Evan Smoak, the ex-government agent known as Orphan X, has officially retired from being the Nowhere Man at the start of “Prodigal Son”, the sixth novel by Gregg Andrew Hurwitz in this action-packed series.

But as any thriller reader knows, it’s not that easy to just drop your previous life and walk away – there’s always someone who refuses to accept your decision, always some way to pull you back in.

And for Evan this one’s a doozy – a woman claiming to be his mother asks him to help Andrew Duran, an innocent night watchman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. As the title implies, Evan’s past at his foster home comes flooding in, and the other orphans and the choices made long ago have a big impact on what happens in the present.

I enjoyed this book much more than the previous one, although some of the coincidences and connections stretched credulity a bit too far. The action/villain is very much in the James Bond mold, an evil genius that wants to use technology to take over the world. The two assassins going after Andrew Duran are a set of twins with a very odd attachment to each other as well as very peculiar traits. Once again, I think Mr. Hurwitz does an excellent job at developing his side characters, mostly I find them much more interesting than Evan himself.

Evan’s attempts to fit in at his building are once again quite humorous, although his relationship with Mia and Peter takes a back seat in this novel. His relationship with Joey, however, takes center stage here as poor Evan begins to realize that Joey is growing up, and beginning to take an interest in boys. In addition to Joey, we get to say hello to Tommy and Orphan V again, an always pleasant diversion. And once again, Mr. Hurwitz ends with a spectacular cliffhanger that guarantees anticipation for the next novel.

A welcome addition to the series. For those of you new to Orphan X I would definitely start elsewhere – although you would enjoy this book, you would miss half of the fun without knowing these characters from the previous stories.

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

This is one of the best thriller series out there, and Prodigal Son is another strong book. One of the charms of the series is watching the hero, Evan Smoak, try to integrate himself into something resembling normal life; that strand is a major driver of this story, as Smoak finds his past tangled up in his current mission, along with subplots involving his close friends and apprentice.
But none of this gets in the way of the action, which is pretty much non stop, going from one death-defying scene to the next. Hurwitz is a master of these sequences: they are imaginative, detailed, and well choreographed.
Highly recommended.

This is honestly one of the best action series I've stumbled across... Evan Smoak is a marvelous character - complex, troubled, engaging, imperfect, and snarky. I really enjoy watching his character continue to develop here, particularly with regard to his interpersonal relationships (I want to say more but it'd be a huge spoiler)... Joey is turning into a major element of the series, which I also really like - it would be cool to see her get a spin-off of her own! 

The secrets, lies, and revelations continue to be parceled out with just the right amount of red herrings and dramatic timing. The action is non-stop, as is the tension, yet somehow the stories remain believable. And I'm a big fan of the way Hurwitz balances backstory revelations that track throughout the series with the immediate Nowhere Man storyline of each book. 

This series is great entertainment and the newest installment is definitely what I needed to read just now!

Oh my gosh the answers you have been waiting for. Orphan X has been trained to kill since he was a boy, left by a mother he never knew he had to survive. He became the best, a man who’s very name instilled fear in men. Orphan X, Evan, had changed from a killer obeying others orders to a savior to those who desperately needed help. He is trying to make up for years of killing but now he’s retired from it all. The President has issued him a pardon as long as he’s retired. Evan”s special phone with a number only known to a few, keeps ringing from a woman who claims to be his Mother. Could it be? Where has she been all of these years? Will he answer? It seems she is in need of help but he’s retired, does he put the restrictive pardon at risk? Can he ignore this woman or must he find out his past if she’s for real. If you’ve read Orphan X books this one will absolutely be necessary to read. Excellent and detailed. If you aren’t an Orphan X series reader become one. You can still read this stand alone but knowing the previous stories makes this one so revealing and answers the questions that floated around in your head! Thank you NetGalley, Minotaur Books and most of all Gregg Hurwitz for this ARC. Greg has a real talent to keep you interested. Putting just the right amount of humanity and humility in the Nowhere Man.

