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Gregg Hurwitz an American New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of thrillers novels.

Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, Gregg has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and a Master's degree from Trinity College, Oxford.

His novels have won numerous literary awards, with the book being published in 32 languages across the globe.

Gregg, who is also a script writer and producer, currently resides in Los Angeles with his two Rhodesian ridgebacks.

More about Gregg Hurwitz

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Young Adult

Born: 1973

United States

Website: https://gregghurwitz.net

Non Series

  • The Tower (1999)
  • Minutes to Burn (2002)
  • Do No Harm (2002)
  • The Crime Writer (2007)
  • Trust No One (2009)
  • They're Watching (2011)
  • You're Next (2011)
  • The Survivor (2012)
  • Tell No Lies (2013)
  • Don't Look Back (2014)

Novellas

  1. Dirty Weather (2006)

Short Stories

  1. The Intern: An Orphan X Short Story (2018)

Evan Smoak/Orphan X Thrillers

  1. Orphan X (2016)
  2. Buy a Bullet: An Orphan X Short Story (2016)
  3. The Nowhere Man (2017)
  4. Hellbent (2018)
  5. Out of the Dark (2019)
  6. Into the Fire (2020)
  7. The List: A Novella (2020)
  8. Prodigal Son (2021)
  9. Dark Horse (2022)
  10. The Last Orphan (2023)

The Rains Brothers

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

Tim Rackley Series

  1. The Kill Clause (2004)
  2. The Program (2005)
  3. Troubleshooter (2006)
  4. Last Shot (2006)
The Rains Brothers

Detailed book overview

Non Series

The Tower

Allander Atlasia is a notorious psychopath whose atrocious crimes earned him a lifetime sentence at the Tower—a place nicknamed Alcatraz II for arguably being the most severe maximum-security prison in the world.

That’s however until the criminal mastermind executes a smart and vicious escape, before embarking on a string of killings that are highly personal.

Former FBI profiler and tracker Jade Marlow is a man whose courage is only overshadowed by the ferocity of his personal demons.

When things quickly escalate into a battle of wits, these two men—who are as defiant as ever—will lock horns in a daring showdown where failure is fatal.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 1999
ISBN: 978-1416572794
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Minutes to Burn

The year is 2007. The ozone has been terribly depleted so much that the tropical sun burns human skin to a crisp. Devastating earthquakes and terrible hurricanes destroy South America, exploding Ecuador's already anarchic instability.

Cameron Kates, a tough Navy SEAL, her husband, Justin, and a ragtag squad of soldiers, are on a mission to escort celebrated ecotectonicist Dr. Rex Williams to the uninhabited island of Sangre de Dios where the scientist is to position crucial seismic equipment.

However, a scientific phenomenon unlike any other awaits them in island’s forest.

And soon enough, they find themselves in a lethal confrontation where only the fittest survive.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2002
ISBN: 978-0060188863
Publisher: William Morrow
Do No Harm

A youthful nurse finds her way to the UCLA Medical Center, terribly injured after a brutal onslaught by an unknown assailant.

E.R. Chief Dr. David Spier is caught up in the media frenzy when the handcuffed attacker is hauled into the E.R. and placed under his care as a patient.

Spier, who finds himself in what is arguably the biggest ethical dilemma of his career, decides to treat the attacker.

That however makes Spier underrate the crafty and vile nature of his patient who escapes and unleashes a brutal wave of terror that threatens to immerse everyone and everything dear to him.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2002
Ebook: B000RIE7KY
Publisher: William Morrow
The Crime Writer

Drew Danner, a crime novelist based in the legendary Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, suddenly wakes up in a hospital bed. On his head is a scar, under his nails is blood, and by his side is a cop.

Drew, who has no recollection of what happened the previous night, is accused of murdering his ex- fiancée.

Although he isn’t sure whether he is guilty or innocent, Drew was found holding a knife while convulsing over her dead body.

Determined to recreate the story the best way he knows how, he decides to write a novel.

