurwitz, you’re missing out.” —Lisa Unger

"You can never go wrong with an Orphan X book. No, scratch that. An Orphan X book will never fail to blow your fucking mind." —Best Thriller Books

"Hurwitz continues to dazzle." —Booklist

"Another crackling caper for the solitary Orphan X." —Kirkus Reviews

"Reading an Orphan X tale is truly a guilty pleasure, akin to eating dessert before dinner." —Mystery and Suspense Magazine

"The suspense that builds surrounding the final battle...keeps driving LONE WOLF forward with the velocity of a speeding bullet...This might be his best Orphan X thriller yet." —Bookreporter

Kirkus Reviews

2023-12-06
A maverick assassin squares off against a ruthless AI magnate and a mercenary doppelgänger.

Franchise fans will be pleased to learn that The Last Orphan (2023) wasn’t. “Nowhere Man” Evan Smoak, aka Orphan X, is back for his ninth taut thriller. He comes to consciousness, bloody and broken and barely alive, in a remote part of Texas outside the range of the RoamZone tracker that monitors him. While Evan reestablishes contact with teenage sidekick/protégé Joey and undertakes the goofy but heart-tugging challenge of finding his niece Sofia’s missing dog, Loco, efficient assassin Karissa Lopatina is hard at work, drowning software engineering manager Anwuli Okonkwo in her bathtub, then killing AI expert Dr. Benjamin Hill, whose path happens to have crossed Loco’s. She’s still on the scene when Evan arrives (what are the odds?). Their showdown takes a tragic turn when Hill’s teenage daughter tries to intervene, allowing Karissa to get away and leaving Evan to deal with the police. His narrow escape, combining guile and muscle, is vintage Hurwitz, set forth with gritty edge and puckish humor in short, punchy chapters that include several similar nail-biting scenes. Loco remains at large as Evan’s twisty path takes him to a creepy megalomaniac ironically named Allman and eventually to a face-to-face with Karissa, who, gender aside, could be his identical twin. A handful of characters from previous Orphan X capers return, including Tanner and Devine, who make cameo appearances. Crisp character delineation and a propulsive, forward-moving plot should keep new readers engaged.

Another crackling caper for the solitary Orphan X.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940159917058
Publisher:	Macmillan Audio
Publication date:	02/13/2024
Series:	Orphan X Series
Edition description:	Unabridged

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