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I Am Pilgrim: A Thriller
I Am Pilgrim: A Thriller
I Am Pilgrim: A Thriller
Audiobook22 hours

I Am Pilgrim: A Thriller

Written by Terry Hayes

Narrated by Christopher Ragland

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

“I Am Pilgrim is simply one of the best suspense novels I’ve read in a long time.” —David Baldacci, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“A big, breathless tale of nonstop suspense.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“The pages fly by ferociously fast. Simply unputdownable.” —Booklist

A breakneck race against time…and an implacable enemy.

An anonymous young woman murdered in a run-down hotel, all identifying characteristics dissolved by acid.

A father publicly beheaded in the blistering heat of a Saudi Arabian public square.

A notorious Syrian biotech expert found eyeless in a Damascus junkyard.

Smoldering human remains on a remote mountainside in Afghanistan.

A flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity.

One path links them all, and only one man can make the journey.

Pilgrim.

Editor's Note

A blockbuster thriller…

Screenwriter Terry Hayes’ debut novel is a blockbuster thriller that will have you reading for hours on end, perhaps with a bucket of popcorn in hand. A pedal-to-the-metal cat-and-mouse chase around the world.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 27, 2014
ISBN9781442369085
Author

Terry Hayes

Terry Hayes is the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Pilgrim and The Year of the Locust and is the award-winning writer and producer of numerous movies. His credits include Payback, Road Warrior, and Dead Calm (featuring Nicole Kidman). He lives in Switzerland with his wife, Kristen, and their four children.

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Reviews for I Am Pilgrim

Rating: 4.061299176578225 out of 5 stars
4/5

1,093 ratings112 reviews

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  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This particular download had audio blank spots every 5 or so minutes .. play continued with no audible but story picks up again a minute or two later

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Audiobook cuts stops before the story does. You can't finish the novel as an audiobook. Stops midway through Part 2, Chapter 43, which the audiobook's Table of Contents claims is Chapter 72.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Absolutely loved this. The narrator was so good at the different voices and accents! Also loved the speed he read. I usually have to speed them up but not this one. I was very impressed. The story itself starts slow but about 100 pages in it really takes off and you get sucked right in. Great book. Great narration. 5/5
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Awesome story! So much going on that I sometimes got lost. But no matter it is a story that is timely, converting n worth the time.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Astonishing. And frightening. Could such a thing be possible? We’ll written with many twists and turns. An enthralling story, and great narration. Highly recommended.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Characters were true to life, plot was somewhat realistic. Great!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Probably the longest novel I've read. Wonderful story telling and I love how the book gives the reader the opportunity to know each of its characters in depth.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In some ways this was as exciting of a thriller as I have ever read. There are sentences, even paragraphs, in this book that lay out why the protagonist became an intelligence officer and why the terrorist became a terrorist that are full of insights that are rarely found in the suspense genre. The explanations for their actions after they fell into their roles are also just amazing. Put simply, as great as the story is, the characterization is even better. The only area where the book falls down for me is there is some unbelievability in the abilities of each of the two main characters to do what they do. Even so, I would still give this book 5 stars, because of what it does so well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the most gripping books I have read in years. A great story written by a great storyteller.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Author ties up all loose ends amazingly. Great read. Great
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Tons of ups and downs twists and turns. Loved it
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    If you think Dan Brown is a good writer, this book is for you. Personally I found the writing to be sophomoric and hyperbolic. Every action is slammed, raced, teeth clenched; and the most extreme of what ever that action can be. The world doesn’t function this way and I found it exhausting. Thanks.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    One of the best thriller books I've ever read a real page-turner and a great story
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a big read at 700 plus pages, and a pretty solid first up effort from Australia's Terry Hayes, after a handy career as a TV writer. While ostensibly focused, initially at least on the brutal murder of a young woman in a Manhattan hotel, the story takes a big shift to Saudi Arabia, and a public beheading of a man witnessed by his young son. From there the son morphs into a would-be terrorist, with big ambitions to wreak havoc on the USA. Trying to catch him before his evil plan comes to fruition is the task bestowed by the White House to the man of many aliases whose additional claim to fame is a textbook that has become renowned in the wider investigative community as the bible. This murky character unravels the mystery of the would-be mass murderer, but can he get to him in time. A well constructed thriller, paced well, and brought to a believable conclusion.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    What a supplice! 900 pages of a narcissistic tales sprinkled with xenophobia, islamophobia, and casual racism.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My favorite book of the year, maybe of the past five years. You MUST read this book. It’s smart, taut, entertaining, gripping and everything you want in a book. But I almost didn’t get through the first chapter due to the graphic crime details. I got through it and I’m SO glad I did. (if you’re a bit squeamish, fast forward through that part)
    Prepare yourself to be entertained for 21 glorious hours! Lastly, the narrator embodies Pilgrim or Scott and he was so perfect that I will seek out other books he has narrated.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great book I loved it could not put it down.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book was great! Action packed from the beginning and kept me very interested. I hope more of his work gets added to Scribd.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I don’t know how to explain this book. I think it was written for another Audience so not sure how I should rate it. It is in fact a fast paced thriller. However, I did not like the main character, he is very conceited, misogynist, and racist?! Everything was “in retrospect, I should have noticed this…that…etc”. He is super lucky and not really plans things even when the future of humanity is riding on his shoulders. Well that’s my bit. Bye.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a thick book but I enjoyed it. Could have been slightly shorter but the author says at the end that he wanted to write the sort of book he likes - fair enough. And I ended up looking up certain aspects of the plot to see if they were feasible - and the ones I looked up seemed to be.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Big long book this. Pilgrim real name is Scott Murdoch he is secret service special agent. He has kind of retired after he wrote a best selling book about Criminal Psychology. He is hunted down in Paris by a NYPD Detective called Bradley who needs him to help with unsolved Murder. He reluctantly agrees to help. Also there is an Islamic fundalmentalist in Afghanistan who wants to unleash a Smallpox virus in the States. Pilgrim is sent over to Turkey as cover to solve a murder he figures it out and also discovers the Police Detective is the sister of Saracen who is creating the virus. Lots of cunning plans and undercover work to lure out the Saracen and stop deadly virus. Good book didnt have to be as long though.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It has been a long time since I read a thriller and this one does not disappoint. Action packed from the start, it never lets up. Hard to put down and the whole story seems believable. Well written. When does the movie come out?
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Wow, most people seem to love this. I got about 20 pages in. The few negatives reviews are right. Seemed dumb to me. This is not Ludlum-esue, nor is it "the only thriller you need to read this year". I was sucked in by the marketing hyperbole, wanted to like toe book, but was sadly disappointed. If you think this book sounds good, read Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews instead. Now that's a spy thriller.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I listened to the audiobook version of the book in my car, and although it was long, the pace and intensity kept me intrigued. I rarely rate books this high, and I understand that other readers do not share my opinion. However, the author's characters and how he outlined their version of events in alternating segments created tension and intrigue. Particularly toward the end of the book, I was so caught up in the fast-paced drama, that, like another reader described, I felt like I was holding my breath and was on the edge of my seat. Unlike some of the genre, the ending seemed fitting and complete. When the reader started the acknowledgements, my reaction was "that was a d--n good book.

