Book Review: "Buy a Bullet" by Gregg Hurwitz

I haven't decided where I stand yet on this growing trend of authors writing "so-called" short stories as a way to bridge the gap prior to the release of a new novel. On one hand, I'm a fan of anything that gives me an opportunity to read more of my favorite authors, but the contrarian in me feels that these are primarily revenue-generating gimmicks, because the stories themselves are often relatively slight, and in some cases just serve as teasers for the author's upcoming novel.

Gregg Hurwitz's Orphan X blew me away earlier this year (read my original review), and it's definitely going to be among the best books I read in 2016. The story of Evan Smoak, who was trained to be an assassin when he was young as part of an elite government program, and then became the Nowhere Man, a knight-in-shining-armor of sorts for people in trouble, Orphan X hit all of the right notes for me—fantastic action, more than a few twists, some excellent character development, and some pretty cool gadgetry.

Buy a Bullet backtracks a bit to Evan's first outing as the Nowhere Man, where he spots a beautiful young woman in a coffee shop. He can tell she is being controlled by a wealthy tech mogul, and that she is in danger, being brutalized by the man she thinks she loves. Evan knows there is no way she'll be able to escape, no way she'll be able to survive—unless he intervenes.

This story has many of the elements that made Orphan X so great. But at only 76 pages (which seem a heck of a lot shorter on the Kindle), there's just not enough of it. The silver lining here, however, is that the story includes a long sneak peek (longer than the story, in fact) for The Nowhere Man, Hurwitz's second Evan Smoak novel, due out in mid-January.

If you've not read Orphan X, and you love thrillers, do yourself a favor—READ IT! This story is an entertaining amuse-bouche to tide you over until mid-January, but you'll want to read the first book in the series first. You won't be sorry.