Orphan X undertakes his last act as the Nowhere Man. His last is as exciting as the first.

Gregg Hurwitz’s writing is always superb and Into the Fire fits that bill. Another adventure for Evan Smoak and it maintains the on-the-edge-of-your-seat action and tension.

Max Merriweather is in trouble. The problem is that his woes may not be as simple as he and Even may think. Every time they think they have cut off the neck of the dragon, two more grow in its place.

If this ends up being the last exploit for the Nowhere Man, I will greatly miss knowing he is just a phone call away. It is too sad to think “Do You Need My Help?” will be retired.

As expected, the characters are rich and complicated. The high danger in this book provides for some mental gymnastics that will keep the reader guessing.

Gregg Hurwitz has been and will continue to be one of my favorite all-time authors!


I received an ARC from St. Martin Press through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or

This was my first nail biting, seat gripping, heart pounding adventure with Evan Smoak, a/k/a Orphan X. It becomes clear very early in the story that he has had a falling out with his country and his former employer, some paramilitary arm of the United States Government. Orphan X has gone rogue, but in a good way. Well, in a good way for the folks who contact him with a major problem. Now that was an interesting hook – being known for playing it forward.

This was a well written, fast-moving thriller for the first part of the story. A little bit of 007 deploying all his gadgets and devices. The technical information on the weaponry was overly involved and lost on me. The plot started out just fine but around the time that Smoak realizes that he is dealing with a “hydra” the motion slowed and became a little bogged down and exhausting. Really, how many bad guys can you take out while almost off your feet with a major concussion?! OK many, a lot, more than you can even imagine. The supporting characters have great language and real moxie and throw in a beaten-up dog to really stir the pot and emotions. Lots and lots of bad guys killing and blowing up things and one white knight standing in the light. I liked it.

Thank you NetGalley and St Martin’s Press / Minotaur Books

Okay, before you start reading this book make sure you have left all of your sense of realism outside the room. You will not need it. This one is for those of us who enjoy super heroes, crazy amounts of action and no concern for the bad guy who always dies anyway.

Evan Smoak is our super hero, a man who apparently can go days without sleep, continues to function beyond human levels even with a concussion and can take on any number of baddies in a fight and still win. On the other hand he only kills bad guys, goes to the nth degree to help the unfortunate and loves dogs. He is also rich, no actual amount ever being mentioned but it appears to be infinite.

Did I enjoy Into the Fire: An Orphan X Novel? I sure did. It is action packed with great characters and a multi layered story. The final gunfight would make a superb movie scene. An intriguing event at the end leaves the way open for another book in the series and maybe one which takes the story in a different direction. Fingers crossed!

This series keeps getting better and better. Orphan X has defeated his ultimate nemesis from the last book in the series and has accepted his life path as the Nowhere Man. So when he gets a call for help he answers and thinks he's handled the issue at hand. But he is SOOOO wrong, and he realizes that there are many layers to the onion that need to be peeled back and dealt with.

What I liked other than the general plot, of Orphan X helping out the person in distress is seeing his evolution from assassin to anti hero and him getting more in touch with his human side. The author makes a a calculated choice to have Orphan X be partially impaired in this story which works well as a plot device. And the set up is ready for the next book in the series, which I will definitely be reading. Well done!

Fast paced thriller that will keep you turning pages. I'm inclined to think this is a book that will be liked by both male and female readers. Some of the scenes are over the top but,it is fiction, and easy to imagine it being movie worthy. Sorta of reminds you of an updated version of "The Equalizer" tv series except with new technology and a younger man with special training. Blurb by publisher is adequate description of .storyline. Great read.
I received this book as a complimentary copy for an unbiased review.The opinions expressed are my own. Thanks to NetGalley,the publisher and author for the ARC.

Money laundering, dog fighting, and the Armenian underground of Los Angeles. Evan Smoak, aka Orphan X, is back to take on another case. He gets the call on the RoamZone from a man named Max whose cousin has been murdered. Max Merriweather feels he’s also in danger now. His cousin Grant had left him a mysterious envelop with evidence of placement, layering, and integration of massive amounts of money. Time for an Orphan X investigation…

Yet, Evan may be at a crossroads himself. He’s not sure if he will be continuing his service of helping people, especially after knocking out those trying to clean up the remnants of the Orphan program in Out of the Dark. Is it time to close it all down and go legit? After rough patches with his neighbor, the DA Mia, he definitely sees what he is missing.

