I Am Pilgrim: A Thriller by Terry Hayes – 624 pages

Book Blurb:

Can you commit the perfect crime? Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn’t exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Before he disappeared into anonymous retirement, he wrote the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation. But that book will come back to haunt him. It will help NYPD detective Ben Bradley track him down. And it will take him to a rundown New York hotel room where the body of a woman is found facedown in a bath of acid, her features erased, her teeth missing, her fingerprints gone. It is a textbook murder – and Pilgrim wrote the book. What begins as an unusual and challenging investigation will become a terrifying race-against-time to save America from oblivion. Pilgrim will have to make a journey from a public beheading in Mecca to a deserted ruins on the Turkish coast via a Nazi death camp in Alsace and the barren wilderness of the Hindu Kush in search of the faceless man who would commit an appalling act of mass murder in the name of his God.

My Review: 4.5 stars

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Spy thriller, mystery and adventure all wrapped up into one page-turner of a novel. Terry Hayes has started a series that will keep you up at night because you have to find out what happens next. I don’t read a ton of this genre and I picked this one up strictly on recommendation. I’m so glad I did. One of the best things about this book is that you get multiple stories within the story that tangle and weave together. They are stronger than sub-plots as each piece of these murders and counter-terrorism plots are heavily delved into. The main terrorist’s horrific plan to take down the US is quite scary, especially with the Ebola cases littering the US right now. I also loved how much of this book took place around the world. I found myself looking up these locations to see if they were real. Pilgrim, or whatever you call him is a multi-faceted, incredibly likable main character. My daughter just started it and said he’s like Jason Bourne and Sherlock Holmes combined. Mr. Hayes is an accomplished screenwriter and this is his first novel. It does read like a movie in your mind and I’ve been casting the characters since the first page. Low and behold, the rights have already been sold and sealed for what I’m sure will be a blockbuster movie.

Quotes I Liked:

“I couldn’t help thinking of how a man gets burnt out, long before his reputation.”

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