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The Nowhere Man: Orphan X #2    by Gregg Hurwitz Amazon.com order for
Nowhere Man
by Gregg Hurwitz
Order:  USA  Can
St. Martin's, 2017 (2017)
Hardcover, Paperback, CD, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

I rated Gregg Hurwitz's Orphan X as one of the top 3 thrillers of 2016. It introduced Evan Smoak, selected as a child to be part of a program that trained deniable assassins to do wet work around the world. Evan deserted the Orphan program to become the legendary Nowhere Man, using his skills and secreted wealth to help people in desperate need.

In this exciting sequel, The Nowhere Man, Evan needs to apply all his talents to help himself. As the episode opens, he saves a young girl from being sold into sexual slavery and learns of another already shipped. On his way to help her, he's kidnapped himself, but the mastermind behind it doesn't know who Evan really is. René assumes that he's a drug or arms dealer. He simply identifies very wealthy individuals (whose money is not linked to anything respectable) and has them taken to his very isolated and very well guarded chalet, where he extorts their wealth.

The story alternates between Evan's escape attempts and his recollections of his past and of his mentor Jack's death. As the attempts fail, security is correspondingly increased. At the same time, the Orphan program is trying to track Evan down and end him, using other Orphans to do so. His situation seems hopeless and even more so, once René learns that many people would pay a lot to watch him die. He sets up an auction. Orphans attend, but so does someone else, completely unexpected.

Evan is saved for now, but the episode ends on a cliffhanger that shows there's more of the same to come. The books in this series are the ultimate thrillers. Don't miss Orphan X or The Nowhere Man!

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