The Last Orphan, a review by Joanna

posted in: Joanna | 0

The Last Orphan

Gregg Hurwitz

MacMillan Audio

11h 45m

Published February 14th, 2023

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The Last Orphan is the eighth book in the Orphan X series about Evan Smoak, a retired assassin who atones for his past by undertaking high risk missions to protect the vulnerable from dangerous predators. Iโ€™ve read them all in order, but this one was the first weโ€™ve listened to as an audiobook: my hubby had no problem picking up the story, as you get all the relevant background. I liked it more than the last one (Dark Horse), but itโ€™s still missing the Wow factor of the earlier books.

When Evan is captured by government agents, the president offers him an ultimatum – go after a powerful political fixer, Luke Devine, whoโ€™s affecting her chances of getting an important environmental bill passed, or sheโ€™ll revoke his pardon. Doubting his abilities for the first time, he agrees only to check the story out, discovering that the man is linked to the murder of a young actor at a party at his Southampton mansion. As Evan meets up with witnesses, he encounters Divineโ€™s security team, who always seem to be a step ahead of him. Is the Nowhere Man losing his touch or has he finally met his match?

This one has Evan facing up to a new vulnerable side – so itโ€™s lucky that he has hilarious but deadly Candy and snarky but loyal Joey on his team. The villains here are particularly nasty, and thereโ€™s a torture scene that I found gratuitously disturbing – of course this makes it more satisfying when Evan metes out his own brand of justice, but it went over the line of what Iโ€™m comfortable reading about.

I always enjoy the humour and digressions in these books; my husband complained about the excessive scene descriptions – not something Iโ€™d noticed previously and while I know what he means, it didnโ€™t bother me as much. Narrator Scott Brick does a good job with the various voices, and as a bonus the audiobook features a conversation between the author and fellow bestselling thriller writer Lisa Gardner which is worth a listen. 3.5 rounded up for great action scenes and the delightful interactions between X and his friends.

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