As a boy, Evan Smoak was pulled out of a foster home and trained in an off-the-books operation known as the Orphan Program. He was a government assassin, perhaps the best, known to a few insiders as Orphan X. He eventually broke with the Program and adopted a new name—The Nowhere Man—and a new mission, helping the most desperate in their times of trouble. But the highest power in the country has made him a tempting offer—in exchange for an unofficial pardon, he must stop his clandestine activities as The Nowhere Man. Now Evan has to do the one thing he’s least equipped to do—live a normal life. 

But then he gets a call for help from the one person he never expected. A woman claiming to have given him up for adoption, a woman he never knew—his mother. Her unlikely request: help Andrew Duran—a man whose life has gone off the rails, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, bringing him to the deadly attention of very powerful figures. Now a brutal brother & sister assassination team are after him and with no one to turn to, and no safe place to hide, Evan is Duran’s only option. But when the hidden cabal catches on to what Evan is doing, everything he’s fought for is on the line—including his own life.

Gregg Hurwitz has an amazing way of humanizing this "government assassin."  Even long time fans of the series -- who know the things he's done both as X and as the Nowhere Man -- are charmed by his vulnerabilities and his desire for human connection.  Highly, highly recommended for all thriller fans.

I love Evan's character and I love the way author pulls him out of really sticky situations. And this has not changed over this series. I thoroughly enjoy the Nowhere Man series. Anxiously waiting for the next one. Please keep them coming.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

I have greatly enjoyed this series. Evan Smoak, a now retired Orphan X, is yanked out of retirement to save his orphanage childhood friend.

Loved the bantering relationship between Evan and Joey. But, I found this to be a much less compelling story than previous books which is disappointing. Lots and lots of conversation dedicated to fancy high-tech gadget stuff, which is okay, but didn't seem to move the story forward. I think the Mollenken character could have been introduced some other way than by hosting an extremely descriptive X-rated sex party.

2.5☆

Prodigal Son
A Book by Gregg Hurwitz
St. Martin's Press

After the tension and turmoil of the last few weeks because of the US election and the world-wide pandemic, many people are seeking to curl up in a comfy chair and relax as they escape into a good book. If you are one of those people, stay as far away from Gregg Hurwitz's Prodigal Son (St, Martin's Press) as you possibly can. However, if your idea of a good time is to read something even more terrifying than the latest news, this is the book for you.

Orphan X is back with a vengeance. 

In Prodigal Son which I read courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, we learn how Evan Smoak became a highly effective assassin with a secret operation known as the Orphan Program. Ultimately disillusioned, he leaves the program and (as The Nowhere Man), takes on a new mission - helping the most desperate in their times of trouble. Penance for his former life.

It is a great set up for Prodigal Son, and Hurwitz makes the most of it,

A phone call from a mysterious woman sends Smoak to find and then protect a man he never met from something similar to the 'Deep State.' 

'Cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war,' cries Caesar and that is precisely what happens. A military-industrial complex out of control. Evil twins with a wickedly deadly style and equally deadly weapons. Murderous drones that can slice and dice a target within seconds. Drones that are virtually invisible, have built-in facial recognition software, and operate with a collective awareness.

I couldn't stop reading the fast-paced book with its complex and interlinking plots. The long-buried past catches up with The Nowhere Man in this terrific and highly recommended novel

This is a procedural thriller about Orphan X, an assassin. who was pulled from an orphanage and trained by the government. Now he gets a call from a woman claiming to have given him up for adoption asking him to help a man whose life is in danger escape.

A fast-paced thrill ride, Prodigal Son is sure to please.

Prodigal Son by Gregg Hurwitz was my first Orphan X novel. Although this is not the first in the series, I don't think it hurt me any to jump in here as this begins with young Evan Smoak, an orphan and an unlikely candidate to be drafted into the role of a trained government assassin.

The author does a great job of mixing flashbacks with current events and tells the story with lightning-fast action and lots of twists and exciting technology. 

