Read Between The Wines #2: I am Pilgrim - One of the best books I've read

Hi Steemians

In today's episode of Read Between the Wines (which is hard to do if you are on non drinking Ketosis Diet Challenge for 6 weeks) We are going to talk about the book I just finished, because, well, I love books that make you go OMG!

And I mean

OMG!!!

Now I like a good book and happy to recommend books to others but few really hit me like I Am Pilgrim.

Can you commit the perfect crime?

Pilgrim is the code-name 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 face-down 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.

The copy I had of this book ran a little over 900 pages. In my view that's an absolute tome and it's rare that a book that length would hold my attention for the duration. Usually with any book that size I'm reading bits of others in between. But I could not put this book down, and knocked it off in about three days.

The writing is tight and fast paced and not once did I feel it dragged on with unimportant information. The insight into how a terrorist is created and the methodical and educated way he goes about planning his attack is chilling.

Interestingly on most review sites people either 5 star it or 1 star it and it seems to be the same thing that makes people either love it or hate it. A number of reviewers don't like the fact that the first half of the book delves right back into the history of the terrorist - known as the Saracen and of the investigator, known as Pilgrim. I feel these are essential to the impact of the story, understanding the events that influence a young boy in Saudi Arabia to grow up and become the one of the most wanted men on earth.

It was easy to forget this book was so long and I was disappointed when it came to an end. I can only hope his next book The Year of the Locust is not too much longer in coming out (its already been 5 years since I am Pilgrim was published).

A bit about the Author:

Terry Hayes began his career as a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald, when as foreign correspondent in the US he covered Watergate and President Nixon's resignation, among many major international stories. He then went on to become a successful screenwriter. You might know his screenwriting work from such movies as

• Dead Calm with Sam Neil, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane
• The Bangkok Hilton with Nicole Kidman and Hugo Weaving (Aka Mr Smith from The Matrix)
• Vertical Limit with Bill Paxton

and of course

Mad Max: Road Warrior and Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome.

Okay now anyone who wrote Mad Max has gotta have something to offer! This guy knows Thrillers and knows Action and he puts them all together in I am Pilgrim.

Now one would think that such an esteemed screenwriter would have this ready to go to film? Well MGM bought the rights back in 2014 and we are still waiting..... hard to say if any movie is going to do the book justice though - but this would be awesome on the big screen! In fact it's almost as if the protagonist was written to be a big screen hero. And while some reviewers faulted this, there's nothing wrong with a book that reads like a big screen blockbuster. (Case in point anything by Matthew Reilly who unashamedly admits he writes as if the story is playing in his head on a movie screen)

I definitely give this 5 stars so don't be turned off by the length of the book, you won't even notice it.

Oh and before I forget I usually give a recommendation of what to imbibe while enjoying your read. Well in this case seeing that Pilgrim has quit drinking, the Saracen's religion forbids alcohol and I'm halfway through six weeks of abstaining I guess it's a nice cup of tea!

If you've read the book I'd love to hear your thoughts

Til the next adventure Steem on with Love and Light

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