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Article  •  10 February 2025

 

A useful guide to Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series

Everything you need to know about Evan Smoak – known as Orphan X – and the books that follow his complex life.

Gregg Hurwitz’s thrilling Orphan X series follows Evan Smoak – a man with a dangerous past.

At only twelve years old, Evan is recruited into a secret government program known as the ‘Orphan Program’. While details about the program are vague, what Evan does know is that he and other orphans have been selected and trained to be deniable intelligence assets – AKA assassins.

As Evan grows up, he begins questioning the morals behind the program, eventually deciding to leave. Orphans aren’t supposed to leave the program though, and his decision is a loaded one, requiring secrecy and the acceptance that he’s painting a target on his back by breaking away. Crafting a new identity to evade the program and its aims to ‘neutralise’ him, he becomes ‘the Nowhere Man’, offering up vigilante help for those in desperate need.

His one requirement is that after he protects someone, they must pass his phone number on to someone else in need.

Each book is gripping journey into a new mission, as Evan helps those in need while facing the constant threat of elimination by the Orphan Program.

The Orphan X books in order

Orphan X Gregg Hurwitz

'Do you need my help?'

It was always the first question he asked. They called him when they had nowhere else to turn.

As a boy he was taken from an orphanage, then raised and trained. As part of a top-secret programme, he was sent out to do the things his government denied any knowledge of.

Then he broke with the programme, using everything he'd learned to disappear. He wanted to help the desperate and deserving.

But now someone's on his tail. Someone who has issues with his past. Someone who knows he was once known simply as Orphan X.

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The Nowhere Man Gregg Hurwitz

Ambushed, drugged, and spirited away, Evan wakes up in a locked room with no idea where he is or who has captured him. As he tries to piece together what's happened, testing his gilded prison and its highly trained guards for weaknesses, he receives a desperate call for help.

With time running out, he will need to out-think, out-manoeuvre, and out-fight an opponent the likes of whom he's never encountered to have any chance of escape. He's got to save himself to protect those whose lives depend on him. Or die trying . . .

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Hellbent Gregg Hurwitz

Evan was raised inside a top-secret government programme and trained to become a lethal weapon. By Jack. And yet for all the dangerous skill he instilled in his young charge, Jack Jones cared for Evan like a son.

But Jack knew too much about a programme that had gone rotten - he was a loose end that needed to be dealt with. But if you go after the only person who ever treated him like a human being, you can guarantee that the Nowhere Man will be coming for you. Hellbent on making things right.

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Out of the Dark Gregg Hurwitz

For President Jonathan Bennett, reaching the White House was the realisation of lifetime's ambition. But Evan knows about the President's dark past. And that's dangerous knowledge. To save himself and his country, Evan must ask himself one simple question: how do you kill the most well-protected man on earth? And, when he knows you're coming for him, how do you stay alive long enough to try? One thing is certain: a desperate call for help from another unfortunate in urgent need of Evan's protection isn't going to make it any easier.

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Into the Fire Gregg Hurwitz

Evan Smoak is planning on hanging up his gun. Then he gets one last call.

Max Merriweather has lost his wife, home and career. Now it looks like he's going to lose his life. A murdered cousin has left him a package and a team of assassins on his trail . . . Nothing Evan can't handle. If it weren't for the fact he's carrying a brutal concussion that's made him vulnerable. Or that the simple job of keeping Max safe quickly escalated into a mission unlike anything he's ever encountered.

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Prodigal Son Gregg Hurwitz

When a woman gets in touch claiming to be his mother, he can't know if his true family needs help or this is a trap.

Has Evan's past reached out to claim him?

Or is someone out to ensure he has no future?

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Dark Horse Gregg Hurwitz

A desperate father reaches out. His teenage daughter Anjelina has been kidnapped by a brutal criminal cartel and spirited over the border into Mexico. And while money is no object, Evan soon realises that his prospective client's past is as clouded and compromised as his own.

If Evan is going to put his life on the line to rescue Anjelina, he must first decide whether he can act on behalf of a bad man.

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The Last Orphan Gregg Hurwitz

Trained as a government assassin codenamed Orphan X, Evan Smoak left that life behind to protect the helpless. Saving lives beats taking them. Until a call from the President forces him back into his old world. Her instruction is clear: kill a man who is a danger to the government, or Evan himself will face execution himself.

But the President should know better. To force Orphan X's hand will only make him more dangerous. Especially when he has reason to doubt the integrity of her motives.

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Lone Wolf Gregg Hurwitz

An assassin in freefall. A reclusive billionaire. A killer at large. How does it all connect? What is at stake? And will Evan rediscover the instinct and skill he needs to prevail? Or die trying . . .

Someone is leaving a trail of dead in their wake. Apparently chosen at random, their deaths dressed up as accidents or suicides. The woman responsible is known only as the Wolf and looks to be every bit Evan’s equal. She now has him in her sights.

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Nemesis Gregg Hurwitz

No greater friend, no worse enemy.

Evan Smoak is someone you want on your side. As a former government black ops assassin, he’ll be there in your darkest hour to rain hell and thunder on those who caused you pain. But his history means that Evan is a lone wolf – and he can’t afford to lose any of the few people he likes and trusts.

When his longtime gunsmith and armourer betrays him, it’s war. Because a good assassin keeps friends close and his weapons closer.

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