Into the Fire is full of detective work… computer hacking, tech gadgets. But also the action I’ve come to expect and love from Hurwitz. Full-out building assaults, stealthy surveillance, sniping, grappling, and more! There’s three or four threads vying for Orphan X’s attention during the course of the novel, and his frustrations ramp up as each ‘solution’ only begets more problems for Max and thus Evan. One of the best things about this book is the crew he pulls together to help him… a couple old standbys and some new ones for us to meet.

I love this series and am constantly recommending it to others who have the thriller bug. I put this series on the shelf next to some other authors I have been following lately: Joe Ide’s IQ books and Nick Petrie’s Peter Ash novels. If you like nonstop action and characters you can really care about, then Orphan X is for you!

5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, and the author for an advanced copy of the book.

This is by far the best in the series. A rabbit hole of corruptionl leads Orphan X aka Even into the under belly of a money laundering system whose end seems endless. I was much more engaged with this story and was shocked along the way.

A fantastic entry to the Orphan X series.

The Nowhere Man - aka Orphan X, aka Evan Smoak -is having a bit of an existential crisis and is on the outs with Mia, the lovely Assistant DA raising a son alone. But he still picks up the phone when Max Merriweather calls him.

Max's cousin Grant, an apparent crackerjack forensic accountant, has entrusted Max (who is the schlub of the family) with an envelope to be opened if something happens to him.

It does.

The envelope contains spreadsheets that appear to be the workings of a money laundering organization. And it is, to a certain extent, but it's also much larger than that.

Evan agrees to help Max, telling himself that this is the last mission. And what a mission it is. After chopping off the head of the operation - or so he thinks - Evan is pulled back in when another head pops up. Then another. And another. Each step he takes is in direct conflict with Mia, for reasons I won't go into for spoilery reasons.

There are tons of dead bodies along the way, tense moments with Mia, and a bait dog saved from a dogfighting ring Evan gives to Joey, hacker extraordinaire and an able partner for Evan on the back end of things. She also presents some comedic moments as Evan gets drawn more deeply into the giant conspiracy and the higher ups bound to it by the steely woman in charge.

While there are some things IT-related that people who work in IT may roll their eyes at, that isn't really anything new for this series, and the suspension of disbelief isn't that difficult to do in favor of everything propelling the story forward.

There's a surprise at the end that is a true surprise, and one I wasn't expecting. Assuming the Nowhere Man keeps his boots on, and with the parameters set in place toward the end, but before the surprise, the next book (assuming there is one, and I truly hope there is) should be quite interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the reading copy.

This series is so much fun to read, despite all the mayhem! Orphan X is back from semi-retirement, one last time, to help someone who needs him. This time he may have underestimated what he is actually up against! Loved it from start to finish!

"Do you need help?"

With those words, off goes Evan Smoak, an ex-government agent known as Orphan X, now the Nowhere Man, trying to atone for all the wrongs he has done in his past. This is the fifth novel featuring Smoak by Mr. Hurwitz, and it’s a non-stop thrill ride all the way.

This time it’s Max Merriweather calling, on the run from gangsters who have killed his cousin. His cousin has given him an envelope, and the gangsters want it back. Should be pretty easy and straight forward, right? Just eliminate the gangsters. Well, not exactly… those gangsters work for someone else, so it’s another round of tracking and vigilante justice. But that’s not the end either…

And that’s where the novel gets a bit tiring. Evan must fight through many levels, with a rotating cast of troubles thrown at him, including crooked cops, a concussion, a very personal attack on someone close, and a stint in jail to get at a bad guy behind bars. As the situations get more and more preposterous, Evan becomes more and more unbelievable, which takes some of the steam out of the book – the character is much more interesting when he’s seen as human instead of some sort of superhero.

