Books
Orphan X books in order
Move over Jason Bourne, there’s a new assassin ready to help those who deserve it the most – Gregg Hurwitz‘s Evan Smoak, aka Orphan X.
Raised in a top-secret orphan programme designed to create assassins, Evan broke from the programme to reinvent himself as the Nowhere Man and use what he learnt to help those with nowhere else to turn.
With ten books in the series (so far), an eleventh on its way in early 2026, and a film deal in the pipeline, this is the crime series everyone’s talking about.
The latest book in the series is Antihero, which was released in February 2026.
Here are all Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X books in order.
Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X books in order:
Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz
1. Orphan X (2016)
‘Do you need my help?’ It was always the first question he asked. They called him when they had nowhere else to turn.
As a boy he was taken from an orphanage, then raised and trained. As part of a top-secret programme, he was sent out to do the things his government denied any knowledge of.
Then he broke with the programme, using everything he’d learned to disappear. He wanted to help the desperate and deserving. But now someone’s on his tail. Someone who has issues with his past. Someone who knows he was once known simply as Orphan X.
The Nowhere Man by Gregg Hurwitz
2. The Nowhere Man (2017)
As a boy, Evan Smoak was taken from a children’s home, raised and trained as part of a secret government initiative buried so deep that virtually no one knows it exists. But he broke with the programme, choosing instead to vanish off-grid and use his formidable skill set to help those unable to protect themselves.
One day, though, Evan’s luck ran out. Ambushed, drugged, and spirited away, Evan wakes up in a locked room with no idea where he is or who has captured him. As he tries to piece together what’s happened, testing his gilded prison and its highly trained guards for weaknesses, he receives a desperate call for help.
With time running out, he will need to out-think, out-manoeuvre, and out-fight an opponent the likes of whom he’s never encountered to have any chance of escape. He’s got to save himself to protect those whose lives depend on him. Or die trying.
Read a chapter from the book here.
Hellbent by Gregg Hurwitz
3. Hellbent (2017)
To some he was Orphan X. Others knew him as the Nowhere Man. But to Jack Johns he was a boy named Evan Smoak. Taken from an orphanage, Evan was raised inside a top-secret government programme and trained to become a lethal weapon. By Jack. And yet for all the dangerous skill he instilled in his young charge, Jack Jones cared for Evan like a son.
But Jack knew too much about a programme that had gone rotten – he was a loose end that needed to be dealt with. But if you go after the only person who ever treated him like a human being, you can guarantee that the Nowhere Man will be coming for you. Hellbent on making things right…
Read a chapter from the book here.
Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz
4. Out of the Dark (2019)
As a boy, Evan Smoak was taken from the orphanage he called home and inducted into a top-secret Cold War programme. Trained as a lethal weapon, he and his fellow recruits were sent round the world to do the government’s dirty work.
But the programme was rotten to the core. And now the man responsible needs things to be nice and clean. All evidence must be destroyed. That includes Evan.
To survive, Evan’s going to have to take the fight to his nemesis. There’s just one problem with that. Jonathan Bennett is President of the United States and Evan isn’t his only victim. To save himself – and the country – Evan is going to have to figure out how to kill the most well-protected man on the planet…
Into the Fire by Gregg Hurwitz
5. Into the Fire (2020)
Evan Smoak lives by his own code. As a boy he was taken from a foster home to be raised and trained as an off-the-books government assassin codenamed Orphan X. Then he broke free to live in the shadows as the Nowhere Man, using his unique skills to help those in desperate need. But all good things must come to an end. He’ll take on one last mission then go out on a high note. Clean, neat and tidy, just the way he likes it. And then he met Max Merriweather.
Max Merriweather hasn’t got much left to lose. Bad luck and trouble have seen off his marriage, his home and his career. On the face of it he’s the last guy you’d expect to be trusted with a deadly secret. Which is exactly why his cousin gave him an envelope with the instruction: ‘If anything ever happens to me, call the number inside.’ Now his cousin is dead and Max’s own chances of survival look bleak. On the run and stalked by death, he meets the one man who might save him: Evan Smoak.
But with Max now under his protection, Evan realizes that the forces ranged against them pose as daunting a threat as he has ever faced. He’ll be lucky just to get through it alive…
Prodigal Son by Gregg Hurwitz
6. Prodigal Son (2021)
Evan Smoak used to be known as Orphan X: a figure as elusive as a rumour, until he came to the rescue of those who most desperately needed his help. The kind of help no one else could provide. The kind that caused concern in the corridors of power.