But as he embarks on a mission to find the answers, another young woman is brutally murdered in the same way.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2007
ISBN: 978-0143113447
Publisher: Penguin Books
Trust No One

Nick Horrigan has for the last two decades led a quiet life, until a SWAT team storms into his apartment one night before leading him to a waiting helicopter.

A terrorist, who has taken control of a nuclear reactor, threatens to blow it up; unwilling to speak to anyone except Nick.

His motive is to reveal the truth behind the events that destroyed Nick’s life twenty years ago.

When Nick was seventeen years old, he made a terrible mistake that led to the death of his stepfather whilst also endangering his mother’s life. Devastated, he took off.

But with the nuclear plant, Nick has the option of either taking off again or fighting to unearth the secrets that have haunted him for all these decades.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2009
Ebook: B002FSTJNO
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
They're Watching

Patrick Davis always dreamt of becoming a screenwriter. His life however starts crumbling down as soon as his dream is fulfilled.

With his Hollywood dreams shattered and his marriage on the rocks, things get worse for him when he starts receiving threatening DVDs.

A sinister figure has been secretly watching Patrick and his wife using cameras that are hidden all over their house.

When the emails start coming, presenting him with an offer that he simply can’t refuse, Patrick dives in head first, only to end up in a terrible web of intrigue where the only way of winning is outsmarting his invisible opponents at their own game.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-1250100313
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
You're Next

Mike Wingate was brought up in foster care after being abandoned at a playground when he was just four years old.

All grown up, Mike is now living the dream life that he always desired with his wife and gorgeous eight-year-old daughter.

That however changes when something from his past comes to haunt his family. Even worse is that it’s from a past that Mike has no recollection of.

Desperate, he turns to his dangerous childhood friend, Shep, for help.

As they join forces, the two embark on a mission to protect Mike’s family from the secret figures behind the spine-tingling warning, “You’re Next!”

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2011
ISBN: 978-0751542110
Publisher: Sphere
The Survivor

Nate Overbay, a divorced ex-soldier suffering from PTSD and ALS, makes his way to ledge of an eleventh-floor bank one morning.

As he prepares himself to jump, a crew of robbers storm into the bank before opening fire on employees and customers.

With nothing to lose, Nate goes back into the bank and begins eliminating the gunmen one by one, military style.

Pavlo is a brutal Ukrainian mobster and the brains behind the botched heist.

After being blocked from entering the bank vault, the mobster leaves Nate with a terrible warning. Either he helps him break in or he’ll brutally kill his alienated wife and teenage daughter.

And time is certainly not on his side...

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2012
Ebook: B00NPNN7PO
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Tell No Lies

Daniel Brasher leaves his high-earning job as a money manager in order to tie the knot with his community-organizer wife and pursue his real passion of leading group counseling sessions with recently paroled ex-cons in his native home of San Francisco.

But just when he is on the verge of beginning his private practice, Daniel comes across a misplaced envelope in his department mailbox.

Inside it is a note that reads "Admit what you've done or you will bleed for it."

When he learns that the ultimatum has already passed and the person it was addressed to is discovered viciously killed, Daniel and his loved ones finds themselves caught up in the path of a brutal killer.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-1405912587
Publisher: Penguin Books
Don't Look Back

Eve Hardaway, who recently became a single mother, has finally fulfilled her dream of going on a rafting and hiking trip through the jungles and mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico.

She and the members of her tour group however find themselves cornered in the jungle with a vicious predator determined to protect its secret.

With the odds of survival heavily stacked against them, Eve has no option but to confront a lethal enemy if she is to return home and see her son once again.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2014
Ebook: B019NR661C
Publisher: St Martin's Paperbacks

Novellas

Dirty Weather

In this intense Thriller Short, New York Times bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz once again explores justice versus the law. Here his research for his deputy US marshal character, Tim Rackley from The Kill Clause and Troubleshooter, comes into full focus.

Laura Hillman runs a bar near a prison, and she is also quite lonely. When Brian Dyer arrives to have a drink, she’s enamored with his charm and sense of honor. An attempted robbery puts a bullet in Brian’s foot, but he’s able to force the thief to flee. But from all appearances, the thief is going to come back, and this time lives will be on the line.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2006
Ebook: B076H7W6PD
Publisher: MIRA

Short Stories

The Intern: An Orphan X Short Story

Before he reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak was taken from a group home as a child and trained as a secret government assassin codenamed Orphan X.

When he finally broke with the Orphan Program, Smoak mysteriously vanished, only to come out as the Nowhere Man—a man committed to helping those who desperately need it.

When a tabloid news intern ends up in a crime zone while on the trail of an overzealous reporter, only one man who can save the young woman from the danger—the Nowhere Man.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2018
Ebook: B07HLX2HY9
Publisher: Minotaur Books

Evan Smoak/Orphan X Thrillers

Orphan X

Incredibly skilled with unlimited resourceful, Evan Smoak has made it his mission to help those who desperately need it.

He also has a dark past. Selected while still a child, he was brought up and trained as an Orphan in a secret black box program designed to create the perfect assassin—until he used his knowledge to disappear without a trace.

Someone has however tracked him down.

That someone not only knows Orphan X but also has the same skills and training.

And they are willing to find him and destroy him.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-1250758798
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Buy a Bullet: An Orphan X Short Story

Before he reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak was taken from a group home as a child and trained as a secret government assassin codenamed Orphan X.

When he finally broke with the Orphan Program, Smoak mysteriously vanished, only to come out as the Nowhere Man—a man committed to helping those who desperately need it.

This is the tale of how Smoak first became the Nowhere Man.

Upon noticing a youthful woman at a coffee shop, Smoak knows that her life is in danger.

Dehumanized and controlled by a very influential and unprincipled man, the poor woman has now way of escaping.

Only one man can save her, and that man is the Nowhere Man.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2016
Ebook: B01LXW2NEI
Publisher: Minotaur Books
The Nowhere Man

Before he reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak was taken from a group home as a child and trained as a secret government assassin codenamed Orphan X.

When he finally broke with the Orphan Program, Smoak mysteriously vanished, only to come out as the Nowhere Man—a man committed to helping those who desperately need it.

His new life however comes to a sudden halt after an unexpected attack ends up with him captured, drugged, and sneaked to a secret location.

Isolated and heavily guarded, his abductors think that they have him cornered in a virtual cage.

What they however don’t know is that they have trapped themselves with one of the most lethal men on the planet.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-1250137494
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Hellbent

Before he reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak was taken from a group home as a child and trained as a secret government assassin codenamed Orphan X.

When he finally broke with the Orphan Program, Smoak mysteriously vanished, only to come out as the Nowhere Man—a man committed to helping those who desperately need it.

Jack Johns is the only father Smoak has ever known, given how he raised and trained him.

With secret government forces attempting to wipe out the remaining traces of the Orphan Program, Jack tasks Smoak with protecting his last protégé.

Unbeknownst to them is the fact that the new head of the Orphan Program is using every asset within his power to eliminate both Orphan X and the subject he is protecting.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1405928540
Publisher: Penguin Books
Out of the Dark

Before he reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak was taken from a group home as a child and trained as a secret government assassin codenamed Orphan X.

When he finally broke with the Orphan Program, Smoak mysteriously vanished, only to come out as the Nowhere Man—a man committed to helping those who desperately need it.

A powerful figure in government is trying to wipe out all traces of the Orphan Program by eliminating all surviving Orphans and their trainers.

In order to survive, Smoak must take the fight to his foe.

But what happens when his foe turns out to be Jonathan Bennett, the President of the United States?

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2019
ISBN: 978-1405928564
Publisher: Penguin Books
Into the Fire

Before he reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak was taken from a group home as a child and trained as a secret government assassin codenamed Orphan X.

