THE LAST ORPHAN by Greg Hurwitz is a crime thriller. This my first time reading this author and I was interested in the book's description. Every now and then I take a break from Literary Fiction and other genres I usually read. And a crime/thriller/suspense hits the spot right as these stories are page-turners.
I haven't read any previous books by this author or any of the other books in the Orphan X series. That said, this theme of off-the-books government recruits, I am familiar with as a plot point. THE LAST ORPHAN follows the story of Evan Smoak, who is an Orphan recruited by the government, unofficially under the Orphans program. After he exits the program, alive, with an unofficial pardon from the President he becomes a vigilante for people desperate for help and who need to be rescued from evil in society.
However, the President comes calling, dramatically pulling Evan out of retirement for one last job, and for her benefit in the upcoming election. Much to his dismay, Evan gets involved on an emotional level in the case and cleans up the mess surrounding it but not the case itself.
Will Evan--the titular "last Orphan"--survive this failed mission, or will he be executed like the others in the program? If you enjoy the old-school hero in today's modern setting with some quirky sidekicks to boot you will enjoy THE LAST ORPHAN.
Personally, I found the storyline to be a bit slow at times, with some predictable plot elements. But I could feel the place the lead was in through his life's mission and emotional state. It felt like a beloved superhero on his last mission and some of his past colleagues make an appearance to help him out since he's getting older and is more emotionally invested than he should. Pacing issues aside, overall I enjoyed the setting and especially the conclusion of THE LAST ORPHAN.
Evan Smoak returns in The Last Orphan, the latest New York Times bestselling Orphan X thriller--when everything changes and everything is at risk.
As a child, Evan Smoak was plucked out of a group home, raised and trained as an off-the-books assassin for the government as part of the Orphan program. When he broke with the program and went deep underground, he left with a lot of secrets in his head that the government would do anything to make sure never got out.
When he remade himself as The Nowhere Man, dedicated to helping the most desperate in their times of trouble, Evan found himself slowly back on the government's radar. Having eliminated most of the Orphans in the program, the government will stop at nothing to eliminate the threat they see in Evan. But Orphan X has always been several steps ahead of his pursuers.
Until he makes one little mistake...
Now the President has him in her control and offers Evan a deal - eliminate a rich, powerful man she says is too dangerous to live and, in turn, she'll let Evan survive. But when Evan left the Program he swore to only use his skills against those who really deserve it. Now he has to decide what's more important - his principles or his life.
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