Oline H. Cogdill


hurwitz thebookofhenry
Most movies have what seem like endless previews, clips, and ads—by the time the film actually does come out, we almost know too much about it.

No so The Book of Henry.

This film has been kept so under wraps that up until recently only the director, Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World), and the cast, including Naomi Watts and Susan Silverman, had been announced.

The latest press release gives scant information: “The Book of Henry is the story of a single mother raising two boys, one of whom is a genius.”

That’s the same description that was sent out last year, just before Mystery Scene ran an interview with Gregg Hurwitz, the thriller writer who wrote the screenplay for The Book of Henry. (Hurwitz is profiled in the Winter Issue 2016, No. 143.)

There’s a bit more about The Book of Henry on its Facebook page.

Hurwitz write the screenplay of The Book of Henry more than 18 years ago.

Hurwitz is best known for his series of standalone, high-energy thrillers. His career as a novelist took a different turn last year with the release of Orphan X, the first in a new series about Evan Smoak, who was trained to be an assassin under the government’s secret Orphan Program since he was a child.

It wasn’t difficult teaching him to kill, Evan’s handler told him, “The hard part is keeping you human.” Evan leaves the program to become a rogue operator known as The Nowhere Man, with a mission to help those in need. His payment is that each client refers him to another innocent person in trouble. Orphan X perfectly blends an action-packed plot with realistic characters worth caring about and the finest in high technology.

(For my annual best mysteries list, Orphan X ranked high. The complete list is here.)

The second in Hurwitz’s new series, The Nowhere Man, will be published in February 2017.

And look for The Book of Henry to be released in select cities on June 17, 2017.

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