Terry Hayes

The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes

Monumental. Well worth the wait.
The action never ends, it glides sinuously like an unstoppable dreadnought. Hayes combines some amazing storylines, bringing them together seamlessly. And while, at about 70 odd percent I almost threw in the towel at the direction the story was taking, I persevered. And it’s a darned good thing I did, because in spite of the truly out there premise, it was so well done, so humanized and normalized it has been well worth show more the trip. And trip it was. Some amazing technological acrobatics, combined with…..let me just say some parts brought to mind the movie “Escape From New York” or Mad Max”, alongside some episodes of Star Trek. All this with a cracking good adventure/spy story.
Oh, and a love story.
Definitely a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ production. show less

I took this story slower than I normally do, not because of anything the author did wrong, but because of all he did right. The story spreads across time, crimes, and events, and even though it's alot to absorb, it never felt weighed down or boring. Even though he's a first time novelist, Mr. Hayes is no stranger to writing. He's wrote incredible action packed screenplays and hollywood blockbusters, so I'm sure it would seem an easy task to crank out a thriller full of action and a tidy bow show more of an ending. Instead he gave us a well thought out thriller that uses intelligence over explosions and guns, and gives us both a damaged and complicated hero and villain. I liked all the peripheral characters and thought he was able to turn essential pencil sketches of people into portraits without a page and a half description. They were as well thought out as his main characters. It was a gripping tale filled chockablock with subtle moments of humanity, pathos, humor, courage. Just excellent! I normally would have steered clear of a story about terrorists plots or the "spy novel" unless I knew the author in question. But I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and took a chance on this ARC. Again, just absolutely excellent! Well done Mr.Hayes! show less

This was the best "hunt and evade" thriller that I've ever read since Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal and since the latter is the best "hunt and evade" thriller ever written, guess what territory this book is in? Top of its class! And yes, I have read all of the early Thomas Harris and all of Thomas Perry which are all great in their own way, but "I Am Pilgrim" has an international scope that doesn't cheat you out of backstory and even goes down some subplot tangents that you can't show more believe will ever be tied into the main story. Terry Hayes is the new master of suspense thriller fiction. No joke. show less

A young Saudi man, radicalised by the experience of seeing his father beheaded for his iconoclastic views, grows into the world’s most fearsome terrorist — known as Saracen. Deciding to take revenge on the House of Saud, he trains as a doctor and teaches himself not only how to create smallpox in his spare room, but tweaks its genetic code to make it vaccine-resistant. He finds a way to smuggle 10,000 vials of the deadly stuff into the USA, where it will kill most Americans and (somehow) show more not leave the country, leaving the Muslim world safe.

But while testing his virus on aid workers in Afghanistan, he pauses to phone up his kid sister in Turkey to ask how his child is doing (sis is posing as the child’s mother). The phone call leads the Americans to send in a crack agent code-named Pilgrim (whose genius is revealed early on when he explains that men, unlike women, would put beer into a fridge). The book’s limited humour focuses on a hotel manager whose English is imperfect. Pilgrim calls him “the professor”, telling a friend that he’s a professor of languages. Pilgrim’s knowledge of languages is so sophisticated (as is the author’s) that he reveals that the language spoken in Lebanon is — wait for this — Lebanese.

Pilgrim’s “legend” is that he’s an American agent (yes, that’s the cover story they came up with) sent to research an unrelated murder of a wealthy American (carried out by lesbian lovers). While searching for the person who the terrorist has phoned, the American is compelled to work with a female Turkish police officer who is — brace yourself — the terrorist’s sister! And he discovers this because in the recording of the phone call between Saracen and his kid sister, he hears an incredibly rare musical instrument being played, eventually finds the player, leading to a video recording that exposes the sister …

Need I go on? This book wins my award for worst-written, most bigoted and homophobic thriller I’ve read in a while. A sequel is coming out in 2021. I know that I for one will not be buying it. show less