Great writing craft in this thriller about a lone secret agent hunting down an Islamic terrorist bent on destroying the US. I was immediately reminded of that Sherlock Holmes quote, “When a doctor goes wrong he is the first of criminals.” Here is proof positive of that assertion, and if I thought for one moment there was someone out there as smart (and as lucky) as the Saracen I would be afraid, very afraid.

There are many great, sometimes funny, and often painfully acute passages, like

Sex today sure isn’t for sissies.

and

…nobody’s ever been arrested for a murder; they have only ever been arrested for not planning it properly.

and

…a question that has occupied the minds of great philosophers since time immemorial. How come unattractive guys nearly always get the hot women?

There are some lovely metaphors

…every life leaves a trace, every ship a wake, and even though it was often just a glimmer of phosphorescence in the dark…

and a lot of apropos social commentary

There were no gatekeepers anymore and potentially lethal information was hemorrhaging all the time—while it had taken the Saracen two hours to locate the genome, had he been more experienced at searching the web he would have found it on a dozen biology or research sites in less than half the time. I know because I did.

and some pertinent historical context

In a process as bloody and painful as its physical counterpart, the Saracen had been born into terrorism in a windswept car park in central Jeddah. In time, out of abiding love for his father, he would grow into a passionate believer in conservative Islam, an enemy of all Western values, an avowed destroyer of the Fahd monarchy and a supporter of violent jihad. Thank you, Saudi Arabia, thank you.

One of the truisms I hold is that everything is personal, and it follows that all terrorism is home grown.

He also brings 9/11 unbearably back to mind.

…they were pulled dead from the rubble. I smelt it and lived it and tried to say some quiet words to the twenty-seven hundred souls that would never leave that place. Twenty-seven hundred people—over a thousand of whose bodies were never found. It was a wonder that any were recovered. At 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, human bone turns to ash in three hours. Fires in the World Trade Center reached 2,000 degrees and weren’t extinguished for a hundred days.

Lastly, Hayes leaves us in no doubt the Saracen is a conscienceless monster, while at the same time making us thoroughly understand him, to the extent that I felt like I needed a shower after that last scene. I didn’t want to have any sympathy for him and I’m still pissed at the Pilgrim for allowing him his escape.

I do have a few issues with the Pilgrim. I knew that he had found who he was looking for long before he did (trying not to spoil here), and since he’s the one who tells Ben in Paris that he’s hiding because he (the Pilgrim) has made enemies who will never stop looking for him, how could he not guess who the cop would call on for help? I’d been expecting that reappearance for paaaaaages and there are a lot of them. I always hate it when the plot requires the until now brilliant hero to suddenly become stupid.

Otherwise a fabulous, handsfree rollercoaster of a read. Recommended.

Book Review Monday Chatter I Am Pilgrim Terry Hayes