I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Out of the Dark is the fourth novel in Gregg Hurwitz's Orphan X series. It is crucial for readers to have read the other books in this series for this novel to make any sense.

Over the course of the series, readers have seen trained assassin Evan Smoak gradually gain compassion and humanity. He fights the good fight for helpless people but he does so using deadly and illegal means. His unique skill set and years of training provide him a laser focus against his enemies. His biggest enemy to date is the current president of the United States who was the instigator of the original Orphan program. That program involved recruiting young orphans and training them to be killers in the service of the government. Now the president wants all the orphans, especially X, dead.

Hurwitz balances the plot line of Smoak v. president with a plot of a young man, Trevon, whose entire family is murdered by a drug lord. Trevon's sister is still in danger. Only the Nowhere Man, Evan, can solve Trevon's dilemma. These plot lines show Evan's deadly determination as well as his humanity. Adding to Evan's emotional chaos is his burgeoning relationship with Mia, his neighbor, as well as his young ward from book 3.

I've really enjoyed this series.
#NetGalley #OutoftheDark #OrphanX

The fourth instalment of the famed Orphan X. He's back with brand new intrigue and edge of your seat thrill. I felt it wasn't as strong as the previous three books, but still good. This will sell again well. Greggg Hurwitz still has it!

Out of the Dark is the fourth of the Orphan X series, which stars retired secret agent Evan Smoak. Smoak was an orphan, adopted by a government operative as a part of a secretive "Orphan" program designed to raise orphaned kids into government superspies and assassins. Evan was adopted and mentored by his handler Jack and completed his assignments until he and Jack were burned by someone determined to corrupt the Orphan program. He then became the "Nowhere Man" - a shadowy figure who engages in vigilante operations to rescue those with no other options. Smoak is a combination of James Bond and Jason Bourne with a little twist of Batman thrown in for good measure.

I've enjoyed all of Hurwitz's Orphan X novels and Out of the Dark was no exception. Smoak is a fascinating character with his own sense of morality and justice and Hurwitz keeps the storyline moving with plenty of action; there are also appearances from familiar faces from other books. Over the past several books, Smoak has been hunting those who were in charge of burning him and has taken out a number of operatives, now he's found who gave the order that turned his world upside down and he's out for revenge. The only problem - that person is Jonathan Bennett, the president.

The story line picks up months after Smoak learns that it was Bennett who gave the order to burn him and he's been putting all of the planning into finding a way to exact revenge on him. Decades earlier, Bennett had conceptualized and carried out the implementation of the Orphan program. Eventually he ordered a mission that would have been problematic for him if it had come to light. To protect himself and his burgeoning political aspirations, Bennett ordered anyone with direct knowledge of that mission to be killed, but he and his operatives were never able to get to Smoak. Now Smoak is coming for him.

This all becomes complicated by Smoak getting a Nowhere Man call for help from a young man whose entire family has been murdered and is desperate for Evan's assistance. Smoak knows he can't turn his back on someone who needs his help and has no other way out, so he takes on the boy's case while working to get to Bennett. The entire series has been leading up to this - an epic showdown between the least accessible man on the planet and the assassin who can get to anyone. Out of the Dark is an engaging page-turner which will keep readers up late trying to find out how it all ends.

Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz
Another excellent book from Gregg Hurwitz, I have got to say this Orphan X series is one that I cannot hardly wait for the next installment! !!! In Out of the Dark Orphan X, Evan Smoak must help a young man, Trevan whose entire family (except his sister ) is killed, Orphan A is once again on his tail, President Bennett is still wiping the Orphans out of existence and watching for X, Orphan V the ever sexy Candy McClure comes out of the dark....on top of all the ass kicking Evan must do he is also attempting to find a way to have Mia and Peter in the periphery of his life but can he balance work and play without dropping anything along the way? Hold on tight and be prepared to not move again until your last page has turned! Thank you Netgalley and Minotaur books for allowing me to read this awesome ARC book and give my honest opinion!

I love Evan Smoak and the Orphan X series. The one thing I can always count on with this series is action that has me holding my breath and my eyes racing to speed read as fast as I can through some scenes!

Thank you, Net Galley, for giving me the opportunity to read the latest installment in the Orphan X series.
This one was very busy. Evan is out to avenge his fellow Orphans who the President has been killing off to protect his involvement in the project. He also has a case as the Nowhere man, where he helps people who have nowhere else to go.
I have read all his books in the series and this one was good. The writing is excellent and the story interesting. The story had a lot of story lines. This made some of them not developed very much. I want to have more detail. All and all I thought the story was very good. We learn more and more about each orphan. Waiting for the next one!

