Antihero

Antihero by Author Gregg Hurwitz is a gut wrenching, action packed, heart stopping thriller. The eleventh book in the Orphan X series and quite possibly the most anguish filled book to date, the story grabbed me by the throat on the first page and never let go.

I devoured this book in one sitting as there was never a time I felt I could hit pause and walk away in peace. Carve out alone time to read this one as it’ll come for you like a long black train.

The government raised and trained Orphan X to be a Black Op assassin, a lethal machine that performed upon command, no questions asked. Leary of decisions made by his superiors, he grabbed the first opportunity to go solo and disappeared underground. When he resurfaced, X aka Evan Smoak had reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, a lethal, mysterious, emotionless man on a mission to get vengeance and justice for victims of violence who have nowhere else to turn. The Nowhere Man lives by a stringent set of commandments, one of which is number four, “Never make it personal”. A rule he finds increasingly difficult to adhere to after being summoned to the lair of Luke Devin who’s suffering a psychotic break and in need of Evan to keep an eye on volatile world events until he recovers. While there, Evan learns of a woman repeatedly brutalized and violated by soulless thugs after having been kidnapped from the subway in New York City. Vowing to find the woman and annihilate her tormenters, X leaves Joey in charge at Devine’s and returns to the city. After locating the battered, traumatized woman, Evan is speechless and unable to comprehend when she tells him justice belongs to a higher power, not humans. Standing her ground, she extracts a painful promise from Evan that leaves him struggling with a deluge of emotions he isn’t trained to decipher or manage. For the first time in his life, the Nowhere Man faces the dilemma of completing his mission while keeping his promise as he grabbles with conflicting emotions within, including the realization that there are people in his life he cares for. With that knowledge comes the paralyzing fear of losing them. With time running out and X’s enemies converging on him from every direction, he’s left vulnerable and off-balance, conditions foreign to him that prove life threatening as he repeatedly ignores the commandment to never make it personal.

Antihero is a major turning point in the life of Orphan X aka The Nowhere Man as he maneuvers a minefield of foreign emotions that conflict with his rigid training and mission. His disgust for the vile lowlifes that attack innocents propels him to use deadly force to prevent them from doing it again and yet his newly found humanity demands he find a way to balance the scales and avenge victims by inflicting pain, not final judgement. The developing relationship between X and Joey is heart touching, almost a father/daughter thing with Joey spreading her wings and Evan worrying about her safety. Another foreign emotion for him. As always, the pace is insane, increasing with each new revelation and shocking turn, and the tone is dire, at best.

Author Gregg Hurwitz has raised the bar high in Antihero gifting readers  a masterfully written, gripping story that exposes unfamiliar, deeply buried layers in Orphan X. Readers are sucked into the action as the Nowhere Man learns to navigate his emotions and conduct missions in a new, less permanent manner while staying true to his training and commandments. In spite of all the brutality and violence in this book, there’s an undertone of hope, respect, faith, and trust woven throughout. Antihero will be a favorite among fans of the series as well as readers who favor high action, take no prisoners’ thrillers. A 2025 favorite for this reader, and one of the author’s best to date.