After finally breaking with the Orphan Program, Smoak mysteriously vanished, only to come out as the Nowhere Man—a man committed to helping those who desperately need it.

When Max Merriweather’s cousin is viciously murdered, the only thing left behind is an envelope containing a puzzling key.

The case seems like a walk in the park for The Nowhere Man, until a more lethal force begins to emerge each time Smoak eliminates a threat.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-1250623683
The List: A Novella

Joey Morales was the last recruit of the government's full black operation, the Orphan Program. Trained to be an assassin until she washed out, she was rescued by Evan Smoak, the former agent known as Orphan X.

Now Joey, still a teenager and under the watchful eye of Evan Smoak, lives on her own (with Dog the dog) and attends college.

While on campus, she tries to stop a young woman's suicide attempt - and fails. Then Joey uncovers the reason for Becca Morgan's desperate act - a document called The List, which ranks and rates women around campus based on their sexual appeal and performance.

Determined to find the boys behind The List, the ones whose callous acts drove Becca Morgan to suicide, Joey recruits the help of her mentor, Orphan X, and uses all her skills to uncover and expose the ones responsible.

Usually working from the shadows, Joey has to put herself on the line and in harm's way this time to not just avenge the dead but to protect the rest of the women who are targets of the hidden cabal behind The List.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2020
Ebook: B08CT3RM69
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Prodigal Son

Before he reinvented himself as the Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak was taken from a group home as a child and trained as a secret government assassin codenamed Orphan X.

When he finally broke with the Orphan Program, Smoak mysteriously vanished, only to come out as the Nowhere Man—a man committed to helping those who desperately need it.

Approached by a woman who claims to be the mother he never knew, she requests Smoak to come to the aid of a man named Andrew Duran, who is being chased after by sinister figures.

With a lethal hit squad on his trail, Smoak is Duran's only hope of survival.

Will Smoak protect Duran, as well as his own life?

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2021
Ebook: B08DCV5RS4
Publisher: Penguin
Dark Horse

Evan Smoak is a man with many identities and a challenging past. As Orphan X, he was a government assassin for the off-the-books Orphan Program. After he broke with the Program, he adopted a new name and a new mission--The Nowhere Man, helping the most desperate in their times of trouble.

Having just survived an attack on his life and the complete devastation of his base of operations, as well as his complicated (and deepening) relationship with his neighbor Mia Hall, Evan isn't interested in taking on a new mission. But one finds him anyway.

Aragon Urrea is a kingpin of a major drug-dealing operation in South Texas. He's also the patron of the local area--supplying employment in legitimate operations, providing help to the helpless, rough justice to the downtrodden, and a future to a people normally with little hope. He's complicated--a not completely good man, who does bad things for often good reasons.

However, for all his money and power, he is helpless when one of the most vicious cartels kidnaps his innocent eighteen year old daughter, spiriting her away into the armored complex that is their headquarters in Mexico. With no other way to rescue his daughter, he turns to The Nowhere Man.

Now not only must Evan figure out how to get into the impregnable fortress of a heavily armed, deeply paranoid cartel leader, but he must decide if he should help a very bad man--no matter how just the cause.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2022
Ebook: B092T8LJLB
Publisher: Minotaur Books
The Last Orphan

As a child, Evan Smoak was plucked out of a group home, raised and trained as an off-the-books assassin for the government as part of the Orphan program. When he broke with the program and went deep underground, he left with a lot of secrets in his head that the government would do anything to make sure never got out.

When he remade himself as The Nowhere Man, dedicated to helping the most desperate in their times of trouble, Evan found himself slowly back on the government's radar. Having eliminated most of the Orphans in the program, the government will stop at nothing to eliminate the threat they see in Evan. But Orphan X has always been several steps ahead of his pursuers.

Until he makes one little mistake...

