Book review: Lone Wolf by Gregg Hurwitz

The stars and planets aligned to land Lone Wolf by Gregg Hurwitz in my hot little hands. A month or so ago I noted that the author, screenwriter and (Marvel & DC) comic writer has a new novel in the Orphan X series coming out in early 2025 and amazingly it appeared on a new release list here in Australia. His last few have not so I’d missed them, so after putting in my request (I hope will be granted… *batters eyelashes at Penguin Books Australia*) I decided to catch up on the two I’d missed. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find his books at any local department stores so in desperation so I bought the next in the series I’d missed, The Last Orphan online (!!!), reading it immediately before hunting down the one remaining book I’d missed, Lone Wolf. Thinking I’d have to cave and (again) order a copy from that online mass stockist I meandered into the local second hand bookstore in my little seaside village and there it lay…. pre-loved and ready for its second life. I was gobsmacked – also that there’s potentially another Hurwitz fan here in my hometown of Hervey Bay. And that, dear folks is my very long intro as to how I got hold of this book.  (And yes, I’m as bad as those food bloggers who share their life story before the recipe! 😉 )

Once a black book government assassin known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak left the program, went deep underground, and reinvented himself as someone who will go anywhere, and risk everything to help the truly desperate who have nowhere else to turn. Since then, Evan has fought international crime syndicates and drug cartels, faced down the most powerful men in the world and even brought down a President. Struggling with an unexpected personal crisis, Evan goes back to the very basics of his mission - and this time, the truly desperate is a little girl who wants him to find her missing dog.

Not his usual mission, and not one Evan embraces with enthusiasm, but this unlikely, tiny job quickly explodes into his biggest mission yet. one that finds him battered between twisted AI technocrat billionaires, a mysterious female assassin who seems a mirror of himself, and personal stakes so gut-wrenching he can scarcely make sense of them .

Evan's mission pushes him to his limit - he must find and take down the assassin known only as the Wolf, before she succeeds in completing her mission and killing the people who can identify her - a teenaged daughter of her last target, and Evan himself. Matched skill for skill, instinct for instinct, Evan must outwit an opponent who will literally stop at nothing if he is to survive.

Although this case ostensibly kicks off with a lost dog, the mystery of the missing canine is actually what brings a talented but sadistic killer to Ethan’s attention. And yes, them crossing paths is a huge coincidence and Hurwitz has already introduced us to Karissa (the Wolf) by that point so we know that Ethan’s come up against a killing weapon as lethal as himself. And one without a conscience.

Like in The Last Orphan, the Wolf (and her employer/s) has Evan confronting THAT conscience and being reminded how fortunate he was that his mentor and father-figure Jack – instilled in him a sense of humanity as well as killing tools. And speaking of fathers, this opens where the last book ended… with Evan about to meet his birth father for the first time. And let’s just say… be careful what you wish for. Though it does continue to add some texture and more depth to Evan’s character and shape the person he’s still becoming. And because the missing dog belongs to his niece, Evan’s forced to also spend time with family – something way outside of his comfort zone.

Hurwitz (as usual) is able to leisurely reference a stack of rare and hard-core weaponry and the effortless detail he goes into in terms of teenaged (and former Orphan program dropout) Joey’s hacking skills make me believe he’s done his research (or just knows a lot of sh#t). Here, we delve into Skynet* territory with AI on steroids and that age-old question of people overstepping in the name of progress, or science. Or profit.

I’ve mentioned before that I tend to skim over some of the ‘action’ sequences and the first one here goes for a looooong time (like 40 pages-long). Perhaps too long, as I kept thinking it was over, but it continued and involved so many players I was confused. But again, that’s a personal taste thing and others would be fascinated with the level of detail on offer.

I loved this series when it kicked off and Hurwitz has always forced readers to consider deeper, more complex themes – initially around the-games-government-plays but we seem to be increasingly focusing on that crucial question of good / bad / evil. This is a great read and borderline a rare 4.5 one for me.

Bring on Nemesis in February 2025!

*Terminator movie reference!