Gregg Hurwitz Books in Order – Orphan X Complete List of Books

Last Updated on July 5, 2023 The Gregg Hurwitz books focus on three main series by the New York Times bestselling author, including the Tim Rackley series (crime mystery), his Orphan X series, and Rains book series for young adults. In addition, he wrote several standalone novels, novellas, and short stories that will be listed below as well.

Here are the Gregg Hurwitz books in order for his popular series and standalone novels. We will update the list with the publication order as they are released.

New Gregg Hurwitz Book

Orphan X / The Nowhere Man / Evan Smoak Series in Order

1. Orphan X (#1), 2016
2. Buy a Bullet (#1.5), 2016 (free short story)
3. The Nowhere Man (#2), 2017
4. Hellbent (#3), 2018
5. The Intern (#3.5), 2018
6. Out of the Dark (#4), 2019
7. Into the Fire (#5), 2020
8. The List (#5.5), 2020
9. Prodigal Son (#6), 2021
10. Dark Horse (#7), 2022
11. The Last Orphan (#8), 2023

Orphan X Short Stories in Publication Order

1. Buy a Bullet, 2016
2. The Intern, 2018
3. The List, 2020

Tim Rackley Series in Publication Order

• The Kill Clause (Tim Rackley #1), 2003
• The Program (Tim Rackley #2), 2004
• Troubleshooter (Tim Rackley #3), 2005
• Last Shot (Tim Rackley #4), 2006

Rains Series in Publication Order

1. The Rains (Rains #1), 2016
2. Last Chance (Rains #2), 2017

Standalone Books, Novellas, Collections, Anthologies

• The Tower, 1999
• Minutes to Burn, 2001
• Do No Harm, 2002
• Show Business Is Murder, 2004
• Dirty Weather, 2006
• The Crime Writer (aka I See You), 2007
• We Know (aka Trust No One), 2008
• Or She Dies (aka They’re Watching), 2009
• You’re Next, 2010
• The Survivor, 2011
• Tell No Lies, 2013
• Don’t Look Back, 2014
• Birds of Prey, 2022 (with Kelley Armstrong, Ace Atkins, C J Box, Allison Brennan, Harlan Coben, S A Cosby, Robert Dugoni, Tess Gerritsen, Heather Graham, Kathy Reichs and Hank Phillippi Ryan)

The Evan Smoak Series Overview

Orphan X

Evan Smoak is a highly skilled and resourceful individual who has dedicated himself to helping those in dire need of assistance. However, his past is shrouded in darkness as he was once selected as a child to participate in a secret program known as the Orphans. This program aimed to create the ultimate assassin, but Evan broke free and disappeared without a trace. Despite his best efforts to stay hidden, someone has managed to track him down. This person not only knows of Evan’s past as an Orphan, but they also possess the same skills and training, and they are determined to find and destroy him.

The Nowhere Man

Evan Smoak was once known as Orphan X, a government-trained assassin plucked from a group home as a child. But after breaking free from the program, he disappeared, only to reemerge as the mysterious and elusive Nowhere Man. Dedicated to helping those in dire need, he has built a reputation for being a defender of the helpless.

However, his new life as the Nowhere Man is suddenly thrown into chaos when he is ambushed, captured, drugged, and taken to a secret location. His captors believe they have him cornered, isolated and heavily guarded in a virtual cage. But what they don’t realize is that they have imprisoned one of the deadliest individuals on the planet.

Hellbent

After breaking away from the Orphan Program, he disappeared and resurfaced as the Nowhere Man, a vigilante committed to aiding those in desperate need. Jack Johns, who raised and trained Evan, is the only father he has ever known.

As the government attempts to erase all remnants of the Orphan Program, Jack assigns Evan to safeguard his final protégé. However, what they don’t know is that the new head of the Orphan Program is utilizing every resource at his disposal to eradicate both Evan and the person he is trying to protect.

