I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

On the strength of it's plot, I Am Pilgrim is a very good book. I would probably give it 4 out go 5 stars. It's very good but not brilliant. Unlike many of those who've reviewed it so far, I wouldn't describe it as mould breaking or particularly original. The main plot revolves around an intelligence agent chasing a jihadi intent on unleashing a deadly biological weapon in the United States. There's a strong subplot involving a murder which has to be solved. Good, strong stuff, but nothing that hasn't been done before.

Having said that there are two things which elevate this book above the norm. The first is the writing. It's very well written, though it's first person - unusual in this type of international spy fiction. I think the reason books like this are normally third person is because when writing a story in first person everything has to be known to the narrator (or how else could the story be told in his voice). There are parts of this book where this is a little problematic. For example, when narrating the activities of the jihadi in Afghanistan, it's not really explained how the narrator would know it all. But the author pulls this off with enough panache to allow the reader to ignore this little quibble.

The most impressive thing about this novel however is it's structure. It's basically a masterclass in how to write a long novel  - 704 pages - without dragging and having the reader get bored. How the author does this is by alternating between the main plot (the impending terrorist attack) and the subplot (the murder investigation). Terry Hayes judges well when he's dedicated a large enough section to each and then switches. He continues this throughout the book and thus avoids the problem that many novels have where the middle goes on to long. That's a problem that can be particularly pronounced in longer novels but at no point while reading this book did I want it to end or feel that it could have been shorter, which just goes to show his skill.

The book was slightly spoilt by the end for me - without giving away spoilers, there's a scene in cave complex where mobile phone reception isn't a problem and I just thought, 'really? They can get cell phone reception down there?' But part of the reason this so annoyed me is that the rest of the books is so good.

All in all I would give this 4 out of 5 stars.

The Perfect Kill by Robert Baer

This is an exceptional non-fiction book, if a very odd one. It professes to be a history of assassination, complete with pithy rules, almost a guidebook for someone wanting to embark on a career in political murder.

But truth is that's just a device, a hook to embark on what the book really is which is an account of Baer's experiences and activities as a CIA case officer in the Lebanon and a biography/history of his nemesis at the time: Imad Fayez Mughniyeh.

For political/current affairs geeks like myself, Mughniyeh is infamous, a pre-9/11 Shi'ite bogeyman almost akin to the Sunni Osama bin Laden. One thing that is quite galling is that after introducing us to Mughniyeh, Baer insists on spending the rest of the book referring to him as Hajj Radian. It's never really adequately explained why he does this. But this is a minor quibble and his account of Mughniyeh and his activities is extremely informative and, in my opinion, better than you'll get anywhere else. Baer really seems to understand the man he chased for so long, has a good albeit self-confessed limited understanding of his psyche (which is to expected as they never met and Mughniyeh was never caught) and a good understanding of his modus operandi.

In fact so strong is his account of this little known and little understood terrorist that in some ways I wish he had just written a straight biography. He would then have been able to spend the entire book on Mughniyeh and the Lebanon.

As it is the book is sold as a book on assassination and thus Baer has to widen his net. While occasionally he's in danger of rambling when he goes off the core subject, most of his wider account is still very readable and interesting. He gives a vivid account of an ETA assassination and an IRA one, while his critique of US drone strikes is right on the mark. But it is in the Lebanese sections that the book really shines and one gets the feeling that Baer really enjoyed his work for the CIA in the Lebanon and fell in love with the country. 

All in all I would give this book 4 stars. 

Thanks to Orion for the review copy.

Perfidia by James Ellroy

Firstly let me say that I am a fan of James Ellroy, a real fan. While his LA Quartet is amazing, in my humble opinion it was with the Underworld USA Trilogy that he really set the standard. And that's partly the problem. I remember reading an interview with him where he said that he would never go back to writing straight crime, that having written a hidden history of America, his work would always be political. In Perfidia he tries to have his cake and eat it. It's a crime novel, harking back to the LA Quartet, with many of the quartets characters returning, but with a political side, in this case the internment of the Japanese after Pearl Harbour. I'm sorry to say that for me the combination just didn't work.

While Perfidia is a good novel, it felt like Ellroy was struggling with the weight of the Underworld USA Trilogy, like he was trying to match the achievement. The result is a flabby novel that just goes on far tool long. Unlike some of his earlier works the tale just didn't seem strong enough to sustain a 740 page novel.

And perhaps it was this that made me notice something that I have never noticed with Ellroy before: all the characters speak the same. Not just in dialogue but in internal monologue. As I say, I don't know if this is the case in his earlier novels or if they have just been so good that I didn't notice. But in Perfidia I just couldn't help it. Everyone speaks in this weird way. A typical line of dialogue, regardless of which character is speaking, will be: "Extrapolate please, Mr X, and don't hold back on extraneous prejudice." People just don't speak like this, except perhaps, in an episode of Star Trek. One character speaking/thinking like this might be acceptable, but all of them?

James Ellroy has certainly earned the right for one dud novel to be ignored, and this isn't a complete failure. Apparently this is the start of a new quartet and I will read the next novels, not least in the hope that he rediscovers his mojo.

I give this three stars.

Thanks to Net Galley for the review copy.