When reading a series it is only natural that at some point the later volumes just don't match up to the first book in the series. Obviously, Gregg Hurwitz didn't get the message. Each entry in the Orpahn X series has been as good or better than the last and. Out of the Dark is no exception. It is just awesome and one of the main reasons why this series is the best going in thriller fiction today.
We first meant Evan Smoak in Orphan X where all of the groundwork of the series was laid out. Part of a secret black ops program, orphans were "adopted" by the government and raised to be the ultimate weapon. In books 2 and 3, The Nowhere Man and Hellbent, introduced a story arc where the orphans were being targeted and killed for what they knew. But, Evan Smoak also dabels in helping those who cannot help themselves, the only payment he will accept for this help is that they need to pass on Evan's phone number to those who really need it. With both these storylines it creates a very rich look into Evan's life.
With Out of the Dark, Evan realizes that if he and the other orphans are to have any semblance of peace, he must confront and kill a former Department of Defense official whose goal is to cover up a mission from 1997, Evan's first mission, which he remembers fully but cannot figure out its importance to this individual and why he is willing to kill to keep the secret. Unfortunately, this former DoD official is now the President of the United States and has the full security apparatus of the US to keep him safe.
No spoilers here! Read this series! You will not be disappointed. Actually, you will becuase they end so damn quick, leaving you wisihng for the next Orphan X book.

Out of The Dark by Gregg Hurwitz is the fourth full-length novel involving Evan Smoak. Smoak is known as Orphan X and also The Nowhere Man.

As a child, Smoak, an orphan, was selected by a secret organization for training to carry out secret government acts, including governmental assassinations. Smoak has created his dual role as The Nowhere Man to help innocent people facing dire circumstances with no one else to turn to as a way to atone for what he feels are his past sins.

The fourth novel resumes immediately after the third and continues the story from that novel. Smoak also continues to provide his services as the Nowhere Man and continues his friendship with his single mother and son neighbors.

It is difficult to discuss other plot details without revealing spoilers. All that really needs to be known is Hurwitz has created an excellent thriller series with well-crafted plotlines and characters.

Highly recommended for those that enjoy Lee Child and Stephen Hunter novels.

I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

It's Orphan vs. Orphan with the future of the country—even the world—on the line.

I love this series. GO GET 'em, X! The world can sleep safer knowing you have our backs.

4☆

Strange as it might seem, there is nothing better to soothe my mind than an Orphan X novel. After a long time of wrong doing X has changed paths and is now making amends as well as dealing with the people who turned him into a killer. It’s great to read about someone driven by morality, trying to help others and do the right thing. These novels are fast paced but also have fantastic characters, Orphan X being the most interesting. In this installment, X is trying to take down the corrupt president while also protecting the sister of a young mentally challenged man whose entire family was savagely killed because he had done his job. I have enjoyed every book in this series and am already eagerly awaiting the next.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for an eGalley of this novel.

Definitely 4.5 stars would be my rating if I could use half stars. In this fourth book in the Orphan X series Gregg Hurwitz brings back all the characters I want to keep up with as the series has progressed and added in some new people of interest. As the Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak encounters a *civilian* victim who plucked every emotional nerve I have. I kept wishing more attention had been given to Trevon but think the main focus of the novel was so complex and had to be so action heavy that there just wasn't room for more of Trevon's situation. The show-down between Jonathan Bennett, President of the United States, and Evan Smoak, assassin Orphan X, has reached boiling point and Evan is in Washington D.C. to make preparations for his mission to eliminate the most well protected person in the world. This operation has all the hallmarks of a mission impossible.

An informative element in this story is going back to Evan's first mission in 1997 when he was 19 years old. This provides another opportunity for readers to understand what effort went into the training of the Orphans and goes a long way to explain why Evan became so close to Jack. I know when I begin reading one of these types of novels that I will have to park my believability detector in the alley behind the house. No way could these things actually happen, but Wow! are they ever exciting to read when the author gets it right. Gregg Hurwitz gets it right with this series and book #4 is no letdown.

This is the 4th book in the Evan Smoak series. Like the preceding three, I loved this book. Evan was removed from a group home when he was 12 and was trained as an assassin. He is 34 now and is being hunted by the current President who has culpability in events in the past. Evan's purpose in this book is twofold. Kill the President before he is killed and help a challenged young man whose family was wiped out by a drug lord. Lots of action, great characters. I await Book #5. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and the Author for allowing me to read and review this book.

In Out of the Dark, Evan (Orphan X) is prepared to go after the head of the snake--Jonathan Bennett, the man who originated the Orphan Program and has since decided to eliminate all of the Orphans and their trainers to protect himself. The problem? Jonathan Bennett has risen to the highest, most powerful position in the country. Taking him down will not be easy.

To be successful, Evan needs help and gets it from the most unexpected place, an old enemy turned ally. Candy will presumably appear in future books; she is a distinctive character with her own agenda. Also interesting is Joey's appearance at her school in Switzerland--not exactly where you would expect to find her fitting in as seamlessly as she does, but all Orphans have a chameleon-like ability. :)

I look forward to the next book, which will hopefully go back to the original mainstay of Evan helping those who find themselves in precarious situations. The idea of each victim that "the Nowhere Man" helps giving his name to the next person in need of help allows a variety of settings, adventures, and characters.