Out of the Dark

The Orphan Program, a secret government initiative that trained young orphans to become assassins, is now facing extermination from a powerful figure within the government. To survive, Evan Smoak, a former Orphan who broke away from the program and now operates as the Nowhere Man, must engage in a battle against his adversary. However, the stakes are raised when he discovers that his opponent is none other than Jonathan Bennett, the President of the United States himself.

Into the Fire

Max Merriweather’s life takes a dark turn when his cousin is brutally killed and the only evidence left at the scene is an envelope with a mysterious key. The case appears to be a simple investigation for The Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak, until he realizes that with each threat he neutralizes, a more dangerous force begins to emerge.

Prodigal Son

Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man, is approached by a woman claiming to be his long-lost mother. She asks for his help in saving Andrew Duran, who is being pursued by dangerous individuals. With a deadly hit squad hot on their trail, Smoak is Duran’s only chance of survival. Now, Smoak must decide whether to risk his own safety to protect Duran and uncover the truth behind the dangerous forces hunting him.

Dark Horse

Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man, has just recovered from an attack on his life and the destruction of his base of operations. He is also dealing with his complicated relationship with his neighbor, Mia Hall. Despite not wanting to take on a new mission, he is approached by Aragon Urrea, a kingpin in a major drug-dealing operation in South Texas. Despite his involvement in illegal activities, Urrea is seen as a patron by the local community, providing employment and assistance to those in need.

However, when Urrea’s daughter is kidnapped by a violent cartel, he turns to The Nowhere Man for help. Evan must find a way to penetrate the heavily guarded headquarters of the cartel in Mexico to rescue the young girl. But with such a dangerous mission ahead, he must also decide whether to help a man with questionable morals, even if the cause is just.

The Last Orphan

Once a child plucked from a group home, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as an off-the-books assassin for the government under the Orphan program. However, upon breaking free from the program and adopting the identity of the Nowhere Man, devoted to assisting those in dire need, Evan finds himself again targeted by the government. Despite his efforts to evade capture, a small mistake results in his capture by the President herself. With an offer to eliminate a wealthy, dangerous individual in exchange for his life, Evan faces a dilemma between his principles and his own survival.

Gregg Hurwitz Biography – About the Author

The crime writer Gregg Andrew Hurwitz was born in 1973 in San Francisco Bay Area where he also grew up among a family of physicians. So he got used early on to talk about severed fingers, blood all over the place and mutilations (aka surgery), which is something many of his books reflect as well. He attended the Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, following which, he enrolled at Harvard University from where he received his Bachelor of arts degree in 1995.  During this time, he worked on the first draft of his novel, The Tower, a psychological thriller set in San Francisco.

Next, the author Gregg Hurwitz attended Trinity College in Oxford, where he received his Master’s Degree in 1996 in Shakespearean tragedy. During that year, he became an undergraduate scholar-athlete of the year at Harvard for pole vaulting. While in England on the Frank Knox Fellowship, he also played college football (soccer).

His first standalone novel, The Tower, was published in 1999. Two years later, he followed it with Minutes to Burn, another standalone book, and Do No Harm, which was released in 2002. In an interview, he mentioned that he always wanted to write, it was his life passion. He started reading books at a very young age, reading Stephen King and Peter Benchley and feeling all the emotions those authors evoked in him. He then wanted to, one day, also evoke the same strong emotions in his own readers by writing captivating books.

Many of the author Gregg Hurwitz books have been shortlisted for best novel of the year by ITW (International Thriller Writer), and were nominated for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. In addition, books by Gregg Hurwitz were picks for Book Sense (which later became IndieBound), and were selected as feature books by many literary book clubs.

His books have so far been published in 30 languages. Currently, there are over 25 Gregg Hurwitz novels with the latest one published in 2023 titled The Last Orphan. It is the 8th and latest Nowhere Man book.

He is rightfully called a critically acclaimed American crime novelist and comic book writer and a New York Times bestselling author.

