Book review: Nemesis by Gregg Hurwitz

It’s rare that I get to read books in a series in close succession, but I’d missed out on review copies of a couple of books in the Orphan X series by Gregg Hurwitz, so only recently got my fat little hands on them. In fact I only read the last in this series – Lone Wolf – just over a month ago, so it was fresh in my mind, making the arrival of book ten, Nemesis, VERY exciting indeed. Unless an author is prolific like JD Robb and putting out a couple of books each year, it’s usually a year or so in between outings and my memory is so crappy I sometimes struggle with specifics.

Evan Smoak is a highly trained former government assassin who has survived for years by keeping his circle to a few trusted confidants and a strict code he calls "The Ten Commandments." But when Evan suddenly finds himself at odds with his oldest friend, all the rules he lives by shatter--and the consequences are murderous.

Tommy Stojack might be Evan's best friend in the world. He's a gifted gunsmith who has created much of Evan's own weapons and combat gear. But now, he has apparently crossed one of Evan's hardest lines and their argument explodes into open warfare. Now Evan has no choice but to track and face down his only friend.

In the meantime, Tommy has left town in order to honor his own promise to help a dead friend's son. While Tommy is fighting to save the son with everything he's got, Evan arrives with vengeance in mind.

But as deadly as the former Orphan X is, there is an even more dangerous threat about to arrive on the scene. The only question left is will any of them get out alive.

This is the tenth instalment in this series so it might normally be hard not knowing what came before, but Hurwitz kicks this off with a visit to Evan’s past – when he first met his arms dealer (and rare friend) Tommy. In fact, given they meet at a firearm and tactical weapons trade show, it provides an excellent introduction to the (rather extreme) world of the Nowhere Man / Orphan X. Of course coming in fresh would mean you’ll have missed the transformation of Evan Smoak from killer with a code to someone driven by conscience, protecting the ‘innocent’ at all costs. That being said, you’d have nine excellent novels (and a couple of novellas) awaiting your reading pleasure.

Evan continues to ‘evolve’ here – confronted by the betrayal of the man who he’d thought of as his friend, and being forced to dish out some tough love to 17yr old Orphan Program drop-out, brainiac and expert hacker Joey… who doesn’t take it well.

There are several ethical dilemmas proffered here by Hurwitz. Tommy’s helping young men (militia-wannabes) who took extremist MAGA type behaviour too far. He disagrees with what they did, but feels honour-bound to help his former-colleague’s son and try to teach him a thing or two. On top of that, there’s someone gunning for Tommy, in addition to his friend. As for Evan, he believes Tommy has broken his personal code – allowing innocents to be killed AND arming a killer targeting Evan. And he’s struggling to separate the action from the man. ‘How you do anything is how you do everything.’ Or vice, versa.

There’s A LOT going on in this book but I found it exhilarating rather than overwhelming. Hurwitz is a brilliant writer, great with his character development underpinned by a clever and droll narrative setting the (heavy yet light) tone. I won’t bother talking about how effortlessly Hurwitz writes about fight scenes, weaponry and encrypted databases and the like because I comment on it in every of these reviews.

This is a bittersweet read in many ways and I’m so glad I’ve gotten to read these last three books in quick succession because they’ve been so good and I’m again all-in on this series and eagerly awaiting the next instalment. (Which I realise won’t be forthcoming for another year. Le-sigh.)

Nemesis by Gregg Hurwitz will be published in Australia by Penguin Books in mid-late February 2025.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes.