I have often said that the best spy thrillers were set during the cold war. Those KGB agents were good and it kept everyone else on their toes. Clandestine meetings, assassinations, disguises, bugged offices, forgeries... Yip, there was loads going on, and there were more twists and turns in the plots than in gravity-defying mountain passes. But those were the good old days. I have not come across a modern spy thriller that has kept me going until I stumbled upon I am Pilgrim.I am not going to give a plot synopsis for this one. It is likely to spoil something. I will say this, however. This book was a combination between an old fashioned spy thriller, a modern spy thriller and a modern CSI-styled crime novel with a touch of Sherlock Holmes. Interested yet?
I am Pilgrim has a lot of detail, but I thought that it added to the story and didn't bog it down with unnecessary information. At no point was I bored or wanting to skim passages. Everything amalgamated to create a very involved, intricate plot. I think that all that back story and detail just added to make the reading experience feel extremely real. And that plot! I must say, it was really well thought out. Freakishly so.
The characters were enjoyable to read about, and I particularly enjoyed reading from Pilgrim's point of view. He had a pleasant sense of humour - not over whelming enough so as to lose the suspense that had been built up, but enough for me to like him just that little bit more. Pilgrim (a.k.a Scott Murdoch, Jude Garrett, Peter Campbell) was a fairly realistic character. As he is narrating the story in hindsight, he points out the errors he makes, which not only added to the suspense, but made him seem a little more real, a bit more vulnerable. Make no mistake though, the reader is completely aware of his brilliance. I must say that I also enjoyed reading about Ben Bradley, the NYPD detective. Yay! At last! A book where we do not have all the different divisions treating each other like morons. Ben is shown to be highly intelligent and a more-than-capable detective. Such a refreshing change!
The different settings were also very well researched. Currently, my brother and sister-in-law are in Saudi Arabia, and Hayes has created exactly the scenario they speak of. From a western point of view, it is never going to come across as a country we will ever understand. The practices are ... I do not have the words. It makes me appreciate the fact that, although I am in Africa and surrounded by all the shit that entails, at least I am not living there. I would be stoned in a day, and I do not mean the weed version of being stoned either. I could identify what my family had told me in the book, and that not only made me wish their contracts would hurry up and end so that they could safely return home, but added to my enjoyment of reading the book. (There is nothing worse than reading something when you know that the author is talking bull.)
I would recommend this to folks with good attention spans and/or lovers of Robert Ludlum's work or Jason Bourne.
A read guaranteed to keep one up into the early (or not so early) hours in the morning. A great start to 2016. I gave this 5 stars on Goodreads.
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