Originally published April 2016
This one comes off the bucket list.
A friend at work, upon finding out we shared a love of books, suggested “I Am Pilgrim” by Terry Hayes to me as one her book club had just read and really enjoyed. A mystery/thriller, it sounded a good as choice as any to add my my queue. It didn’t disappoint.
“I Am Pilgrim” follows super-super-super secret agent Scott Murdoch across the globe and into Turkey as America’s only hope to stop a catastrophic biological attack on the United States. With help from his new friend Ben Bradley, Scott relies on everything he’s ever learned in the lifetime of being a ghost to track down The Saracen, a man hell-bent on revenge since the beheading of his father in Saudi Arabia when he was just a teen.
For me, a good mystery usually has to have more than one crisis going on to keep me entertained. Hayes exceeded my expectations, with a highly-detailed narrative for each of the compelling storylines, including the mystery that is Scott, the murder that introduced Scott to Ben, the path of the Saracen and the timely murder of a young billionaire that serves as Murdoch’s alternate reason for traveling to Turkey. And while the stories are vastly different, readers won’t be surprised to see how they weave together as the novel reaches conclusion—Hayes did a seamless job in puling it all together.
It’s the kind of book you need to have a stomach for—the murder, mayhem and torture that takes place isn’t for the easily queasy. So think twice before picking it up for your grandma. But if you’re looking for a great read and are tired of Baldacci as your go-to guy, this fits the bill quite nicely.
LitzyDitz 