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Book Summary and Reviews of Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz

Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz

Out of the Dark

An Orphan X Novel

by Gregg Hurwitz

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Jan 2019, 400 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

When darkness closes in, he's your last, best hope. Evan Smoak returns in Gregg Hurwitz's #1 international bestselling Orphan X series.

Taken from a group home at age twelve, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as part of the Orphan Program, an off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets--i.e. assassins. Evan was Orphan X. He broke with the Program, using everything he learned to disappear and reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man, a man who helps the truly desperate when no one else can. But now Evan's past is catching up to him.

Someone at the very highest level of government has been trying to eliminate every trace of the Orphan Program by killing all the remaining Orphans and their trainers. After Evan's mentor and the only father he ever knew was killed, he decided to strike back. His target is the man who started the Program and who is now the most heavily guarded person in the world: the President of the United States.

But President Bennett knows that Orphan X is after him and, using weapons of his own, he's decided to counter-attack. Bennett activates the one man who has the skills and experience to track down and take out Orphan X - the first recruit of the Program, Orphan A.

With Evan devoting all his skills, resources, and intelligence to find a way through the layers of security that surround the President, suddenly he also has to protect himself against the deadliest of opponents. It's Orphan vs. Orphan with the future of the country--even the world - on the line.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Explosive... Hurwitz is at the top of this game." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. Fans of the previous books in the series will not want to miss this latest installment featuring a complicated, swift-paced plot involving numerous twists plus a surprise ending - the essentials that make up a great thriller. Enthusiasts of suspense dramas should plan to stay up all night reading this one." - Library Journal

"Evan Smoak roars back with a vengeance in the fourth Orphan X thriller...this installment is as tightly plotted, efficiently written, and, yes, as curiously plausible as its predecessors. If Jack Reacher fans haven't checked out Smoak yet, they're missing a sure bet." – Booklist

"The plotting is clever, the action is nearly constant and usually over-the-top, and X has something resembling a moral core. Bad guys get what bad guys deserve... Hurwitz fans will certainly enjoy this latest entry in the series." - Kirkus

"A stunning, action-packed plot that will leave readers breathless with anticipation and begging for more." - The Real Book Spy

"Out of the Dark is a stunner. I thought Gregg Hurwitz couldn't get any better, but his latest Orphan X novel proved me wrong. Shut the blinds, turn off your phone and TV, and get some sleep now, because once you start this book you won't want to stop." - Meg Gardiner, author of UNSUB and Into the Black Nowhere

"A shocking stunner in every way. The perfect thriller." - Robert Crais

This information about Out of the Dark was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Cloggie Downunder

An excellent action thriller.
Out Of The Dark is the fourth book in the Orphan X series by best-selling American author, Gregg Hurwitz. Among other things, Evan Smoak’s extensive training made him a skilled assassin. His very first mission, in an unnamed Eastern European state, involved the assassination of a foreign minister; it is this mission that somehow has led to his latest one. And he’s setting his sights high with this target: the President of the United States.

On this mission, he’s up against a formidable opponent: Special Agent in Charge, Naomi Templeton has the Secret Service in her genes and has recently been promoted to Deputy Director of Protective Intelligence and Assessment. And as the daughter of a former Director, she has something to prove. But Hank Templeton, now languishing in an Aged Care Facility, could also be a distraction. What Evan Smoak isn’t initially aware of is the dangerous man who has been tasked with killing him.

In this dose of Orphan X, Evan: deals with a dislocated shoulder (not his own); narrowly avoids participation in a father-daughter dance; neutralises a Los Angeles drug trafficker; finds, in Trevon Gaines, someone even more obsessed with order than he is; leaves a message, cryptic to others, but unsubtle for his target; has fun with a Tesla S; stays at the Watergate Hotel; and goes skate-boarding.

The situations where Evan chooses to interact, unarmed (or apparently so), with weaponed opponents are quite entertaining, as is the paranoia he induces in his target. As with all books in this series, it’s wise to check your disbelief at the door and just go along for the fantastic ride, as Evan gets himself out of multiple impossible (and often lethal) situations, and all without the level of equipment that backs him up in LA..

Fans of the previous book will welcome the reappearance of Joey Morales (and the clever, snappy dialogue that results), and readers familiar with DC will enjoy this instalment for the many locations mentioned. Book number five, Into The Fire, promises to be just as much fun. An excellent action thriller.

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Author Information

Gregg Hurwitz Author Biography

Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Times #1 internationally bestselling author of 23 thrillers including the ORPHAN X series. His novels have won numerous literary awards and have been published in 33 languages. Gregg currently serves as the Co-President of International Thriller Writers (ITW). Additionally, he's written poetry, screenplays and television scripts for many of the major studios and networks, comics for AWA, DC, and Marvel, and political and culture pieces for The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Bulwark and others. Gregg lives with his Rhodesian ridgebacks in Los Angeles, where he continues to play soccer, frequently injuring himself.

Link to Gregg Hurwitz's Website

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