As a boy he’d been plucked from a foster home and trained as an off-the-books assassin inside a top secret US government programme.
Which is why, even forced into early retirement, he dare not trust the phone call. Nor the caller claiming to be his mother. Asking him to protect a complete stranger who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
None of it stacks up. Yet it bears the tell-tale signs of the secret world that made him. And from inside it, a deadly new threat to the nation’s security.
But this time the danger is more personal than he could have ever imagined. Because blood runs deep…
Dark Horse by Gregg Hurwitz
7. Dark Horse (2022)
Having just survived an attack on his life Evan Smoak isn’t interested in a new mission. But one finds him anyway.
Aragon Urrea is a major drug-dealing kingpin in South Texas. But he’s also a local patron – providing legitimate employment, and a future to a people with little hope. However, for all his money and power, when a vicious cartel kidnaps his daughter he is helpless.
Not only must Evan break into the fortress of a heavily armed, deeply paranoid cartel leader – he must decide if he should help a very bad man, no matter how just the cause.
The Last Orphan by Gregg Hurwitz
8. The Last Orphan (2023)
Having eliminated most of the Orphans in the program, the government will stop at nothing to eliminate the threat they see in Evan. But Orphan X has always been several steps ahead of his pursuers. Until he makes one little mistake…
Now the President has him in her control and offers Evan a deal – eliminate a rich, powerful man she says is too dangerous to live and, in turn, she’ll let Evan survive. But when Evan left the Program he swore to only use his skills against those who really deserve it. Now he has to decide what’s more important – his principles or his life.
Lone Wolf by Gregg Hurwitz
9. Lone Wolf (2024)
Following a career in which he was always the most dangerous man in the room, ex-government assassin Evan Smoak is the last person his friends should ever have to worry about. But when Evan, formerly codenamed Orphan X, drops out of sight they’re concerned. They were right to be. A personal crisis has left him on his knees.
If anyone remembered his first name they never cared to use it. But Allman’s lack of empathy hasn’t proven any barrier to building a tech empire whose tentacles reach into every aspect of people’s lives. And in the rush to praise his genius, no one’s asking what it could mean for humanity. Nor what Allman’s got coming next.
Someone is leaving a trail of dead in their wake. Apparently chosen at random, their deaths dressed up as accidents or suicides. The woman responsible is known only as the Wolf and looks to be every bit Evan’s equal. She now has him in her sights.
Nemesis by Gregg Hurwitz
10. Nemesis – (2025)
Evan Smoak is a lone wolf operator. It goes with the territory for a former off-the-books government assassin. He certainly can’t afford to go up against one of the few people he likes and trusts in this world.
But Tommy Stojack, a gifted armorer and gunsmith whom Evan relies on, has crossed a line. And when Evan confronts him, instead of clearing up a deadly disagreement, he comes under attack. Now it’s war.
Tommy’s got problems of his own though. He promised a dying comrade that he’d be there for the man’s son and now the boy’s in a world of trouble. The very last thing Tommy needs is Evan showing up with vengeance on his mind.
The scary thing? Evan isn’t even the most dangerous threat to arrive on the scene…
Antihero by Gregg Hurwitz
11. Antihero – (February 2026)
Once a black ops assassin for the government known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak broke with the program and went deep underground, using his operational rules and skills to help the truly desperate with nowhere else to turn.
When Luke Devine, one of the most powerful men in the world, has a psychological crisis, Evan flies to the East Coast to help him. While there, he learns of a young woman who was kidnapped off the New York City subway, clearly in danger and in need of aid. With no name and few clues, Evan and his team track down the missing woman, who was assaulted and abandoned. Evan offers his help – and sets out finding the young men responsible.
But the woman insists that Evan abandon his usual methods – no vengeance and, in particular, no killing. Which will prove no easy feat given the mounting incoming threats from all sides. In a mission that takes Evan from coast to coast, from the poorest corners of society to the richest, Orphan X must figure out a way to protect the innocent, avenge the victimized, and balance justice with a measure of mercy.
There you have it – Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X books in order! How many have you read? Let us know in the comments below…
Books like Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X
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Love Orphan x series, read all of them, can’t wait to start ‘Out of the dark’ Amazing writing
Great Series. Have just finished reading them all. ORPHAN X is a must read for all thriller readers.
Have read them all. Amazing and on par with my other favourite Jack Reacher
Cannot wait till February for the release of Out Of The Dark.
Just read Orphan X and The Nowhere Man, great thrilling reads.