Saturday, May 6, 2017

The Nowhere man by Gregg Hurwitz

The Nowhere man is the sequel to Orphan X, and while you can read the books independently there are ***SPOILERS*** in this review if you have not read the first book.  I highly recommend reading the books in order for the ultimate reading experience.

Evan managed to survive his scrape with the remains of the Orphan programme - but not without adding a few more mental and physical scars.  It wasn't enough to put him off helping people however, and with a well practiced moves his operation moves from one anonymous phone service to another.  Returning to his life and ways may seem foolish, but his network of safeguards and props have kept him (mostly) safe until now, and there is no reason to think that things won't keep running smoothly as long as he is careful. 

All the planning in the world can't protect him when he is caught off guard and taken down by a team that is fully prepared to take him down.  When he wakes up, he is puzzled to discover that he has been placed in a luxurious room that has been turned into a gilded cage.  The man holding him knows exactly what he wants from Evan, and even though he thinks he has the upper hand, he has no idea who he is really dealing with.  With a deadline looming Evan makes it his mission to escape so he can continue with his latest rescue mission, but Evan has never come across someone like Rene before - and Rene has never come across someone like Evan either.  Evan is determined to escape, but Rene is just as determined to get what he wants, and he doesn't care who pays the price.

I loved Orphan X when I read it earlier this year, and I was a little nervous about picking up The Nowhere man because sometimes the first book in a series is amazing, and then the rest of the series fizzles - I needn't have bothered because book two was another thrill ride that I had to read in one sitting.  Greg Hurwitz has found a well balanced writing style that keeps the tension and action moving at a fast pace, while remembering that there are people involved and that readers tend to lose interest when your characters are poorly written. 

I would compare the Orphan X series to a lot of the James Patterson novels - mainly because Hurwitz writes the series with short, sharp chapters that are highly focused on the story and the characters.  Evan is far from perfect, which makes him more relateable, and it is all too easy to feel the emotions he feels at different points in the books.  The 'villains' are also very well written, not James Bond or Alex Rider villains that are too bad or twisted to believed, but rather villains that are the products of their lives and (dare I say it) somewhat sympathetic villains because they were the result of their own upbringings and failures.

A great series, and hopefully there are many more books to come as the ending of The Nowhere man promises many good things to come.

If you like this book then try:
  • The killing kind by Chris Holm
  • Breaking Creed by Alex Kava
  • The Postcard killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund
  • The basement: A novel  by Stephen Leather
  • City of the lost by Kelley Armstrong
  • Eeny meeny by M.J. Arlidge
  • Truth or die by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
  • Dead secret by Ava McCarthy
  • Never never by James Patterson and Candice Fox
  • Darkly dreaming Dexter by Jeffry P. Lindsay
  • Kiss the girls by James Patterson
  • Kill me if you can by James Patterson and Marshall Kamp

Reviewed by Brilla

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