Now the President has him in her control and offers Evan a deal - eliminate a rich, powerful man she says is too dangerous to live and, in turn, she'll let Evan survive. But when Evan left the Program he swore to only use his skills against those who really deserve it. Now he has to decide what's more important - his principles or his life.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2023
Ebook: B09TYQVFJ5
Publisher: Minotaur Books

The Rains Brothers

The Rains

The tranquil community of Creek’s Cause suddenly turns into a terror zone one dreadful night.

Everyone under the age of eighteen is in danger.

Chance Rain and his older brother, Patrick, have already foiled a number of attacks initiated by infected adults by the time they make it to the school where other young survivors are seeking refuge.

Many of the kids they know have been forcefully taken by the once-trusted adults who have now turned into vicious beings.

The parasite that made them inhuman takes effect after one turns eighteen—and Patrick’s birthday is just a matter of days away.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-0765382689
Publisher: Tor Teen
Last Chance

The first phase of the invasion is over.

The tiny and once peaceful town of Creek's Cause is now a devastated terror zone.

Anyone beyond the age of eighteen is either dead or unrecognizable—all turned into brutal, zombie-like beings.

The surviving kids and teenagers are seeking refuge in the high school, at least until their eighteenth birthdays.

The second phase of the chaos is about to begin.

Chance, Patrick and their closest friend, Alexandra, are humanity’s only hope for survival.

But do they really stand a chance against an enemy that is not of this earth?

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-0765382702
Publisher: Tor Teen

Tim Rackley Series

The Kill Clause

Life comes crushing down for deputy U.S. marshal Tim Rackley after the merciless killing of his own daughter.

Denied justice by a defective judicial system, Rackley is forced to watch as the killer walks away scot-free.

Hell-bent on retributive justice, he begins exploring his options which lead him to the welcoming arms of an unflagging vigilante group known as “The Commission”.

It however doesn’t take long before Rackley finds himself battling to save his marriage, his career, his life, his soul, and everything else that is worth the sacrifice.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2004
Ebook: B00DJYFXHO
Publisher: Harper Collins
The Program

Recalled into the U.S. Marshals Service, Tim Rackley is assigned the task of saving Leah Henning, the daughter of an influential Hollywood producer, from a mind-control cult.

As he delves deeper into a subtle undercover operation called The Program, Tim comes face-to-face with a form of distorted manipulation beyond his wildest imagination.

While on his mission, he becomes entangled with various characters such as the charming and savior-like leader T. D. Betters, the cult reject burnout and the smart yet highly helpless Leah.

Trapped in a web of lies, manipulation, and terror, a lot—including Tim’s own mind—will be at stake.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2005
ISBN: 978-0060530419
Publisher: Harper Collins
Troubleshooter

Deputy U.S. marshal Tim Rackley is a man propelled by honor, morality, and an unquenchable thirst for justice.

Den Laurey, the head of one of the most brutal biker gangs in the country, is a free man after making a daring escape on an L.A. freeway. In his trail are several lifeless bodies of deputy marshals.

Back on the warrant squad, Rackley—with the help of the entire Los Angeles law-enforcement—launches a mission to hunt down Laurey and his violent gang, all in the midst of the media frenzy.

When Dray, Tim’s pregnant wife is however attacked, Tim's quest plunges him into a shadowy world of treachery, criminals, undercover cops, drugs and mutilation.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2006
Ebook: B000FCKC5Q
Publisher: Harper Collins
Last Shot

Walker Jameson, a disgraced Recon Marine, executes a daring and inconceivable escape from California’s Terminal Island Penitentiary after causing the death of a murderous fellow inmate.

On the case is Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Rackley who is tasked with hunting him down.

As Walker begins leaving a trail of blood across the streets of Los Angeles, Rackley embarks on a mission that leads him through the sinister underworld of a leading pharmaceutical company.

And in this battle, Rackley will soon discover that the dangerous opponent every bit his match.

Author: Gregg Hurwitz
First Release: 2006
ISBN: 978-0060731465
Publisher: William Morrow