Evan receives a call from the mother that abandoned him, with a request to do one more job. That request could put his life on the line or end him up in prison for the rest of his life. Is this woman his mother, or isn’t she? It sounds like she knows a lot about him, and it sounds too good to be true. Will he risk it all to carry out one last Nowhere Man assignment, for her?
I found this book full of fast-paced action but also sensitivity. The pages read faster the farther in I got.

Recommended!

Gregg Hurwitz’ Prodigal Son will be published on 26 January 2021!

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press Minotaur Books, #NetGalley, and the author of #ProdigalSon An Orphan X Novel for the ARC in exchange for my honest feedback, this is it!

So good! I didn't even know this series existed and requested on the description but man am I glad I did. I'd never read any of this series but that didn't stop me from loving this book.  Excellent all the way through and I'm sure long time fans and new ones will love it too.

Another great addition to the Orphan X series!  Gregg Hurwitz never disappoints and his latest, Prodigal Son, is another great thriller of a read.  I definitely recommend reading the entire series, but if you don't, you can still totally understand what is happening in this book.  Definitely a must add to your reading collection!
Thank you to netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I have been hooked on the Orphan X series ever since I read the first book a few years ago. Evan Smoak Is such an interesting character and each of the books, including "Prodigal Son", is a thrilling read. 

One of the things that really takes "Prodigal Son" to the next level is the inclusion of more of Evan's childhood history, and the introduction of his birth mother. Evan started the series alone , maintaining the avoidance of relationships and emotional entanglements because of who he was trained to be and what he does. The addition of his birth mother brings out emotions in him that we haven't seen before. HIs evolution as a person in this book makes Evan more interesting as he battles the conflicts his feelings bring out with him and attempts to reconcile them with the detachment he needs to perform. 

And of course there's action - plenty of physical altercations, fire fights, explosions and high tech subterfuge. All the stuff that makes Orphan X books fun to read!

I can only hope this isn't the end of the Orphan X books - I'm sincerely hoping for book #7.

Forced into retirement, Evan Smoak gets an urgent request for help from someone he didn't even suspect existed...

This is my first read in the Orphan X series by Gregg Hurwitz, which I assumed would make this book fairly confusing. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not the case here.

Without Evan Smoak's backstory, I still enjoyed the adventure of this semi-retired agent/mercenary. He's a complicated guy, with a difficult past – but he's also coming to terms with his own humanity and capacity to be more than a killing machine. I rooted for him not just in his mission, but also personally.

His relationships with his "family," both real and chosen, evolve in such a genuine way. What could have been an eye-roller in the wrong writer's hands was the opposite here. You don't have to know Smoak's entire life bio to see a lone wolf finding some much needed grounding and emotional growth.

For readers who still want a killing machine, they won't be disappointed. Evan dispatches the bad guys with quite a bit of iffy tech and a whole lot of coincidence. Sure, it's unlikely that he was going to walk a 250lb man's body forward to use as a shield, or get a person to step exactly on a spot on a desert floor that is going to prove useful. That is part of the fun in action thrillers: Suspend a little disbelief and carry on.

I thought it rather amusing that Evan loves expensive vodka. Of all the spirits he could have chosen, vodka is the one that is the most empty of differentiation. For the most part, vodka is just Neutral Grain Spirit and filtered water. (Occasionally vodka is potato or grape-based) What makes unflavored vodka taste different is usually the water source and filtration, not the liquor itself.

I'm not sure Evan's belief in the difference of ultra-premium vodka is intentional. But if it was, I find it rather reflective of a guy who clearly believes he too is a premium man in a world of Smirnoff-bros. As the story progresses on, he seems to realize he isn't, at heart, all that different. Sometimes vodka is vodka, even if it has a fancy origin story and a bigger price tag. He wants love and connection, even if he's not always great at knowing how to access those desires.

The only thing I didn't love about this book is when the prose gets a bit too purple. I felt the same way reading another book by this author, The Crime Writer. I enjoy waxing rhapsodic about a city, or a car, or an apartment as much as the next gal. But there is a point where $10 words about a $.50 thing drags the story down a bit.

