Name: I Am Pilgrim
Rating: 4.045112781954887 (133 reviews)
ISBN: 9781439177723

Terry Hayes

The film writer for Bangkok Hilton presents a debut thriller that traces a collision between two geniuses, including a tortured hero and a determined terrorist, in the aftermath of a murder that a world-class secret agent discovers has been conducted according to his own forensic techniques to hide the victim's identity.

A Thriller

I Am Pilgrim

Very striking ideas and some amazing action scenes, but an insufferable main character. The relationships between the characters needed to be better developed and have depth. Also the whole book was obsessed with shoving US-centrism down your throat.  

Eva de Jong

Luke Harkness

A very good thriller that encorporates a murderer mystery and a plot to destroy America into one. There's not a vast amount of action, it's now asking the lines of a detective book. Just with more badassery.

Daniel Toke Hansen

Magnificent story telling and true page turner. Couldn't stop listening to this audio book and the author keept surprising me throughout the journey to find the answers that would prevent a global pandemic.

Matthew Royal

Did not finish. Not impressed with the author's internal narrative -- it's shallow and stupid, despite attempting to be the inner thoughts of the "genius" detective. Very demeaning to women in an "in-cel" sort of way, and worse: Terry Hayes shows us he can't put himself in someone else's perspective. 

I can't imagine anyone besides other dirty old men enjoying this book.

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.

Cindy McKee

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 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!

Todd Luallen

I really wish there were some sort of rating system for books, because every now and then I come across a book that has content in it that I would prefer not to read. This is one of those books. I don't like reading about detailed medical procedures, they make me squeamish. I also prefer not to read books with foul language, and this book had it's fair share of it. However, in spite of those issues, this book was definitely a thrill ride. And I think I enjoy long books a bit more because the author has more time to build the characters. This book was just over 700 pages, and so it's no surprise that I really felt like I knew the characters intimately. I doubt I'll continue the series, for the reasons already mentioned, but I do think thriller fans will enjoy it.

Cams Campbell

A gripping spy thriller to rival Ludlum. Well written and well researched, with the exception of some to the tech. Hard drives spinning faster and going into the red? Sounds like it was written with one eye on a movie adaptation.

Lauren M

I loved this book. Very long, but it was addictive and I couldn’t put it down. Loved the characters and the storyline.

Still waiting on the sequel, I pre-ordered it years ago but I’m still really looking forward to it arriving. 

Somya

A fast-paced story with a gineous storyline. Similar to Dan Brown, but better.

Lucija

I got this book at a second-hand shop and it is clear to me why that was the case. Here on good reads are the opinion fairly split some are saying it's the best book they have ever read and the other half not even picked the book up again after half of the book.

The book is split into 4 parts and contains several flashbacks, in the course of the book the protagonist, who is known by several names because of his profession as a top spy, hunts the villain, who wants to end the USA with a virus.

I have tried to summarize the plot as neutral as I can but I have found the book unbearable, down here I have listed the reasons for my bad opinion of the book:

-the narrative is weirdly structured, it switches between a first-person narrative and a sort of all-knowing 3 person narrative, which later is said to be the protagonist narrating but it was so detailed and even included thoughts and actions no one would share

-the character of the protagonist itself:
The character is very 2 dimensional and is perceived by everyone else as the best spy etc., even though he makes a lot of mistakes over the book and even goes in a book he published loosely under a dead name into detail about his childhood. The character has no emotions, even though someone calls him too emotional. The only time he feels emotions is mourning the death of genocides like the Holocaust or 9/11, which is hopefully a mutual feeling among humans. He also threatens that a person would get raped under his command and describes women weirdly like describing their breasts and ass in detail. Most of the times I only skimmed through his chapters because the narration of the villain was just more entertaining.

-the length of the book:
a lot of the pages could have been reduced significantly, with the first murder having nearly no significance to the plot except introducing a characters that could just be cut from the beginning, a lot of his backstory in general could have been cut as well because one really can't feel that it shaped the character of the protagonist in any way

-the American propaganda and stereotypes:
America is presented as the only functional country and even though the protagonist mentions some of the bad things of American Intelligence, it never goes into detail about them; 
A lot of side characters or one time characters from different countries are presented as stereotypes as example the criminal family from Greece, the corrupt banker from Swiss or the Slavic pickpocketing couple

-Islamophobe:
There is no doubt that the author made a lot of research concerning the Arabic culture and Islam but it is unbearable to read with what disrespect of it it's presented. First of all the villain is a proud Muslim from Saudi Arabia, how original is that? I won't go into further detail because I as a none Muslim person can't truly judge the extend of it int his book, but it was significantly the most uncomfortable thing in the whole book.

Summary:
I found reading the book at times very uncomfortable, because of the reasons I listen above. The only light in the dark was that when I am through with the book I can give a bad review. If the reasons I listed don't seem like a turnoff and you are comfortable enough reading it through, I was fairly disappointed tho, seeing the many recommendations in the book alone calling it the best thriller they have read tho year/ ever. So if you want to see what the fuss is all about and the one-star reviews didn't stop you, read it.

Ps.: My cover of the book will go back to a secondhand shop tho.

Imzy

You can kill a thinker but you can't kill the thought.

Well this was a monster of a book.

On one hand I wanted to give it 5 stars because of the amazingly emaculate storytelling and the structure of the book, but on the other hand I wanted to give it one stars for the very blatant Islamaphobia. There were so many false sterotypes tied into the story to explain the characters' actions, at moments it became hard to read.

However, if you're able to ignore all of that and not take personal offense to it all, I think this book is quite amazing. The amount of research that Hayes most certainly had to do must have been alot. The story leaves out nothing. It shows the background and life story of the antagonist. It shows several different cases being solved along with the main big case. It was so well paced, and we got the 
  whole story
. With nothing left out. I don't think I've ever read such a full book before. 

I recommend this book to those who like a slow paced well developed crime thriller

Can you commit the perfect crime? Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn�e(tm)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 �e" 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.

Amy Buckle

This book was bought as a present for me from the lovely @thehelsproject. This is her favourite book, so it had a lot to live up to when I started reading! It was intimidating to pick up as it’s almost 900 pages, so I knew I had to be committed. I Am Pilgrim is a... read the full review here: https://www.amybucklesbookshelf.co.uk...

I Am Pilgrim A Thriller

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