Publishers Weekly - Audio
03/26/2018
Actor Brick, the narrator of all three of Hurwitz’s Orphan X audiobooks, once again effectively brings the dark adventures of ex-government assassin Evan Smoak to life. Smoak, who’s atoning for his murderous past by helping those in need, is unable to save Jack Johns, his mentor in the covert U.S. program in which orphan children are trained to become assassins. Taken as a prisoner aboard a Blackhawk helicopter by the evil program head Charles Van Sciver, Johns dies in an early, well-written sequence, stirringly enacted by Brick. Prior to his death, Johns contacted Smoak and asked that, if anything happened to him, Smoak protect his recent protégé, a teenage girl named Joey, from Van Sciver’s death squad. Smoak is determined to avenge Johns by killing Van Sciver and, as part of his Samaritan duty, to stop the initiation of young Xavier Orellana into a Los Angeles street gang. Brick effectively handles all vocal tasks, such as Smoak’s grave, unwavering delivery, Joey’s teenage truculence, and Van Sciver’s sinister sliminess. Brick even makes Hurwitz’s minutely detailed descriptions of weapons, electronic gadgets, and data mining as dramatic as the action sequences. This is a particularly well-narrated audiobook. A Minotaur hardcover. (Jan.)
Publishers Weekly
10/30/2017
In bestseller Hurwitz’s thrilling third Orphan X novel (after 2017’s The Nowhere Man), Evan Smoak, who once worked as an assassin for the Orphan Program, a covert U.S. government agency, and now helps people in trouble from his base in L.A., violates one of the agency’s fundamental commandments: never make it personal. Evan’s mentor, Jack Johns, who recruited Evan at age 12 to the program, calls Evan’s help line. Soon afterward, operatives following the orders of Charles Van Sciver, another Orphan, take Jack prisoner aboard a Blackhawk helicopter. In an exciting action scene, Jack manages to sabotage the helicopter, but pays with his life. Evan decides to honor Jack’s last request to take care of a “package,” which turns out to be a teenage girl, who is, like Evan, also in Van Sciver’s crosshairs. The master killer hoping for redemption and struggling to relate to others emotionally may be a genre cliché, but such details as Evan’s sleeping on a bed levitated by magnets are sure to please fans of the Roger Moore Bond films. 150,000 announced first printing; author tour. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency (Jan.)
From the Publisher
"Hellbent is carved from the same cloth of not only Lee Child, but also David Baldacci, and it proves Hurwitz to be every bit the equal of both of them. This is raw, visceral action writing layered with rare depth and emotion, making Hellbent an early contender for one of the best thrillers of the year." —Providence Journal
"A beautifully crafted story that builds on the previous two books in surprising and unsettling ways." —Winnipeg Free Press
"Hellbent is Gregg Hurwitz firing on all cylinders." —The Guardian (UK)
"Must read!" —New York Post
"Where there's Smoak, there's firepower. The only thing better than a great book is a series in which each book is exponentially better than the last. It's not a feat that can be pulled off by just any author, but it's viscerally powerful when done right and Hellbent is as right as it gets." —The Oklahoman
"This is a great novel... do not miss this one." —Booklist (starred review)
"As well-done as the rest of the series and bloody good fun." —Kirkus Reviews
"This one is personal... fans of the first two books will enjoy this nail-biting, twisty thriller." —Library Journal
Library Journal
10/15/2017
In his third outing, Evan Smoak, aka Orphan X, takes on another difficult assignment, but this one is personal. After breaking away from the Orphans program, an expendable assassins initiative buried in the bowels of the U.S. Defense Department, Evan sets himself up as the "Nowhere Man" to help others who are in desperate situations. His former mentor, Jack Johns, calls the Nowhere Man line just as he is about to be captured and murdered by Van Sciver, the new head tasked with scrubbing the Orphans program and eliminating its participants. Evan was given a final assignment by Jack "to get the package," which unexpectedly turns out to be a 16-year-old female recruit. VERDICT Fans of the first two books (Orphan X; Nowhere Man) will enjoy this nail-biting , twisty thriller. It will also appeal to devotees of Robert Ludlum's "Bourne" series. [See Prepub Alert, 7/24/17.]—Vicki Gregory, Sch. of Information, Univ. of South Florida, Tampa
Kirkus Reviews
2017-10-24
Bodies pile up in the third entry in the Orphan X series (Nowhere Man, 2017, etc.).Orphan X, now Evan Smoak, is the Nowhere Man. People, usually strangers, can call him on his untraceable phone to ask for help if they are in desperate trouble. So his father figure, Jack Johns, calls him shortly before stepping out of a flying helicopter to his death. Then Evan receives Jack's posthumous note about a "final mission" to get a "package" that turns out to be Joey, a testy teenage girl and fellow Orphan who at first tries to kill him. Meanwhile, Charles Van Sciver, Director of the Orphan Program, is hellbent on his own mission. His "top priority [is] to stamp out wayward Orphans," especially Orphan X, the one who escaped from the program. Evan obsesses about killing Van Sciver and everyone else who helped kill Jack, so rivers of blood surge toward a showdown. Joey becomes Evan's sidekick, but she might become an "inconvenient aggravation at the very moment that Evan's universe would compress down in the service of a single goal—the annihilation of Charles Van Sciver." There's the hint of a sequel with Van Sciver's taunt to Evan—"You have no idea, do you? How high it goes?" That's thriller-talk for Someone Living on Pennsylvania Avenue. And that Someone also wants Evan dead. All this slaughtering keeps him too busy for a love life, although he has an almost-girlfriend, DA Mia Hall. Another woman hits on him, but he "needed to get food, and then he had people to kill." Priorities, you know. Some characters will be familiar to readers of the series, such as Van Sciver and the voluptuous but deadly Candy McClure. Most colorful, though, is the gangster named Freeway, who has—oh yeah!—a tattooed eyeball.As well-done as the rest of the series and bloody good fun.
