Out of the Dark

Evan Smoak (aka Orphan X) faces his biggest challenge yet in bestseller Hurwitz’s explosive fourth Orphan X novel (after 2018’s Hellbent). Taken from a foster home at 12 and raised in the Department of Defense’s deep black ops Orphan Program, Evan has long since left the fold and now operates as the Nowhere Man, a private force for vengeance for those in need. The one-time head of the program, Jonathan Bennett, is now the U.S. president and is using all of his official and unofficial resources to eliminate the remaining orphans. Bennett is particularly focused on Evan’s first mission in 1997, and Evan’s only conclusion is that he must kill the most protected man in the world. Meanwhile, there’s a young man in L.A. who needs Evan’s special form of channeled violence and an incipient relationship with a single mother district attorney to pursue. Chases, hand-to-hand combat, and gunfights make the short chapters speed by like automatic gunfire. Hurwitz is at the top of this game in this gritty thriller. 150,000-copy announced first printing; author tour. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency. (Jan.)