The scenes with Joey, Mia and Peter, and the rest of his supporting cast are both touching and humorous, as Evan desperately tries to fit in to regular society. The descriptions of his various weapons tend to be a bit too technical, although I do appreciate the different descriptions of the vodkas Evan drinks! And throughout the adventure, he claims that this is his last go-around as the Nowhere Man, that he’s going to retire and try to live a normal life… although the ending might mean something completely different for Orphan X.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from St. Martin's Press / Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Evan Smoak, where have you been all of my life? I will tell you; for some unaccountable reason I thought from the title that the first book in this series, “Orphan X,” was Chinese science fiction, and I never looked any further. More fool I! “Into the Fire” is a fantastic thriller, and I can only assume that the preceding four books are just as good. I already bought “Orphan X,” and am looking forward to it.

Evan Smoak, also known as Orphan X and the Nowhere Man, is a former assassin for the government. In expiation of his sins he helps people who are in great danger. In this book he helping Max Merriweather, a man who has a host of personal problems, but his most pressing problem is that his much more successful cousin, a forensic accountant, two months after leaving some information as insurance with Max, has been murdered, and now the killers are after Max. This is a fairly easy problem for Evan to fix, but then everything starts getting more complicated, with layer upon layer of problems.

I don’t like spoilers, so I am not going to give any. I will say that Hurwitz writes a thrilling book, with twists that the reader does not see coming. You do not have to have read the previous books, this works as a standalone with minor references to earlier installments, all satisfactorily explained. This was a tension-filled book, enough so I had to put it down sometimes for a minute, before snatching it up again to see what was going to happen. If you like thrillers, you will love “Into the Fire.” I did.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Whew!! Great way to end 2019 by reading this excellent thriller! I love this series - have been a fan of Gregg Hurwitz's work for years. The Orphan X series is non-stop action with an unforgettable main character and Hurwitz's signature sly humor scattered throughout. I enjoyed the human side of Evan more than the technical but in these books, there's something for everyone. The tension built to a climax - then when you thought it must be over, it built again. And again. Would this action ever end? Would this be Evan's last turn as Nowhere Man as he kept saying? Pray it isn't so!! And by the teaser at the end of the book, I think my prayers will probably be answered. The Nowhere Man is far from finished.'

I love this series and it feels like it is getting better and better. X is a character that has so much complexity. His client this time is the hapless Max and not only does he help him he changes him. There are some pieces left open for the next book including a big one at the end.

Redemption. Violence. Kindness. Evil. Empathy. Greed.

Quite a mix for an action novel, let alone a series. But you get this and more with Evan Smoak in the Orphan X books by Gregg Hurwitz.

Hurwitz is a solid writer -- this is a testimony from a very picky reader who can't quite turn off her inner editor. His plotting is superb, as you might expect from books that fall largely in the masculine/adventure category. But Hurwitz truly transcends genre and brings a lot of heart into these books, alongside the geopolitical treachery, the weaponry, the mind-boggling technology and the worst of human nature. (We also see some of the best.)

Every world power has its high-level rumors about training programs that turn children and youth into spies, assassins and human weapons for black ops purposes. This is the U.S. version of that myth, and the origin of Evan Smoak. Author Hurwitz takes him out of the so-called "orphan" program and asks what happen next.

The answer provides us with some really great entertainment. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for an advance readers copy.

This is a fast paced, action packed, mystery adventure thriller. The action begins all at once and never lets up. This is a book in a series but it works well as a stand alone. I hadn’t read the other books but that was okay. I will probably go back and read the previous books. Max Merriwether’s perfect cousin has been brutally murdered but before that he gave Max an envelope containing a mysterious key. People are after Max and that key. A stranger tells him if he needs help he should call the Nowhere Man or Orphan X. Orphan X or Evan Stoak, was an orphan recruited and trained to handle Max’s type of problem. He is trying to atone for past jobs and agrees to help Max. Every time he thinks he has solved the problem, another team attacks and it is up to X to complete this one last mission. I really liked this. The characters were well thought out and true to form. The story line was believable and raced along. My only complaint was the elaborate descriptions of the weaponry but I guess, some readers like that. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

With only a few days left in the year, I found myself reading two books in parallel - a paperback of Blue Moon by Lee C, and, when a bout of insomnia necessitated starting an ebook so I could read in the dark, I allowed myself the pick of my pending ARCS, and started this. Next day, a dilemma - which to continue? The latest from one of my all time favourite series, or this? Turns out there was no contest - the Orphan X series is just that good. Don’t worry Jack, I’ll return to you shortly...

