Evan Smoak left the government's covert Orphan program to become the Nowhere Man and help those who need his specialized skills and have nowhere else to turn. So when one of the most powerful men in the world asks him to look into a possibly kidnapped woman, Evan takes it on mostly as an interesting case that might keep the eccentric billionaire from imploding and taking the world with him. What he finds is a young woman who, despite being assaulted and abandoned, wants to see justice done without violence. It's the first time Evan has felt a case get so under his skin that even his psychological training can't hold up to the pressure of doling out vengeance with mercy. He'll have to work extra hard and bring in every asset he has to make sure that every level of evil sees justice.

Orphan X novels always reel me in with their phenomenal character development, but leave me incredibly depressed with how real the scenarios feel. I love Evan Smoak, a.k.a. Orphan X, and the people he's surrounded by because, be they victims or villains, they will have a grain of truth and humanity in them that will make them as real as if you were reading a news story. This is largely in part becuase the cases X takes on feel like something that could/will happen, which sucks because this case hits as the most likely to affect random women who were just trying to live their lives. Other books have cartels or military or more specialized targets, whereas this one made me cringe hard at how it hits innocents. I found myself super absorbed in it even as I wasn't sure I wanted to keep reading. It's a feat of writing that makes you feel as conflicted as the hero in what to do and how to do it, and that's why I keep reading despite the occasional ick.

Another fantastic novel by Hurwitz that sees the Nowhere Man starting to find his humanity once again and realizing that letting others in might not be as dangerous as he was trained to think.

Delighted thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the phenomenal read!