Orphan X.

Evan Smoak is just an average guy living in the penthouse of a high rise in L.A., riding the elevators with fellow residents and trying to avoid tenants association meetings—or so it seems. Through flashbacks to Evan's youth and training and descriptions of his current living space and projects, listeners learn that Evan was really Nowhere Man, a clandestine government operative also known as Orphan X before he broke with the program. As his freelance vigilantism runs into obstacles, Evan wonders whether he, not his client, has become the target of professional killers. Hurwitz's (Don't Look Back) latest features lots of intrigue, tons of electronic gadgets, secret safe houses, remote surveillance options, and a neighbor whose 12-year-old son causes Evan to reflect on his own youth and recruitment into the Orphan Program. In this tightly written novel, the exotic life of a contract assassin is continually contrasted with the dangers of everyday existence in the barrio or on the low side of the gaming industry in Las Vegas. Scott Brick does a terrific job reading.