And,” Aragón said, “she has shame, too. Not your shame. Your shame is a luxury. Her shame is a stain you put on her soul.” Facing his daughter across the dance floor, Aragón held out a hand, and his body man, Eduardo Gómez, materialized out of thin air to place a flute of Cristal in his palm. Anjelina’s purity—her inner light—brought a familiar ache to his chest. That the world did not deserve her. That it would hurt her as it was designed to hurt all beautiful young women. And that even if he summoned the whole of the power and menace at his disposal to preserve her innocence, he would eventually fail, because innocence was destined for spoiling. Aragón watched his girl glide across the maple hardwood, her hips and shoulders moving separately and yet in sync, an orbit of muscle and grace. As if music was a language that spoke through her body when she danced. I am saving for new clothes for her,” Silvia snarled, patting her daughter’s head. “It was not a revealing dress. It was too small.”

Orphan X is the most exciting thriller I've read since The Bourne Identity ... A new thriller superstar is born! Robert Crais New York Times bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz’s thrilling, high-octane action Orphan X novels follow Evan Smoak, the Nowhere Man. He uses his skills and resources on a personal mission to help those with nowhere else to turn. Tonight was her eighteenth birthday. And yet she’d recut and altered her quinceañera dress, not wanting to waste money on something new, on something that would put her even more fully in the spotlight. She didn’t want to appear garish in front of the other girls from Eden, this expanse of unincorporated land upstream from Brownsville on the north bank of the yellow-brown sludge of the Rio Grande. Aragón sat at the most prominent table with his aunt, who’d been both mother and father to him since poverty had killed his parents shortly after his birth in a Hidalgo County regional hospital— Mamá from an undiagnosed bladder infection, Papá from a knife in the kidney when he’d tried to stop a fight behind a Whataburger in Corpus Christi.All across the USA, people are showing up dead. The deaths don't appear to be connected in any way until one particular death occurs and gets the Secretary of Defense's attention. He arranges for a task force to investigate.

In the first book, Evan is going about his life as the Nowhere Man and finds himself working with a woman in the midst of a life-and-death situation. She faces dire consequences as the result of her overwhelming gambling debt and in an act of desperation, reaches out to the Nowhere Man for help. As he assists her, Evans life is turned upside down when he discovers that he has been found by the new conductors of the Orphan program, and is being hunted by their leader who clearly has a personal knowledge of his past and vendetta against him. Evan must face the reality that departing from a secret government program designed to kill in secret, means a life in hiding. He will undoubtedly always be looking over his shoulder for those who are hunting him.

Hurwitz has written, developed and produced for television and written screen plays for the adaptations of many of his books. He is scheduled to write the film adaptation of Orphan X, his latest series in 2017. He is known for in-depth, and sometimes unorthodox research into his writing subjects. He has even gone as far as sneaking onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALS, going undercover into cults and swimming with sharks. Aragón began his toast. “Today you turn eighteen.” He paused, caught off guard by the emotion graveling his deep voice. “You become an adult in the eyes of the law. For me and your mamá—who wishes with all her heart that she could be here—this is wondrous. And yet also bittersweet.” The Orphan X series is a thriller series which began publication in 2016. Author Gregg Hurwitz is a New York Times Bestselling Author of 18 books, and is also a New York Times bestselling comic book writer, having written Wolverine and Punisher stories for Marvel as well as Batman and Penguin stories for DC comics. Many of his books have been nominated for numerous awards, as well as shortlisted twice for Best Novel of the Year by International Thriller Writers.

Perfectly paced and beautifully structured... Thrillers don't get any better than this." -- Providence JournalThe community center was silent. The squeak of a shoe on the dance floor. Someone coughed. La Tía held a crumpled tissue at the ready. Could the emotion of this moment squeeze a tear from even her? Slumped bonelessly in a chair at the periphery, the Esposito boy watched from beneath his mother’s wing. Twelve years old with ankle-foot orthotics bowing out his sneakers on either side. His arms, wrapped in elbow-prophylactic braces, were splayed wide as if anticipating a hug. Last year Aragón had had him flown to the Cerebral Palsy Clinic at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth so he could be neuroimaged and fitted with carbon-fiber prosthetics. Even at ten at night, the South Texas humidity hit him in the face like a tar mop. They’d taken Chucho Ochoa to the administrative office building next door. This was helpful. For what was to come, adjoining walls were not preferable. But she did not, and she told you,” Aragón said. “Women should never be dominated. If you want a woman, you must earn her.”