The Killing of Karen Silkwood

Ok, this is an investigation into the death, possible murder, of the trade union and nuclear safety activist Karen Silkwood. We all know the film, right? With Meryl Streep? Well, where that film gripped this just sends one to sleep.

Don't get me wrong the story is good. Here was a union activist, drawing attention to really appalling safety violations in a nuclear plant. She allegedly got hold of some dynamite files that would have blown the lid off the plant (excuse the pun when plutonium is concerned) only to die in a very mysterious car wreck on the way to deliver those documents which were never found.

So what's the problem? Unfortunately, the writer of this account appears to have done no research into the case themselves. Instead we're treated to a long winded account of the various civil actions taken on behalf of Silkwood's family against the company. If you've ever sat through a trial you'll know how mind numbingly boring they often are and Richard Raske does little to bring proceedings to life.

I'm sorry, I really wanted to like this book, I really did. But instead of being gripped my an apparent injustice, I found myself near sedated.

I give this two stars.

Into a Raging blaze

Thanks to NetGalley for review copy

This is a hard book to review. In some ways it's a three star read, while in others it's five star.

Firstly the negatives. The translation just isn't great and in places leads to the prose being stilted and halting. While I was given a review copy and some grammatical mistakes are to be expected,  I think that this was a more fundamental issue and was not just something a little more editing would fix. The story itself is also just too long. The author could have told his tale in two thirds the length and if he had done so it would have been a sharper and edgier tale.

Then there's an element I was simultaneously happy and unhappy with. The plot takes place within the byzantine world of the EU. Obviously some context is needed here and the author provides it in spades. As somebody generally interested in politics I was fine with this, in fact I feel I learnt something of the inner workings of the European Union, but I imagine many readers would find it a turn off.

Which finally leads me to the positives. Without giving away too many spoilers, the plot itself is strong and mirrors much of what later came out through the Edward Snowden saga about the NSA. I particularly enjoyed the portrayal of the British intelligence services and felt that the general cynicism and amorality of the intelligence world was pitch perfect. As the author used to work in this field himself it was all too convincing.

I would definitely read more of this author's work but think that next time his publishers need to guide him a little more.

I give this three stars.

An American Outlaw

I picked this up having spoken to the author via Twitter. To be honest I was a little hesitant. I wasn't sure it was going to be my cup of tea at all. But in the end I was glad I did.

Basic storyline is ex-US marine and Iraq vet goes on a robbery spree to raise money for his team mates who came back traumatised and generally f***ed up by their wartime experiences. Throughout the book there's a recurring theme that society doesn't adequately look after it's veterans. This leads the reader to have a natural empathy with the protagonist. But the author also introduces us to a likeable antagonist, a US Marshall who's job it is to hunt this team of rogue US marines down. By the end I found myself kinda cheering for both of them, which gave the novel extra depth.

This could so easily have been a generic heist story, hence my hesitation. While the whole feel-sorry-for-the-vets thing could so easily have been laid on with a trowell. But the author's undoubted skill ensures that we avoid the world of cliché. The characters are well drawn and their motivations adequately explained. The tension is ramped up throughout the course of the narrative but it's not simply bang bang and lots of explosions.

On a technical level I noticed few spelling or grammatical mistakes, so rare in this age of ebooks where novels, particularly those self-published, are increasingly released without proper editing.

I have two minor quibbles which make this a four star review rather than a five star one. Firstly, one way the marines are tracked is via their use of their own service weapons. It's never adequately explained why they would use their own weapons, especially in the Southern states where guns are easy to come by. Why not just buy guns on the black market? Or use a false ID in a gun store? Secondly, the main protagonist is incredibly careful not to kill anyone. Despite being a combat veteran of the US marines, having fought through a bloody ambush in Iraq and come out traumatised, we're expected to believe that he would be unprepared to take life even when his back is to the wall? I understand why the author did this, he wanted us not to fall out of love with the character. But I felt it stretched credulity just a little far.

Having said that, all in all this was a very good book. The author is certainly someone to watch. I would definitely read more of his work.

4 out of 5 stars.

The Deep by Nick Cutter

This is outstandingly good, one of the best novels I have read in a long time. As the blurb at the back of the book says, it's kind of The Abyss (it's set on a deep ocean base at the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean with all the mystery and oppressive atmosphere that being at the bottom of the sea entails) with The Shining (they're cut off from society and people start to get cabin fever and go mental, or do they?). As one would expect from a book like this, there's a heavy mix of the supernatural, of demonic goings on, and as with The Shining you're never sure how much is in the characters' heads and how much is real.

While the plot is good, it's not outstandingly original. What raises this novel up from the usual is the writing. Quite simply the author's writing is superlative. He has a real ability to describe something deeply with a turn of phrase, to charge events with real emotion. Without giving too much away there's a scene where a child disappears and its quite simply haunting.

The author also has a way of keeping the narrative flowing. In many novels the character's back story is explained in clunky prose. Not in this novel. I found flashbacks and memories seamlessly integrated into the main narrative of the novel in a way that many novelists fail to do.

When I googled the author I wasn't surprised to find that he's also a literature novelist (it's an open secret on the net who he is and indeed he does little to hide his true identity). I would certainly read more of his work across genres.

Five Stars.