Orphan X

In a recent post [A Few Thoughts on "12 Rules For Life". ] I wrote that in his book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, Dr. Jordan Peterson mentions a number of books which he believes might help explain some of his ideas. One such book was written by a friend and former student of his at Harvard, Gregg Hurwitz - Orphan X. In that thriller, Hurwitz has one of his characters post every day, in a conspicuous place around her condo, one of Dr. Peterson's "rules". As I mentioned in the earlier post, I downloaded a few of the books Dr. Peterson puts in his book, and uploaded the e-books to my Kindle. I've just finished reading Orphan X.

The book is, well, action packed to say the least. The main character freelances as an assassin. Hurwitz gives very detailed descriptions of every fight scene, every killing and the weapons used. Orphan X isn't my cup of vodka, as far as books are concerned. It would, however be an entertaining movie, provided the right actors were cast.

Every character in the book is "broken" - most rather badly. Of course, that's to be expected from a writer who studied psychology at Harvard. The character Evan Smoak (AKA Orphan X ) is especially broken. He seems to personify the philosophy of Raskolnikov (from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment ) but without Raskolnikov 's feelings of guilt and remorse. Orphan X seems to be his own judge as to who should live and who should die.

Orphan X is the first in a six-book series. I don't think I'll be reading the other five.