I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Atria Books, 2014
Disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher.
Pilgrim is a former American intelligence officer in various secret and not-secret agencies and divisions, and in the beginning of the novel he investigates murders in the US and Turkey. He also takes on an anti-terrorism position later in the book, and the murder investigation merges with his anti-terror mission. The actual investigations and chase of a terrorist take a back seat to his career and personal histories for a large portion of the novel, but everyone’s background and motives are important.
Despite the length, the plot is brisk: there are quite a few action set-pieces that kept me interested. I have to admit that Pilgrim does use a lot of cliches or leaden phrases in his account of this investigation, and that detracted from the story, and I was also a bit unthrilled with the action set-pieces that seemed to give Pilgrim superpowers, but I think that’s part of the action-thriller genre. I’m still not in love with spy novels after reading, but it’s a perfectly readable story for the summer.
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