These are violent books that fit in the Thriller genre. Orphan X is not realistic, but the plots are intense and with the exception of The Nowhere Man, I've been engrossed in each book. My thanks to NetGalley for providing many hours of exciting plots and a variety of good and bad characters.

WOW! This is a book that had me up at 3am reading. Gregg Hurwitz has knocked it out of the park once again. Orphan X is by far my most favorite literary figure and I hope there continues to be more books in this series.

I have read them all in this series and here is all you need to know.
The Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak, good one liners, and an assassin with a bad attitude towards his past.
This series rocks!!

As Evan Smoak, aka Orphan X sets about to right wrongs, he also plots an assassination against odds so impossible that one wonders if maybe Hurwitz has written himself into a corner. This plot has enough murder and mayhem to rival a Marvel franchise.

The author may be about to lift Orphan X out of the vendetta mode against his fellow former special ops assassins and into more righting the wrongs of those in trouble. Since this was a galley proof, there were a few sequences that didn't quite fit together but since these novels are all about the action, all about the good vs. the bad, it isn't that difficult to fill in the blanks.

What makes these novels stand out is the ingenuity involved in figuring out how one guy with no superpowers can outthink a dozen villains and come out nearly unscathed. In this case, how does one guy go about assassinating a president without leaving multiple fatalities?

It's easy to like Orphan X. Sometimes the mechanics might cause an eyeroll - is there any real reason he needs to fly from Los Angeles to Switzerland and back in one day? Time is always of the essence but --- anyway, these are not about real life. They are about surreal life and if you can get past escalating violence of man vs. armies of bad guys, a lot of fun to read.

Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz
Out of the Dark (Orphan X, #4)
by Gregg Hurwitz (Goodreads Author)
M 50x66
Lou Jacobs's review Oct 22, 2018 · edit
it was amazing

The delightfully dangerous vigilante, Evan Smoak returns for his fourth outing. Not a superhero, but a kind-of Batman .... a highly skilled assassin who offers his services to those innocents who find themselves in impossible situations.
Evan was trained as an assassin by the black ops program - The Orphans. As a 12 year-old boy, he was rescued out of a foster facility in the projects of East Baltimore .... only then to undergo a 7 year grueling training course creating an assassin of unparalleled abilities. At 19 he was sent out on his first mission to eradicate a high-value target of the US government, but as a totally deniable asset .
Fortunately due to the unique training provided by his mentor and "father" Jack Johns he retained his "humanity" and eventually fled the program.
The originator of the program, Jonathan Bennett, has risen to highest seat of power ... and occupies the chair of the President of the United States. Evan Smoak has learned of the Presidents plans to eliminate any trace of the clandestine Orphan Program by killing all the the remaining Orphans. His motivation unknown but naturally unacceptable to the Nowhere Man. Evan must use all of his skills to initiate his own intricate and improbable plan to terminate Bennett ... the most highly protected individual in the whole world.
Gregg Hurvitz supplies another barn burner thriller with a riveting and well plotted narrative with unexpected twists and deceptions of plot. Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for supplying this Uncorrected advance reading copy of this roller coaster thriller in exchange for an honest review.

I love this series by Gregg Hurwitz and this book was one of the best in the series. I've read everything the Hurwutz has written and this is my favorite. I'm looking forward, hopefully, to many more books in it.

Another great book by Gregg Hurwitz and the Nowhere Man. A very well written book that follows the Nowhere Man as he tries to assassinate the President before the President is able to kill him while using a former Orphan against him. The reading moves and it is very hard to put down. The secondary story of a young man with a mental illness is being threatened with death after a drug ring murders his family for not looking the other way during an attempt to bring drugs through Customs. As always the Nowhere Man finds creative ways to get the job done while attempting to continue as semi relationship back home with a single mother and her son. A great read that will leave you wanting more. Thank you Gregg Hurwitz, St. Martin's Press and Minotaur Books for the ARC for my honest review.

I am a HUGE fan of Evan Smoak and Orphan X and was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy of this latest edition. When we left off, Evan and the President were facing off in a fight to the death. President Bennett wants to get rid of all evidence of the Orphan Program, including all of the Orphans, with Orphan X at the top of his list. Obviously, this leaves Evan with no choice but to take out the President. In the middle of all that action, the RoamZone rings with someone who desperately needs Evan's help on the other end. Combine all that chaos with the return of another Orphan (I have been waiting so long to see this team in action) and Evan's relationship with Mia and Peter, and you've got an absolutely fantastic read. I could not put this one down and stayed up late into the night to devour one chapter after another. A huge thank you to NetGalley for providing an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.