Credible is not really the point
The latest inventive thriller from Gregg Hurwitz is high-quality escapist fun, says Kenneth Strongman.
About a year ago, in Orphan X, Gregg Hurwitz introduced a new heroic figure to the thriller market. Evan Smoak redefined notions of ‘‘intrepid’’, capable of any type of armed and unarmed combat, and able to extricate himself from some of the most extreme physical situations that have appeared in this kind of fiction. From childhood he had been trained to be a completely clandestine enforcer for the American powers that be, but ended that first book having gone underground even further, now working for the benefit of anyone in distress rather than for the ‘‘authorities’’.
It was hard to see how Hurwitz could match Orphan X, it was so well done. But in The Nowhere Man, he has. Smoak is the titular nowhere man, inordinately wealthy and living a very low-key life until he has a phone call from someone in distress. When he extricates those in trouble from the perfidies of those who have them in their clutches, he asks only one thing of them. They have to pass his phone number on to one other person who is in distress.
In The Nowhere Man, Smoak, having lifted someone out of what has seemed to be an inescapable predicament, is suddenly captured and drugged. He wakes up in a luxurious prison; apparently in a very remote, cold part of the world. His surroundings are plush, the meals that are brought to him are of high order, but guards armed with the latest weapons bring them. He struggles to make sense of what has happened to him, where he is and what awaits. Soon he finds that he has been abducted by a man who has discovered his wealth and will release him only when a huge payment is made into his bank account.
Meanwhile, some of the remaining Orphans have been charged with finding Smoak and removing him from existence.
The book develops from there, largely involving Smoak’s attempts to escape and what his captors do to prevent this. It is as riveting as the first book in the series and demonstrates what an enviably creative imagination Hurwitz is able to bring to bear on his plots. As fast as Smoak deals with the latest bizarre and life-threatening development, another appears. At one point, he is even locked in a sort of entirely Perspex-like room with walls, floor and ceiling about 30 centimetres thick. How he escapes is best left for you to discover.
The Nowhere Man has reinforced Evan Smoak’s place in the foremost rank of just-about-believable heroes of the contemporary thriller. And ensuring Hurwitz’s place among the more creative writers in this genre, in the last five lines of the book he lays the groundwork for next year’s episode. It is all very satisfying and thoroughly escapist reading, credibility being of little significance.