Gregg Hurwitz Books In Order

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Publication Order of Evan Smoak/Orphan X Books

Publication Order of Tim Rackley Books

Publication Order of Rains Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Graphic Novels

Publication Order of Batman: The Dark Knight Books

Publication Order of Penguin: Pain and Prejudice Books

Publication Order of New Think Graphic Novels

Publication Order of Birds of Prey (2011) (Single Issues) Books

with Christy Marx

Publication Order of Vengeance of the Moon Knight Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Gregg Hurwitz is a critically acclaimed American crime novelist and comic book writer. He is a New York Times best selling author whose books have been shortlisted twice for the novel of the year by the International Thriller Writers, honored as Book Sense Picks and nominated for the Galaxy National Book award.

His books have also been picked as feature selections for all four major literary book clubs and have been translated into 26 languages. His novel “I See You” was nominated for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller of the year by the British Crime Writers’ Association.

Gregg Hurwitz grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and aspired to be an author since he was a little boy. Even as a child he would often would write stories and illustrate it with crayons. He has a BA from Harvard University and a masters degree in Shakespearean tragedy from Trinity college, Oxford.

It was during his time in these two prestigious universities that he wrote his first novel, The Tower. He excelled at sports playing college soccer at Oxford and was the scholar athlete of the year at Harvard. He has since guest lectured at UCLA and his alma mater Harvard.

He has also taught fiction writing at USC and has published several academic articles on William Shakespeare. Gregg Hurwitz grew up on a diet of Alfred Hitchcock movies and initially wrote fast paced super cop thrillers but marriage and starting a family brought about significant changes in his writing style.

He became more interested in the trials and tribulations of the common man and developed a new found appreciation for the classic suspense setups where an ordinary citizen is caught at the worst phase of his life. Thus his novels began to focus more on the emotion filled stories of common people facing uncommon situations. While most of his works are standalone novels he has written a four novel series based on deputy United States Marshal Tim Rackley.

The first book, “The Kill Clause” starts off with the brutal murder of his young daughter. Tim Rackley finds his honor and ideals tested as he watches helplessly while his daughter’s killer walks free on a legal technicality. Overcome by his need for vengeance Rackley joins “The Commission”, a group consisting of people, who like Rackley had lost loved ones to violent crime.

The group dedicates itself to correcting the failings of an imperfect judicial system and covertly cleaning up society of criminals let off by the law. But the vigilante life comes at a heavy price as he soon finds his life breaking down all around him.

He must now fight to save everything he holds dear.The second book in the series is titled “The Program” and features a redeemed Rackley called back to the United States Marshals Service. He is then assigned with the task of retrieving Leah Henning, the daughter of an influential Hollywood producer.

She has been kidnapped by a mind control cult and Rackley goes undercover to infiltrate the organization. He encounters a varied set of characters including the charismatic leader of the cult, a shady cult reject and a vulnerable, young Leah herself.

As he delves deeper into the case he discovers a sinister operation called The Program and in the process witnesses a horrifying brand of mind warping manipulation used to commit a series of crimes. He decides that he must destroy the cult before it ensnares more innocent people.

This time however he works within the framework of the law.The remaining two novels “Troubleshooter” and “Last Shot” follow Tim Rackley as he gets involved with a nefarious biker gang in one and tries to solve the mystery of an impossible prison break in the other.

Another absorbing novel written by Gregg Hurwitz is “Trust No One, a political potboiler that stays true to its name by casting a cloud of suspicion over almost every major character. The protagonist, Nick Horrigan is a man plagued by doubts and questions living a watchful life.

Assailed by painful memories of a troubled past, he keeps his head low and leads a quiet sedentary life. His peace is suddenly disrupted when some Secret Service agents inform him that a terrorist threatening to blow up a nearby nuclear plant has singled him out as the only person he would speak to.

The Secret Service agents seem to be as clueless as Nick himself regarding this strange demand. His meeting with the terrorist reveals a connection between the death of his step father 17 years ago and his current situation.

The story soon blows up and Nick finds himself embroiled in the Presidential campaign of two powerful candidates, one of whom is responsible for all his troubles over of a span 17 years. Determined to stop running away Nick takes a stand to see matters through to the end.

Gregg Hurwitz firmly believes in the old adage of writing the book you would want to read yourself instead of pandering to the market. As an ardent Shakespeare lover, Gregg Hurwitz too prefers to work with well defined structure and convention while writing.

His writing process begins when a character and a plot come together and his novels are heavily character-centric and feature the protagonist being thrown into one life threatening situation after another. His novels enjoy a wide and varied fan base spanning all age groups and are described as fast paced thrillers that makes the reader always want to turn one more page.

He also gets very absorbed in the books he writes preferring to do all the research himself. This has led to him undertaking risky activities such as sneaking into demolition ranges with Navy SEALs, swimming with sharks and actually infiltrating mind control cults, all as part of research for his novels.

He has also worked extensively in comics and is a New York Times best selling comic book writer having worked with both DC and Marvel on notable projects such as The Dark Knight, Wolverine, Punisher and Penguin.

He has dabbled in television too having written screenplays, sold spec scripts to studios and produced shows for various networks. Despite his large body of work he considers writing novels as his one true love.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Gregg Hurwitz

7 Responses to “Gregg Hurwitz”

1. Renni Turillo: 10 months ago

   Reading some older comments. Yes, the Orphan X books are violent – but the reason for the violence stands out more for me, the end result is what I remember ~

   Reply
2. Renni Turillo: 10 months ago

   13 Orphan X books and I NEED more!! I start an Orphan X book and I can’t put it down, seriously, I will read through the night – –

   Reply
3. Shirley Kenrick: 1 year ago

   I was introduced to the writing of Gregg during our never-ending lockdowns in Melbourne during the “covid pandemic”. I don’t care how violent X is, it was just what I needed at that time. Hiding away in fantasy was escapism at its best. Just thinking it was possible for someone to come after all our politicians and world leaders taking us into a new world of their creation to take the place of the world their greed and lust for power left us in.

   Reply
4. jack burke: 3 years ago

   that is a combination mistake(re:Jack Johns)of the author and the editor; or they switched editors and the new one hasn’t even read the previous book. Big Boo-boos! Love the writing, though.

   Reply
5. Richard Plastino: 4 years ago

   I just read “The Nowhere Man”. It was good, but incredibly violent. This guy is a killing machine!

   Reply
6. Jack Smyth: 5 years ago

   Spoilers Ahead In This Discussion:

   Greg Hurwitz Puzzle in his books on Orphan X.
   1.Evan keeps Jack Johns’ Bloody Shirt and remembers holding him while Jack bled out in The Nowhere Man. Published 2017.
   2. Jack Johns jumps out of Helicopter to his death in Hellbent. Published 2018.
   How come Jack dies twice?

   Reply
   • Robert Miller: 3 years ago

     Evan didn’t see Jack die, he only heard the shot. At the end of Orphan X the author talks about Jack training a young boy in a cabin and talking to someone on the phone about Evan. Also, after Jack rescues Evan at the end of The Nowhere Man he tells Evan what happened in the parking garage after he left.

     Reply