The Orphan X Series became a binge read for me in 2021 and I'm currently listening to the audio version of the seventh, upcoming book, Dark Horse. In my opinion, reading these in order is very important. While Hurwitz certainly catches us up in each book, his development of the characters and their relationships is key to optimal enjoyment of the series. I loved that, in Prodigal Son, we got even more information about Evan Smoak's years in foster care, how he got there and how he became Orphan x, part of a deep dark group of stone cold government assassins. I'm selective about what violent books I read and these are very violent, cinematically so. Hurwitz has the gift of writing excellent dialogue (internal and external); narrative details that amuse and expand our understanding; and freaking crazy scenes of epic heroism from Evan Smoak, now known as the Nowhere Man. He has a cadre of vendors who keep him in gadgets and weaponry a la James Bond. In books one through five, as the Nowhere man, Evan helps people who are in life-threatening need who are at least fairly sympathetic, good or well-meaning individuals. They are usually up against diabolical and clever villains. In Prodigal Son, Evan's birth mother, who he never met or knew about, engages him to save the life of a man she identifies as a good friend's son. He is the last person living who witnessed the inadvertent assassination of a US citizen by drones the size of dragonflies. Those familiar with the series know that Evan is trying to retire from being the Nowhere man, has a love interest who is a prosecutor, Mia, with a nine year old son, Peter, is a guardian of sorts to computer genius Joey, who is sixteen but living on her own with fake i.d. that says she is eighteen. Evan is forced to come to terms with finding space in his highly trained OCD self to feel feelings for his biological mother, her friend's son, Joey, Mia and Peter. He particularly finds his current "victim," Andrew, the man he is helping unsympathetic and annoying. Along the way, with Joey's exceptional skills, Evan infiltrates some highly dangerous sites and faces a guy that does not care about anything at all, who is assisted by a brother/sister assassin team that are totally crazy. If you're looking for "alls well that ends well," there's a twist that makes you question if this ends well. Wait for it.... Just as in book 5, Evan answers his fancy super secure phone to hear the woman at the other end claiming to be his mother, the unexpected ending in book 6 leads us into the next Evan Smoak adventure. And as I'm a few chapters in, I'm looking forward to where that takes me.

Another great book in the series, although did not feel as fast-paced and edge of the seat as previous books; this novel did a great job fleshing out the background of Orphan-X. Be interesting to see where the series goes from here, especially with the ending.

It's all about drones these days. An interesting conspiracy and Orphan X fills out his backstory in a BIG way. A great new addition to the series. Just…the ending. Be ready!

Another entertaining book on this series!

Hurwirz rocks!

It's on me that I couldn't rate this book higher; I received and ARC of this book, not realizing at the time it was part 6 of a series. This book was good, I really liked the writing style, the characters (what I was able to learn about them anyway) and the pace of the book were all terrific. It's just the entire time I could tell I was missing something. So take this review with a grain of salt and use it to start the series with Orphan X like I'm going to. I do think based on this book that the whole series is probably great so I'm going to start at the beginning.

Quite disappointed in this latest edition to what has been up till now, a smart, snappy series.

Started well with a look back at Evan's childhood, but there were too many elements crammed into this novel, especially in terms of Smoak's emotional development. It felt like Hurwitz was trying too hard to force Evan to develop as a character, and it came off as false and unrealistic. An interesting idea about unmanned drones was not fully explored and seemed almost secondary to the interpersonal relationships, which jumped from Mia and Peter, to his mother, to another key character to Joey and back to Mia. Too much at once and too schmaltzy for this series.

The last minute inclusion of Candy made no sense and was an insulting treatment for such a strong villain.

I will read the next one, I'm hopeful this was just a blip in the series.

As a massive fan of the Orphan X series. I couldn't wait to see how Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man, copes with his forced retirement resulting from a deal with the U.S. President where he agrees to cease accepting calls for help as the Nowhere Man in exchange for being allowed to live without constant threats.

As he settles into a semblance of a normal existence, he receives a series of phone calls from someone claiming to be his mother. This sixth book in the series continues to ratchet up the action and the page turning thrills that we have come to expect while adding more of the backstory of his life in the foster home before being accepted into the Orphan Program, an off the books assassin training for the government. Additionally Evan comes slowly to the realization of the cost of the training to his humanity and perhaps the vulnerability of relationships is worth the cost.

But wow! What a cliffhanger, now I don't know how I can wait for the next book. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Another outstanding addition to the Evan Smoak series. Never disappointed.
Thanks to Minotaur Publishing for this early copy for review.