I Am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes

On September 12, 2011 ‘Scott Murdoch’ retires. He is one of the best covert intelligence agents the US has ever had but the upcoming war on terror renders his skills useless. ‘Murdoch’ slips away to Paris and starts a new life, writing a book under the pseudonym Jude Garrett. The book brings resourceful NYPD detective Ben Bradley into his life and not long after he’s recruited to find a cleanskin, codenamed Saracen, this man has no country, no allegiance and one goal; to bring down the ‘far enemy’. If he succeeds, he’ll make 9/11 look like a church picnic. All ‘Murdoch’ has is snippets of a satellite phone call, his tradecraft and his codename ‘Pilgrim’.

Fasting moving and chillingly plausible, Hayes delivers a thrilling debut.