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Hellbent / by Gregg Hurwitz.

Summary:

"Taken from a group home at age twelve, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as an off-the-books government assassin: Orphan X. After he broke with the Orphan Program, Evan disappeared and reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, a man spoken about only in whispers, reachable only at a secret phone number passed around by those in need, and dedicated to helping the truly desperate. But this time, the desperate voice on the other end is Jack Johns, the man who raised and trained him, the only father Evan has ever known. Secret government forces are busy trying to scrub the remaining assets and traces of the Orphan Program and they have finally tracked down Jack. With little time remaining, Jack gives Evan his last assignment: find and protect his last protégé and recruit for the program. But Evan isn't the only one after this last Orphan--the new head of the Orphan Program, Van Sciver, is mustering all the assets at his disposal to take out both Evan (Orphan X) and the target he is trying to protect." -- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9781250119186
  • ISBN: 1250119189
  • Physical Description: 1 online resource.
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Minotaur Books, 2018.

Content descriptions

Source of Description Note:
Print version record.
Subject: Assassins > Fiction.
Vigilantes > Fiction.
Assassins.
Vigilantes
Genre: Thrillers (Fiction)
Fiction.
Suspense fiction.
Thrillers (Fiction)
Suspense fiction.
Electronic books.

Electronic resources


  • Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2017 October #1
    *Starred Review* Hurwitz sets himself quite a challenge in the latest Evan Smoak thriller: he gives the lone-wolf former government assassin a sidekick. And not just any sidekick: a precocious 16-year-old girl, a former assassin-in-training named Joey. But if you're worrying that this book trades intense suspense and slam-bang action for sappy sitcom moments, you can stop. This is a great novel, perhaps the darkest in the series so far. Sent into a single-minded rage by the death of his mentor, the only person he has ever cared about, Evan vows to track down and eradicate the man responsible: Charles Van Sciver, current head of the top-secret Orphan Program (before Evan went rogue, he was Orphan X). The question he must answer is, If it comes down to it, will he sacrifice the life of a girl he barely knows to satisfy his primal need for revenge? Until Evan makes that decision, we really don't know what he will do—that's the beauty and brilliance of the character Hurwitz has created. The story moves as fast as a bullet train, and we've never seen Evan Smoak as emotionally exposed as he is here. Do not miss this one.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Hurwitz and his Evan Smoak thrillers have been steadily growing in popularity, and this one will accelerate the pace dramatically. Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.
  • Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2017 November #2
    Bodies pile up in the third entry in the Orphan X series (Nowhere Man, 2017, etc.).Orphan X, now Evan Smoak, is the Nowhere Man. People, usually strangers, can call him on his untraceable phone to ask for help if they are in desperate trouble. So his father figure, Jack Johns, calls him shortly before stepping out of a flying helicopter to his death. Then Evan receives Jack's posthumous note about a "final mission" to get a "package" that turns out to be Joey, a testy teenage girl and fellow Orphan who at first tries to kill him. Meanwhile, Charles Van Sciver, Director of the Orphan Program, is hellbent on his own mission. His "top priority [is] to stamp out wayward Orphans," especially Orphan X, the one who escaped from the program. Evan obsesses about killing Van Sciver and everyone else who helped kill Jack, so rivers of blood surge toward a showdown. Joey becomes Evan's sidekick, but she might become an "inconvenient aggravation at the very moment that Evan's universe wou ld compress down in the service of a single goal—the annihilation of Charles Van Sciver." There's the hint of a sequel with Van Sciver's taunt to Evan—"You have no idea, do you? How high it goes?" That's thriller-talk for Someone Living on Pennsylvania Avenue. And that Someone also wants Evan dead. All this slaughtering keeps him too busy for a love life, although he has an almost-girlfriend, DA Mia Hall. Another woman hits on him, but he "needed to get food, and then he had people to kill." Priorities, you know. Some characters will be familiar to readers of the series, such as Van Sciver and the voluptuous but deadly Candy McClure. Most colorful, though, is the gangster named Freeway, who has—oh yeah!—a tattooed eyeball. As well-done as the rest of the series and bloody good fun. Copyright Kirkus 2017 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
  • Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2017 September #1

    Evan Smoak is Orphan X, trained to be an unacknowledged government assassin and now working to help the truly desperate. In this third in a hot new series, he's tasked by his old boss with protecting the program's final recruit, targeted when the new head plans to obliterate the remaining assets.

    Copyright 2017 Library Journal.
  • Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2017 October #2

    In his third outing, Evan Smoak, aka Orphan X, takes on another difficult assignment, but this one is personal. After breaking away from the Orphans program, an expendable assassins initiative buried in the bowels of the U.S. Defense Department, Evan sets himself up as the "Nowhere Man" to help others who are in desperate situations. His former mentor, Jack Johns, calls the Nowhere Man line just as he is about to be captured and murdered by Van Sciver, the new head tasked with scrubbing the Orphans program and eliminating its participants. Evan was given a final assignment by Jack "to get the package," which unexpectedly turns out to be a 16-year-old female recruit. VERDICT Fans of the first two books (Orphan X; Nowhere Man) will enjoy this nail-biting , twisty thriller. It will also appeal to devotees of Robert Ludlum's "Bourne" series. [See Prepub Alert, 7/24/17.]—Vicki Gregory, Sch. of Information, Univ. of South Florida, Tampa

    Copyright 2017 Library Journal.
  • Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2017 October #5

    In bestseller Hurwitz's thrilling third Orphan X novel (after 2017's The Nowhere Man), Evan Smoak, who once worked as an assassin for the Orphan Program, a covert U.S. government agency, and now helps people in trouble from his base in L.A., violates one of the agency's fundamental commandments: never make it personal. Evan's mentor, Jack Johns, who recruited Evan at age 12 to the program, calls Evan's help line. Soon afterward, operatives following the orders of Charles Van Sciver, another Orphan, take Jack prisoner aboard a Blackhawk helicopter. In an exciting action scene, Jack manages to sabotage the helicopter, but pays with his life. Evan decides to honor Jack's last request to take care of a "package," which turns out to be a teenage girl, who is, like Evan, also in Van Sciver's crosshairs. The master killer hoping for redemption and struggling to relate to others emotionally may be a genre cliché, but such details as Evan's sleeping on a bed levitated by magnets are sure to please fans of the Roger Moore Bond films. 150,000 announced first printing; author tour. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron Priest Literary Agency (Jan.)

    Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly.

Additional Resources