The Orphan Factory by James and Lance Morcan

Description from Goodreads:

"An epic, atmospheric story that begins with twenty three genetically superior orphans being groomed to become elite spies in Chicago's Pedemont Orphanage and concludes with a political assassination deep in the Amazon jungle.

The Orphan Factory, a coming-of-age spy thriller novel, is book two in The Orphan Trilogy and a prequel to The Ninth Orphan. Go on another frenetic journey with the ninth-born orphan as he busts out of the clandestine orphanage he knew as home and goes on the run across America.

In the late 1970's, in Chicago, Illinois, the secretive Omega Agency initiates the Pedemont Project - a radical experiment utilizing genetic engineering technologies - to create twenty three orphan babies with the plan to turn them into the world's most effective assassins.

One of the prodigies will rebel: meet Number Nine, an orphan with a mind of his own.

In 1998, when Nine reaches adulthood and graduates with honors from the Pedemont Orphanage, he is already an adept of the deadly espionage arts. Ordered by his Omega masters to assassinate a survivor of the Jonestown tragedy in Guyana's Amazon rainforest, Nine is forced to draw upon all of his advanced training just to stay alive."

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This is the second book in the trilogy, the second that has had me thoroughly engrossed and entertained and the second that I have been fortunate to have been sent to me by the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.

I won’t go into the ins and outs of the story as it is covered in the description but what I will say is that, like The Ninth Orphan, it is excellent. The plot is well thought out, well paced, exciting and thrilling as well as being different to anything else I have read before. I really enjoyed getting to know more about the beginnings of “Nine” and his fellow orphans - the authors provided small glimpses in the first book but this one put the flesh on the bones.

The characters are believable and interesting, some more likeable than others, but overall well developed from start to finish.

I would most definitely recommend this to lovers of espionage, conspiracy theorists or just people who enjoy a flippin’ good read and I look forward to reading the third in the series.