I hadn’t read any books by Phillip Margolin for a long time though I was once a regular reader. I’ve got a couple of his books on my bookshelf (right next to Steve Martini) which is quite apt because both write legal procedurals and although it’s a (sub) genre I enjoy, it’s one I read far too little of nowadays.
I loved the first book in this series, Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz. It was one of my favourite books of 2016. I enjoyed the second but it felt a little different. Orphan X (aka Evan Smoak / The Nowhere Man) seemed as if he’d taken a detour from where we’d started and the novel was more an action-focused game of cat and mouse than its predecessor.
Hurwitz retains the action from both the first and second books in this third outing, Hellbent, but returns to where he started and builds on the humanity of the former assassin and – I ADORED this book.
I’ve read a few books by Allison Brennan, including a couple in the series featuring Lucy Kincaid. I was a little worried coming in part way through after not having read the last few… however, that was actually not my biggest stumbling block when I first started this book.
It was more the ‘other’ players and their backstories. I really did feel like I’d inadvertently walked into someone else’s party and didn’t know anyone and kept missing the ‘in’ jokes. Names were being thrown around and I had NFI who anyone was. And I almost, almost…. ditched the book. But I’m very glad I didn’t. Because, I may not have completely worked out who was who and what they all did, but I certainly became riveted by this story about two engaging and strong women: Lucy Kincaid and Bella Caruso.
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