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Dark Horse

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Dark Horse

By: Gregg Hurwitz
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

This audiobook includes a bonus conversation between the author and Jack Carr.

The Sunday Times bestselling series returns - and Orphan X faces his most challenging mission ever . . .

Evan Smoak is a man with many identities and a challenging past. As Orphan X, he was a government assassin for the off-the-books Orphan Program. After he broke with the Program, he adopted a new name and a new mission - The Nowhere Man, helping the most desperate in their times of trouble.

Having just survived an attack on his life, and the complete devastation of his base of operations, as well as his complicated (and deepening) relationship with his neighbour Mia Hall, Evan isn't interested in taking on a new mission.

But one finds him anyway.

Aragon Urrea is a kingpin of a major drug-dealing operation in South Texas. He's also the patron of the local area - suppling employment in legitimate operations, providing help to the helpless, a rough justice to the downtrodden, and a future to a people normally with little hope. He's complicated - a not completely good man, who does bad things for often good reasons.

However, for all his money and power, he is helpless when one of the most vicious cartels kidnaps his innocent eighteen-year-old daughter, spiriting her away into the armoured complex that is their headquarters in Mexico. With no other way to rescue his daughter, he turns to The Nowhere Man.

Now not only must Evan figure out how to get into the impregnable fortress of a heavily armed, deeply paranoid cartel leader, but he must decide if he should help a very bad man - no matter how just the cause.

© Gregg Hurwitz 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Action & Adventure Espionage Genre Fiction Military Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Political Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense War & Military

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Critic reviews

Nonstop action and relentless pacing are matched by deeply philosophical and powerfully emotional undertones. Unlike comparable series that tend to lose steam after several instalments, this series just gets better as it evolves
Hurwitz gives his seventh Orphan X thriller an epic scope, writing with verve and color . . . A crackerjack thriller that briskly enhances the legend of Orphan X
The Orphan X series has always been about moral ambiguity and the razor-thin line separating right from wrong, but this novel takes Evan even farther down the dark road than he's been before . . . Evan Smoak is one of thrillerdom's most compelling characters, and Hurwitz keeps revealing new aspects of his complex personality. Another sure-fire hit
Praise for the Orphan X Series
Sheer escapist fantasy . . . Sharp, stylish prose, an immensely entertaining adventure
A stellar series, and the stories get better with each instalment. [Evan Smoak is] the man you want in your corner when justice is needed
Orphan X blows the doors off most thrillers I've read and catapults the readers on a cat-and-mouse that feels like a missile launch. Read this book. You will thank me later (David Baldacci)
Orphan X is his best yet - a real celebration of all the strengths Gregg Hurwitz brings to a thriller (Lee Child)
Another jet-fuelled thriller
Orphan X is most exciting new series character since Jack Reacher. A page-turning masterpiece of suspense (Jonathan Kellerman)
All stars
Most relevant
I currently have 3-4 diverse series of novels that I’m very invested in and this is one of them. Whenever a new Orphan X book comes out (pre-ordered, obviously) it’s like Christmas morning as a kid for me.

Dark Horse has certainly not disappointed, I’ve enjoyed every single second of the narrative. The developing depth of X as a man and the myriad of emotional turmoil his chosen life constantly throws up has me mesmerised. The action and excitement are there in abundance as usual with a big dollop of moral ambiguity for X to negotiate. I so want these novels to go on forever and am very grateful to Gregg Hurwitz and Scott Brick for bringing such wonderful characters to life for us all to enjoy.

Btw. Disco balls, Velcro suits and rainbow pebbles are simply scrumptious metaphors along X’s journey of change. Hurwitz is a genius.

Ok. Enough emotional outpouring. When’s the next book out? 😉

I love Orphan X

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What a cliffhanger at the end!
Great book, great characters, great narrator ,looking forward to the next instalment!

It’s Evan Smoak

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Joey, Mia, ball bearings within ball bearings, the commandments, vodka, a floating bed, tech that makes your brain hurt, magical fighting, vengeance, loneliness, villains and a hero of a new order. These are the ingredients that make each book in the Orphan X series a rich meal with fantastic plotting, 3D characters and a story arc that keeps you listening into the early hours.

Just go for it.

Dark Horse - darker than ever

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What a great story teller what a brilliant reader. Highly recommend and exciting and informative

Brilliant

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There’s an interview at the end which I haven’t listened to, though it’s probably very interesting, I don’t want to hear how the book was created, Evan is real! Miss him already. Yes, it’s farcical at times in fact the whole concept, one man against the world! But it’s pure escapism, I love it! Author and narrator, a marriage made in audiobook heaven.

Love this series

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