Thrillers may well have been derided slightly in literature circles over the years, but you can’t argue with their success and enduring appeal, whether it’s the box office success of James Bond outings like SPECTRE or Gregg Hurwitz’s latest novel, Orphan X. As they also tend to tackle more sophisticated geo-political topics they also tend to take on new depth and sophistication and while that’s inevitably overshadowed by the action and intrigue of the plot, it does mean that there’s more to them than just the thrill of girls, fast cars and dangerous situations these days.
For Hurwitz the focus of the book is on the clandestine activity that goes on in the secret services throughout the world in the name of national security and international interests. Here it’s the black ops missions that cross the line of morality for a perceived greater good, a subject that has featured highly in everything from the Bourne series to Homeland as more and more real world secrets leak out into the press and mainstream media.
Release date
Orphan X has been confirmed for a release date in the UK of the 24th March 2016 and will be available on hardback and digital download for any ebookers out there. It will follow the US release on the 19th January 2016 and with positive reviews already doing the rounds, along with Hurwitz’s previous New York Times Bestseller list should mean that it’s one to look out for if your a thriller fiction fan.
Story
The plot follows a runaway agent called Evan Smoak who uses his training to disappear and then help people in dyer need who have nowhere else to turn. Known previously as the eponymous Orphan X he was chosen as a child to be trained as a part of an off-the-books programme to create the perfect assassins to deploy on the missions that need ultimate deniability.
In the process of doing his bit for the downtrodden he discovers that someone has finally tracked him down, someone with very similar skills to. As the net begins to tighten on his freedom, movement and security his attempts to help people start to act as weaknesses to be exploited, leaving Evan with one mammoth cat and mouse game to rail against.
The story sounds a bit like it’s got snippets of The A-Team blended with a little bit of the hardened attack DNA of Jason Bourne, double entendre cheese of Bond and back story of Quin from Homeland. If that isn’t enough in the mix you can add a little shaker of the Hitman computer game series origin for good measure.
About the author
Greg Hurwitz is an author of crime, thriller and comic books with everything from Batman: The Dark Knight and Punisher to his previous novel, Don’t Look Back. He’s now written 15 books, along with a long history of writing for Marvel Comics before more recently moving over to DC.
First impressions
If we’re being brutally honest, Orphan X could go one of two ways; it could either face up to its tongue in cheek naming convention and go all out thrills with a conscience, or it will try to take itself too seriously, despite the humour implicit in its very foundations. If it does the former than it should be a blast and propel the book up the charts, but if it does the latter than it will need to pull off the unexpected to make it stick. Either way it’s going to be an interesting read with so much positive chat behind its media train.