Into the Fire is the fifth full book in this series. If you haven’t read any of the previous ones, I recommend starting from the beginning, forgiving the pretentious and rather ridiculous vodka-name dropping and trusting me that the books will get better and better as Evan grows on you. While each story stands alone, there are multiple ongoing characters and knowing his backstory adds a whole other dimension to this story. This is another winner.

When Evan Smoak’s trusty RoamPhone rings to announce his latest mission, he has already decided that it will be his last, feeling that he has almost done enough to atone for his past. Max Merriweather, divorced black sheep of a successful family, is being chased by crooks after a thumb-drive full of evidence, entrusted to him as a safety net by his accountant cousin Grant, who has just been murdered. Taking out the nasty Armenian gangster in charge seems simple, but Evan soon learns that the conspiracy goes much higher up and to protect Max he will need to endanger himself as never before.

What a thrill-ride! Hurwitz has a knack for putting Evan in increasingly preposterously dangerous situations, and finding outrageously original ways for him to extricate himself by always being one step ahead of the bad guys.
One battle has him desperately trying NOT to hurt his attackers, since his code involves not harming the innocent. The souvenir that he retains made me adore him all the more, and led to some of the more humorous scenes in the book.

It sometimes feels as if he has it too easy but in this one Evan is handicapped by a serious head injury - I sort of wish the author had consulted a neurosurgeon to get the medical details right as none of what he does would’ve been possible with a blown pupil - but I forgive him as these are not exactly realistic scenarios! I love the way he MacGyvers his way out of trouble but also how his loyal friends come to the rescue once more.

I was slightly worried that all the references to this being his last outing as The Nowhere Man, so the ending introduced an unexpected and intriguing twist that sets us up for an interesting change of direction that ensures there will be at least one more book - and hopefully many more.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc which allowed me to give an honest review.
Into the Fire is published on 28th January - and if you’re a fan you’ll want to clear your calendar for it!

This is the fifth installment in the Orphan X series and it certainly doesn’t disappoint! There is plenty of the nonstop action that is a hallmark of the series. Evan also continues evolving and exploring how he fits in the real world outside the Orphan Program. Evan has decided that helping Max Merriweather will be his last mission as the Nowhere Man. I am looking forward to finding out what new direction Gregg Hurwitz takes Evan next and what new adventures are ahead!

That you NetGalley for the ARC!

This is my first foray into the Orphan X world and I am hooked. This is truly a page turning story that will make you set aside anything else you have to do and just keep reading. When X gets a call for help, he once again drops everything and goes to work. Max is way over his head and doesn’t quite understand how his life has taken such a drastic turn. Joey is a delightful character, who gets a new canine sidekick she names a Dog. This story is intense as X gets closer to the top of the pile of bad actors he has to take bigger risks to get rid of them. The characters are unique and bring just the right amount of edginess to the story. The author does a great job of building the scenes and the drama. This is definitely a top notch story that will keep you going back for more.

I received a free copy of INTO THE FIRE (Book 5 of the Orphan X Series) by Gregg Hurwitz in exchange for an honest review. Evan Smoak has spent years working as the Nowhere Man. In essence, doing everything necessary to solve the problems of those who ask him for help. Evan’s newest project is Max Merriweather. Max has long since considered himself worthless, but when his cousin is murdered and leaves Max a mysterious parcel, Max is determined to do what he can to find out who killed his cousin. Just receiving the package put Max in danger; he’s being hunted when he calls the Nowhere Man. In this case, every time Evan thinks he’s finally made his newest client safe, a new danger appears. Evan will have to rely on some of his prior clients to accomplish his goal.

I liked this book and enjoy this series. I recommend this book and this series to fans of spy thrillers and storylines similar to The Equalizer.

#IntoTheFire #NetGalley

I am a big fan of the Orphan X series, so was thrilled to see an advanced copy of the latest novel in the saga. I really enjoyed “into the fire.” I was wondering what the base storyline would be without Evan’s battle with the other Orphans in the program, but there were enough other things going on that I didn’t miss it. I thought this would be the last in the series but based on the cliffhanger at the end there will be more to look forward to!