Reader's Note on the ARC: Call it a nitpicky piece of trivia, but Kate Chopin is not the woman writer who stuffed her pockets with rocks to drown herself. Chopin died of an aneurysm. Virginia Woolf is the woman who ended her life that way.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. Prodigal Son (Orphan X, #6) will be available on Jan. 26th, 2021.

I received an advanced edition of this book via NetGalley for my honest review. Thank you. This is the first book I've read in the Orphan X series. And, of course, not the last. The story is a page turner because it is loaded with action while showing the emotional side with the main character's mother. A must read I highly recommend.

Well. Well. Weeeellllllll. Now I'm sad. I'm all caught up on this series. I binge read most of it so I could read this one. And now, I will have to wait until 2022 for book seven. That is, if there is for sure going to be a book seven. I think there will be one? I sure hope there will be one.

I am all about Evan Smoak. He is such a bad mama jammer! I can't get enough of his adventures. This one is no different. Man, I had no idea where the author could possibly take us after book five. This adventure was definitely one I wasn't prepared for!

As in the previous books, technology plays a big part of the book. This one more so than in the previous books. Once you read this one, you will see. Holy moly. The isht in this book blew my mind. My heart was in my throat when the biggest scene came about. I just kept praying this book wouldn't end Evan's story, not after everything that was revealed in this book.

Speaking of the things revealed in this one. I wasn't expecting THAT, until I was. I did put some pieces together before they were revealed, but I think the reader is supposed to at least suspect, so I don't feel ripped off. The confirmation was like an extra cherry for me.

In this book, we get to see more of Evan's transformation. I am loving seeing him warm up into "humanity" slowly from book to book. This one really packs a punch or ten in that aspect. Be prepared to be hit in the gut with a softer side to Evan while him still being the savage beast he's always been.

The Orphan X series is one of my very favorites. 

Unlike many other series this one never gets stale. Gregg Hurwitz is an exceptional writer who brings new twists while keeping the stories fresh as well as our protagonist. 

I have been a fan of Gregg Hurwitz long before this series. He continues to get better and better. 

Bravo Gregg!

I loved this book!  The Orphan X series is well written and Prodigal Son did not disappoint.  Evan Smoak was trained to do the unimaginable and do it well.  In this book Evan's past and present collided in an action packed but emotionally heartfelt manner that kept me turning the page long past bedtime.  Gregg Hurwitz writes characters that come off the page and you almost expect to meet them in the street.  His secondary characters are fully developed and contribute to the story in meaningful ways that help you understand the true depth of Evan Smoak.  I loved the plot and how the action just kept getting more and more complicated with a very modern-day theme.  Definitely want to read more of Gregg Hurwitz's work.

This book didn't disappoint.  I love this series and how the stories flow from one book to the next.  There were a few areas of the book where it wasn't much of a surprise as to where it was going to go but for the most part things went well with a couple of twist.  I love that Evan is trying to learn emotions and how to live in the normal world.

I'm a huge Orphan X fan and was thrilled to receive a copy of Prodigal Son via Netgalley.  Evan Smoak has evolved over the last few books so was curious to see what Gregg Hurwitz had in store for this sixth installment of the series.  In short, this book delivers big time and might be the best Orphan X book yet.

Prodigal Son continues to show Evan's development as a character while he grapples with several things - where he came from, his current relationships and trying to stop the bad guy.  It goes way beyond just saving the day.  Evan is learning more about himself and that he can possibly let people into his life to become more than just being Orphan X, as evident by his relationship with Joey continuing to evolve.  But this book isn't all about getting in touch with feelings.  The plot includes a genius tech mogul who's using his talents for evil and Evan has to dig deep to find a way to come out on top.

This book has it all - sarcasm, character development, twists and turns, strong action sequences, new technology, suspense and much more.  Oh, one more thing...the ending will leave you breathless and dying to find out what happens next.

Pick up a copy of Prodigal Son when it's released on January 26, 2021.  You will not be disappointed.  And if you haven't ready any of the other books in the series, I highly recommend you start now because you're missing out on one of the premier series in the thriller genre.