Orphan X Books in Order: How to read Gregg Hurwitz’s series?

Written by Gregg Hurwitz, Orphan X is a thriller series about a government-trained killer who is now a freelancing vigilante. This is the story of Evan Smoak who, when he was 12, joined a top-secret operation known as the “Orphan Program” whose goal was to make assassins for government agencies.

Two decades later, Smoak–also known as the Nowhere Man–helps people to fight corruption. But others from the program want him dead…

How to read the Orphan X Series in Order?

1. Orphan X – Evan Smoak is a man with skills, resources, and a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. He’s also a man with a dangerous past. Chosen as a child, he was raised and trained as an Orphan, an off-the-books black box program designed to create the perfect deniable intelligence asset: An assassin. Evan was Orphan X―until he broke with the program and used everything he learned to disappear. But now someone is on his tail. Someone with similar skills and training who will exploit Evan’s secret new identity as the Nowhere Man to eliminate him.
2. Buy a Bullet (short story) – After a gear run to Northern California, Evan “Orphan X” Smoak happens to spot a young woman at a coffee shop. Brutalized and under the control of a very powerful, unscrupulous man, she knows her life is in danger if she doesn’t escape. And the only person who can help her do that is a man with the background and skills of the Nowhere Man.
3. The Nowhere Man – Evan “Orphan X” Smoak’s new life as the Nowhere Man has been interrupted by a surprise attack from an unlikely source. Captured, drugged, and spirited off to a remote location, Evan finds himself heavily guarded from everything he knows. His captors think they have him trapped and helpless in a virtual cage, but they do not know that they’re dealing with one of the deadliest, most resourceful men on earth.
4. Hellbent – Jack Johns, the man who raised and trained Evan “Orphan X” Smoak, and the only father Evan has ever known is in need of help. Secret government forces are busy trying to scrub the remaining assets and traces of the Orphan Program and they have finally tracked down Jack. With little time remaining, and an elusive new enemy on his trail, Jack gives Evan his last assignment: to find and protect his last protégé and recruit for the program―or die trying…

5. The Intern (short story) – Evan Smoak now lives by hiding in plain sight, keeping his head down and his eyes clear. So when a local summer intern for a tabloid news site finds herself trailing an aggressive reporter into a crime zone, things go terribly awry. The only person who can help her is a man with the background and the skills of the Nowhere Man.
6. Out of the Dark – After his mentor was killed, Evan Smoak vowed revenge. Now, his target is the man who started the Program and who is the most heavily guarded person in the world: the President of the United States. But the President knows that Evan is after him and he has issued a counter-attack using the most powerful weapon he has: the first recruit of the Program, Orphan A.
7. Into the Fire – Max Merriweather is at the end of his rope. His cousin has been brutally murdered, leaving him an envelope that contains nothing but a mysterious key. However, someone really wants that key, badly enough that Max – and anyone he turns to – is in deadly danger. What seems like a simple job for Evan Smoak turns out to be anything but. Behind every threat he takes out, a deadlier one emerges and Evan must put himself in greater danger than ever before as he heads once more Into The Fire.
8. The List (short story) – Joey Morales was the last recruit of the government’s full black operation, the Orphan Program. Trained to be an assassin until she washed out, she was rescued by Evan Smoak, the former agent known as Orphan X. Now Joey, still a teenager and under the watchful eye of Evan Smoak, lives on her own (with Dog the dog) and attends college. While on campus, she tries to stop a young woman’s suicide attempt – and fails. Then Joey uncovers the reason for Becca Morgan’s desperate act – a document called The List, which ranks and rates women around campus based on their sexual appeal and performance.

5. Prodigal Son – Evan Smoak gets a call for help from the one person he never expected. A woman claiming to have given him up for adoption, a woman he never knew-his mother. Her unlikely request: help Andrew Duran-a man whose life has gone off the rails, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, bringing him to the deadly attention of very powerful figures. Now a brutal brother & sister assassination team are after him and with no one to turn to, and no safe place to hide, Evan is Duran’s only option. But when the hidden cabal catches on to what Evan is doing, everything he’s fought for is on the line-including his own life.
6. Dark Horse – Aragon Urrea is a kingpin of a major drug-dealing operation in South Texas. He’s also the patron of the local area–supplying employment in legitimate operations, providing help to the helpless, rough justice to the downtrodden, and a future to a people normally with little hope. He’s complicated–a not completely good man, who does bad things for often good reasons. However, for all his money and power, he is helpless when one of the most vicious cartels kidnaps his innocent eighteen-year-old daughter, spiriting her away into the armored complex that is their headquarters in Mexico. With no other way to rescue his daughter, he turns to The Nowhere Man.
7. The Last Orphan – 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.

8. The Recital (Short Story) – Josephine “Joey” Morales was the last recruit of the Orphan program, now a world-class hacker. Still a teenager, trying to learn how to live as a normal person in the world, she sends Evan on his most unusual mission yet for which he must recruit some of the most elusive and deadly individuals: Candy McClure (Orphan V), Tommy Stojack (black market gunsmith), and Arragón Urea (former drug kingpin). Their help doesn’t come free. But Evan will face whatever danger he has to help Joey face her own greatest fears in The Recital.
9. Lone Wolf -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.

If you like our article about the Orphan X series in order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also want to check out the Gray Man books or John Sandford’s Prey series. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.