Dark Horse (Orphan X #7)

Gregg Andrew Hurwitz

Gregg Hurwitz’s New York Times bestselling series returns when Orphan X faces his most challenging mission ever in Dark Horse.

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 neighbor 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—supplying employment in legitimate operations, providing help to the helpless, 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 armored 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.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

4 out of 5 stars (4 / 5) Orphan X has a fabulous backstory; orphans are adopted into a secret government program where they are trained to be assassins. Orphan X at 12 was “raised” by a good, honest man who taught him to kill but taught him about life even more. Now that X is an adult and on his own, he only helps those in true need and is known as the Nowhere Man.

A young woman has been taken from her drug lord father. X is called to infiltrate and rescue her. It’s like no assignment he’s ever had. It plays out like an intense action movie that will keep you guessing and rooting for the good guys. I adored the drug lord father and loved the character development. He was portrayed as a hard, unforgiving leader but with such a deep love for his daughter that he was willing to do anything, anything to help her.

X (Evan Smoak) has all the Bond gadgets you can imagine. He has a steady flow of money so is able to accommodate his space with bulletproof glass, heat sensors and more. His snarky 16yo “niece” (another orphan) is a hacker and my favorite for bringing out the human part of X. She has the ability to make him rethink his words but also second guess his motivations.

These are the stories I grew up on, as my dad is a big reader and always had a steady supply. I always love going back to my “spy novels” as it rekindles my love for reading. This was no exception and I loved being back in this series. I missed a few along the way, but have found the audios to catch up. This series is one of my favorites for jam-packed action with a great story to accompany it.

General content summary: F words: 20+, rape with physical harm (no details), the man who raped her has each of his fingers cut off at the knuckle, a woman is taken captive, descriptions of torture (many throughout, some during the torture), small intimacy details, a dead woman is naked, OCD, a decapitated head is sent to a man, slicing a man’s throat, men talking about their intimate relationships with other men (minimal details), descriptions of corpses, a hard drug that was laced caused lots of bleeding, seizures, death and much more (descriptive), fire in a house kills many, two men fight and break each other’s bones, teen pregnancy, men are fed to a lion (details of the body), many deaths and bodily injury, explosions and deaths. 

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the gifted copies in exchange for an honest review.

The book releases Februrary 8, 2022.

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

5 Comments

  1. I’ve never read a “spy novel” but I do love certain spy movies. I love that have this connection to your dad.

  2. I think my favorite part was the dudes head in the cooler, then X was like *gulp* K I got this 😂 then I also liked Tim and his “Mongolian clusterfornication” line and entire speech 😂😂

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