Into the Fire (Orphan X) by Gregg Hurwitz

A fantastic entry to the Orphan X series.

The Nowhere Man – aka Orphan X, aka Evan Smoak -is having a bit of an existential crisis and is on the outs with Mia, the lovely Assistant DA raising a son alone. But he still picks up the phone when Max Merriweather calls him.

Max’s cousin Grant, an apparent crackerjack forensic accountant, has entrusted Max (who is the schlub of the family) with an envelope to be opened if something happens to him.

It does.

The envelope contains spreadsheets that appear to be the workings of a money laundering organization. And it is, to a certain extent, but it’s also much larger than that.

Evan agrees to help Max, telling himself that this is the last mission. And what a mission it is. After chopping off the head of the operation – or so he thinks – Evan is pulled back in when another head pops up. Then another. And another. Each step he takes is in direct conflict with Mia, for reasons I won’t go into for spoilery reasons.

There are tons of dead bodies along the way, tense moments with Mia, and a bait dog saved from a dogfighting ring Evan gives to Joey, hacker extraordinaire and an able partner for Evan on the back end of things. She also presents some comedic moments as Evan gets drawn more deeply into the giant conspiracy and the higher ups bound to it by the steely woman in charge.

While there are some things IT-related that people who work in IT may roll their eyes at, that isn’t really anything new for this series, and the suspension of disbelief isn’t that difficult to do in favor of everything propelling the story forward.

There’s a surprise at the end that is a true surprise, and one I wasn’t expecting. Assuming the Nowhere Man keeps his boots on, and with the parameters set in place toward the end, but before the surprise, the next book (assuming there is one, and I truly hope there is) should be quite interesting.

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the reading copy.