Prodigal Son (Orphan X Series #6)

by Gregg Hurwitz

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Evan Smoak, central character in Gregg Hurwitz's Orphan X series, is perfectly situated to hang with Jack Reacher and Jason Bourne. And, not unlike ANOTHER favorite—James Bond, Smoak has his signature drink as well. Fast, fun and furious writing here as Evan Smoak gets pulled back into "the life." Luckily, that life is saving the lives of others. "Thank you Orphan X" is what you'll be shouting as you read Prodigal Son.

Forced into retirement, Evan Smoak gets an urgent request for help from someone he didn't even suspect existed—in Prodigal Son, the next New York Times bestselling Orphan X book from Gregg Hurwitz.

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250252296
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/26/2021
Series:	Orphan X Series , #6
Sold by:	Macmillan
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	384
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

GREGG HURWITZ is the New York Times bestselling author of the Orphan X books, including Into the Fire. Critically acclaimed, his novels have graced top ten lists and have been published in 22 languages. Additionally, he’s written screenplays for and sold scripts to many of the major studios, and written, developed, and produced television for various networks. Hurwitz resides in Los Angeles.

GREGG HURWITZ is the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the #1 international bestseller Orphan X, the first in a series of thrillers featuring Evan Smoak. He has also written young adult novels: The Rains and its sequel, The Last Chance. Hurwitz's books have been shortlisted for numerous literary awards, graced top ten lists, and have been translated into twenty-eight languages.

Hurwitz is also a New York Times bestselling comic book writer, having penned stories for Marvel (Wolverine, The Punisher) and DC (Batman). Additionally, he has written screenplays for many major studios and written, developed, and produced television for various networks.

Hurwitz resides in Los Angeles with two Rhodesian ridgebacks.

Editorial Reviews

10/26/2020

In bestseller Hurwitz’s engrossing sixth Orphan X novel (after 2020’s Into the Fire), former black ops assassin turned crime-fighting vigilante Evan Smoak is lured out of retirement by an unlikely individual: his mother. Given up when he was a newborn—and eventually recruited into the top-secret Orphan Program, where he was trained to be a government operative—Smoak is initially skeptical about his mother’s sudden appearance. But the man she asks him to help turns out to be Andre, a kid he knew from childhood when they lived in a Baltimore group home. After witnessing a murder while working at an impound lot, Andre has disappeared, and Smoak soon becomes entangled in a grand-scale conspiracy involving cutting edge military technology. The pacing is breathtakingly brisk throughout, and the action is relentless, but the real hook is how much Smoak has matured emotionally, particularly in regard to his love interest Mia Hall, a district attorney who lives in Smoak’s building, and Joey, his 16-year-old hacker protégée. This series continues to impress. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Simply the best all-out action writer in the business, to which he adds a shrewd sense of character... Not to be missed." —Providence Journal

"An impressive addition to the outstanding Orphan series." —Shelf Awareness

"With Prodigal Son, Hurwitz proves once more that he’s one of the most gifted authors working in the genre today. If you’re not reading this series, don’t wait a second longer." —The Real Book Spy

"If you read Prodigal Son, you will be a fan of Hurwitz for life..." —Bookreporter

"One hell of a series...Nuanced and energetic, this is a great thriller." —Booklist (starred review)

"Prodigal Son is further proof that Gregg Hurwitz has cornered the market on first-rate thrillers." —NY Journal of Books

"The pacing is breathtakingly brisk throughout, and the action is relentless... This series continues to impress." —Publishers Weekly

"Fans of Tom Clancy or Lee Child will love this latest installment... which offers twists and turns, danger and adrenaline, and gadgetry worthy of James Bond." —Library Journal

“Read the Orphan X series. You’ll thank me later." —David Baldacci

"A stellar series...the stories get better with each installment." —Associated Press

"Nobody walks the line between blistering action and searing character development better than Hurwitz." —Providence Journal-Bulletin

From the Publisher

10/01/2020

Evan Smoak is trying to adjust to his newly imposed "retirement" from life as assassin and spy when he receives several calls from a woman claiming to be the mother he never knew. She wants to meet him. When they do meet, she asks him to help Andrew Duran, a friend who is in serious trouble. She knows only that he needs help, not the type of help he needs. Though it's right up his alley as the "Nowhere Man," Evan agrees to look into the situation only reluctantly; it might endanger the tentative presidential pardon he's been granted, and powerful people want Andrew dead. Trying to undo a previous bad choice, Andrew makes another one, which puts him on the radar of some very bad people. VERDICT Fans of Tom Clancy or Lee Child will love this latest installment of the "Orphan X" series by Hurwitz ("Tim Rackley" series), which offers twists and turns, danger and adrenaline, and gadgetry worthy of James Bond. There is an underlying examination of the meaning of family that lends extra depth to the book.—Elizabeth Masterson, Mecklenburg Cty. Jail Lib., Charlotte, NC

Library Journal

2020-10-27
Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man, crashes out of retirement to battle a violent threat even less human than he is.

Some agents are trained assassins. Evan is better described as engineered by Jack Johns, the Mystery Man who spirited him off from the Pride House Group Home when he was 12, honed the skills that made him a superlative killing machine, neglected less desirable aspects of his personality (like the ability to make small talk or show empathy), and turned him loose on a world in need of a superavenger. Now that he’s finally hung up his blood-soaked laurels, Evan just wants to be left alone, but that’s not on the agenda of Veronica LeGrande, the attractive 62-year-old who suddenly reveals herself as his mother so that she can beg him to protect Andrew Duran, a fellow alumnus of Pride House whom he hasn’t seen for many years. It’s a big ask, partly because Andre, as Evan once knew him, doesn’t want to be protected and partly because the enemies Andre was exposed to in his unlikely role as the midnight guard on an impound lot are seriously mean. Shortly after Andre accepted the promise of $1,000 from brother-and-sister killers Declan and Queenie Gentner to tell them when Jake Hargreave picked up the Bronco he crashed and abandoned, Hargreave returned, Andre made the call, and Hargreave’s throat was cut in the lot by a tiny, murderous drone. The man behind Mimeticom, drone king Brendan Molleken, has clearly studied all the villains in the James Bond movies, and there’s no limit on the possible carnage when Evan meets Molleken, the Gentners, or any of those drones.

Exhilarating pabulum for action fans weary of heroes who bother to maintain social lives.

Kirkus Reviews

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