I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
After finishing Gone Girl and The Cuckoo's Calling I well and truly had the crime thriller bug and so off to Waterstones I went to stock up.
I thought I had made my choice until on my way to the till another book caught my eye. A simple scan over the back cover and I added it to my pile. I knew I'd made the right decision as soon as I took it to the cash desk. The cashier had just finished reading it the night before and literally couldn't contain his excitement as he proceeded to spend the next five minutes explaining how unbelievably good it was and how he was jealous of me now reading it for the first time.
I'm not particularly the quickest reader and at a hefty 881 pages I thought it would take me aaaaaaaages to get through it. But I couldn't put it down, much to the annoyance of my fiancé I'm sure, as I ignored him completely on more than a few occasions. Sorry!
The protagonist of the story is the adopted son of a wealthy family who once headed up a secret unit for US intelligence. He uses the name Pilgrim in order to hide his real identity and is one of the best agents that his agency has seen.
The story is a compelling one and the writing beautifully detailed. What begins as a challenging murder investigation quickly turns into a desperate race against time that keeps the plot moving quickly along with the turning of the pages.
The plot is intelligent and action-packed and for those that love 24, Homeland and the Bourne series then this is definitely a book for you.
I don't really want to give any of the story away so I'll just end with the few lines that helped sway my decision to read.
A young woman murdered in a run-down Manhattan hotel.
A father publicly beheaded in the blistering sun of Saudi Arabia.
A man's eyes stolen from his living body as he leaves a secret Syrian research laboratory.
Smouldering human remains on a mountainside in the Hindu Kush
A plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity.
One thread that binds them all.
One man to take the journey.
Pilgrim.
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