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Dark Horse: An Orphan X Novel

Review

Dark Horse: An Orphan X Novel

Gregg Hurwitz returns with his seventh thriller featuring the hero who goes by many names: Orphan X, The Nowhere Man, or simply Evan Smoak. Evan is a specially trained government assassin who once worked for the off-the-books Orphan Program. Since breaking with the Program, he has blazed his own trail as The Nowhere Man, assisting those who need his help the most.

To say that Evan carries with him a unique moral compass would be quite an understatement. He will have it put to the test in DARK HORSE as the lines will be blurred between the good guys and the bad guys, perhaps in a way he has never experienced before.

"Evan Smoak always has some trick up his sleeve. He’s far from your typical action hero, and his mix of smarts and stubbornness continues to be a winning combination."

The book opens with the 18th birthday party of Anjelina, the beautiful daughter of Aragón Urrea, a well-respected man in South Texas who is also the kingpin of a major drug dealing operation. As Aragón steps away from the festivities for a moment to deal with a disloyal “subject,” he returns to a melee of broken windows and people shouting that Anjelina has been taken. He immediately processes this as meaning only one thing: his archrivals, the Leones cartel, has kidnapped his precious daughter. This means war!

Aragón gets in touch with Evan and is immediately impressed when the latter indicates that he does not want anything by way of compensation for the job of finding Anjelina --- no money, no credit, no permission. Aragón confesses that he is not a good man and believes his daughter’s abduction is God’s way of punishing him.

Evan calls on one of his most trusted colleagues, friendly young hacker Joey, to do some digging into Aragón before paying him a visit. Once this is done, they meet face to face. All the details about Anjelina are given to Evan, as well as everything Aragón knows about the cartel and how they operate.

The next matter to clear Evan’s conscience is to understand how Aragón’s business works and what products he trades. When he learns about the popular China White, a knock-off of tramadol and oxycontin that is actually the much stronger and often deadlier fentanyl, he tells Aragón that he will not continue working for him unless he torches all of the China White. Initially, Aragón’s men take abrupt offense to this demand. But Aragón needs to be a man of his word, and nothing in the world means more to him than his daughter. So he lights fire to his batch of China White in front of Evan, who is then satisfied.

Of course, Aragón deals with other deadly products, so there will be more ups and downs in their arrangement. For the most part, though, they are able to iron things out so that Evan can make a full commitment on behalf of himself, Joey and a few other random contacts to put together a full blitz against the Leones in an attempt to gut them from the inside out. The plan is to keep them occupied with other problems that will allow Evan to swoop in and save Anjelina, and bring her home safe and sound.

It is not as easy as it sounds, and that is the fun of DARK HORSE. Evan Smoak always has some trick up his sleeve. He’s far from your typical action hero, and his mix of smarts and stubbornness continues to be a winning combination.

Reviewed by Ray Palen on February 11, 2022

Dark Horse: An Orphan X Novel
by Gregg Hurwitz

  • Publication Date: December 27, 2022
  • Genres: Fiction, Suspense, Thriller
  • Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
  • ISBN-10: 1250253241
  • ISBN-13: 9781250253248