The Denver-based book club Crime & Beyond recently met
to discuss the first book in a new series by Gregg Hurwitz. The book is called, Orphan X and Kerry Hammond is
here to report.
Crime & Beyond met last month to discuss Orphan X by
Gregg Hurwitz. The book is the first in a new series by Hurwitz that is slated
to be a movie; produced by Warner Bros and starring Bradley Cooper, with Hurwitz
writing the screenplay. This was our first book by Hurwitz but it came highly
recommended and we had a great discussion. But first a little bit about the
book.
Evan Smoak grew up in a top secret government program,
trained to be an assassin and to survive in any situation. It was the Orphan program
and he was Orphan X. Something made him break away from the program and go into
hiding and now uses the skills he was taught to stay hidden while helping
people in need. People who can’t go to the police, but are in desperate need of
his help. When one such mission goes wrong, he realizes that someone is
tracking him, and they are as well trained as he is. Now he’s got to figure out
who is tracking him and how to put a stop to it.
The book got rave reviews
during our lengthy discussion. Many of the club members couldn’t put the book
down. We loved the characters and the comic book-like quality of the action
scenes. Hurwitz has written several comic books, so the comparison makes
complete sense. Evan Smoak has been compared to Jack Reacher, but we thought
he was a cross between Jason Bourne and the Ghostman. Evan’s superhero qualities won us over, but it was the side
characters like Jack and Peter that really got us talking. This book is a great
book club read!
The next book in the series, Nowhere Man, will definitely be
on our list of book choices for the next half of the year.
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