    Of course, a good narrator is essential for any audiobook.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Oh boy. Such a know and can it all main character. US glorifying. Borderline racism. I can see Tom Cruise in the title role.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    solid thriller. good characters. A little over-written a times, and a bit longer than necessary in spots.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Got to about page 90 and gave up, the plot being much too far-fetched for me and the main (eponymous "I") character grossly overwritten. I guess I might have read it on holiday with few other choices about, but I simply don't understand how this has had such rave reviews.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A page turning espionage tale, well spun! The plot built tension slowly and steadily. The story ends in a gripping climax. Can a spy be moral? How much can a human endure? It's up to you to find your own answers. It is also a tale of revenge, and the incredible hatred felt by many Arabs towards the interference of the United States. Good blend of action, intellect & morality tale.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    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) 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.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Where to start talking about this book?

    Well, I didn’t get off to a great start with it, because something about it style of writing just didn’t agree with me. And then in chapter three someone was described as having an “Asian accent”, and that threw me out of the book as I wondered what exactly that was… That was followed by "a Chinese-American, who everyone called Bruce, for obvious reasons" and I almost noped out of there then, because, what now? I get the Bruce Lee reference, but what was the obvious reason? and if he was the “Asian” guy from earlier, now identified as Chinese American why would he have this Asian accent.

    So right from the start I wasn’t enamored with this book. But it was my book club’s selection, and I had heard so many people say how great it was that I decided I had to keep reading.

    And, apart from the obvious anti-Islam((all Muslims are extremists, that sort of thing)) slant of the novel I didn’t notice a huge amount more((he does describe Edmund Burke as British at one stage. He was Irish, but I suppose I’ll allow that as Ireland was part of the British Empire at the time)) , but then again maybe I just wasn’t paying a huge amount of attention, because this is a huge book filled with a huge amount of information and data that the reader doesn’t really need to know. I think maybe you could have edited half the detail out and it still would have worked. It reminded me a lot of Tom Clancy’s style of writing, where every last technical details must be described in way too much detail; and I’ve already read his ebola-terrorism story so maybe I just didn’t need another bioterrorism warning at the moment.

    That being said, it is an easy read, if you skim those bits of needless data, which I did from time to time. I also skimmed some of the torture bits because I really don’t need to know how it feels to have my eyeballs cut out.

    But that brings me to another issue with the book. The narrator. Or just who is telling the story. Because it starts out as a first person narrator, and then he is the one telling us all these other bits and pieces of the story as his investigation uncovers and reveals the truth, but that is just preposterous. How on earth could this narrator know even half of what his narration revealed. And every time I’d wonder that it would pull me out of the story.

    So I guess I didn’t really enjoy this book all that much. It felt very much like I’d seen this book before and really, do we need another story where a brilliant white male loner saves the world from evil brown people. I’m not objecting to books about investigating terrorism and extremist groups, but maybe have a bit of nuance in your depiction of people rather than sunglasses on a woman are enough to turn you to the dark side1

    There is supposed to be a sequel out at some point, but I can’t see myself picking that one up. As for the promised film adaptations, a whole series of films is the plan so I’ve read. Thats a doubtful hmmmm from me.