When researching his books, Gregg is very thorough, and he picks up interesting ideas that he can incorporate into his novels. For example, for Orphan X, he read an article about a medical product that doctors use to track insulin levels in diabetes patients, and through this article, the author got the idea of using something similar as a GPS tracker.

Lots of research is done directly in the field by him going to locations and talking to people who walk the talk (snipers, operatives, etc.), shadowing key people on stunt planets, or in deep water surrounded by sharks, or sneaking onto demolition ranges. This way, Evan Smoak feels genuine to the core.

The series’s main character is Evan Smoak, a deadly operative who got out from the undercover organization and now lives in the shadows doing good, helping all those who can’t help themselves. Maybe even trying to atone for some of his past sins.

Evan was taken from the orphanage, raised, and trained to become one of the most deadly assassins alive today. For the longest time, he was part of the Orphan Program, which trained him to become what he is today.

But when he wanted something else from life, he used everything he was taught to disappear and become The Nowhere Man. Because one does not simply leave the Orphan Program unless in a body bag. But Evan did it, knowing that he will never be safe from those who want to find him and take him down for good.

We first meet him in Orphan X, where we learn about his past and trajectory. We also learn that he left the Project and is now helping people. Except there is someone after him who knows he is The Nowhere Man and wants to eliminate him. For good.

In The Nowhere Man, Evan wakes up in a gilded prison, and he has to figure out what happened, why he is there, and how can he ever leave.

In Hellbent, we first meet Joey, a recurrent character in the series, whom Evan has to save and protect. This was Jack’s last wish for Evan, one that he simply has to abide by.

In Out of the Dark, someone has decided to get rid of the whole Program and make everyone involved in it disappear. So now Evan has to go after the very person who started the program in the first place: the U.S. President.

In Into the Fire, Evan Smoak is back once again helping people, but this time, he wants this case to be his last as The Nowhere Man. He wants out, so he can live a comfortable and easier life. Maybe with Mia if she will ever forgive him. But will he be given that very chance?

In addition to novels, he also wrote the screenplay for movies and TV series (such as V and Black Flags), including the film The Book of Henry, a movie drama released in 2017 featuring Naomi Watts. In 2012, the author became the comic book writer of Batman: The Dark Knight for DC Comics. He is also writing comic books for Marvel, including Wolverine and Punisher.

He got involved with Marvel when the editor-in-chief of Marvel read some of his books and, as many dealt with violent vigilante topics, which were quite in line with many Marvel stories, proposed him the offer to work on a Marvel character.

He is an author who can safely say he wrote in every medium he could: books of his own, comic books, and scripts for TV series and movies.

The Orphan X book will be soon turned into a TV show. The film rights have been bought by Warner Bros, and Bradley Cooper was to star in the main role, but the movie never got made, so now it will become a TV show. In 2018, Makeready, an Indie Studio bought the rights, so we will see how and when things will start moving in the right direction.

The author Gregg Hurwitz currently lives with his wife and two daughters in Los Angeles, where he is working on his next book and plays soccer in his spare time.

Gregg Hurwitz Awards and Nominations

• ITW Thriller Award for Best YA Novel, 2018 for The Rains
• SCIBA Best Mystery Finalist for Orphan X
• SCIBA Best Mystery Finalist for Hellbent
• Capital Crime Award, Best Thriller, 2019 for Out of the Dark
• Midlisted for the Skoutz Award in Germany for Into the Fire
• International Thriller Writers Awards finalist in the Best Audiobook category, 2022 for Prodigal Son
• Nominee – Society of Voice Arts Awards/Best Audiobook Narration -Thrillers category, 2022 for Prodigal Son

In addition, his books have been instant bestsellers, were listed on the New York Times Bestseller lists numerous times, and were top sellers on Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, Audible, and were listed on the bestselling lists of Wall Street Journal, UK Sunday Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Publisher Weekly, Library Journal, the Book Reporter.