AUTHOR: Terry Hayes
Written a dozen years go, this novel about a bioterrorist feels relevant today, and even more plausible. The narrator is a one-time top operative for the US government who has been brought back to hunt down the terrorist he dubs the Saracen.
The book opens with what appears to be a perfect murder, then switches to the past to fill in the narrator's backstory, and then details everything learned about the bioterrorist, with the many elements in the book coming together in predictable and not so predictable ways. Overall, the plotting is well done, though I do wonder how the narrator learned some of the details he relates about the Saracen.
The writing is smooth, and highly detailed -- in one instance, rather than a single sentence saying the terrorist filled a syringe, we get a 5-6 sentence paragraph detailing the process of filling the syringe -- which adds to the substantial page count. The straightforward style and steady pacing kept my interest throughout.
Reading an older book gives the advantage of a lot of reviews to look at. As has become my habit, I checked reviews on Library Thing and GoodReads and found many 5-star and 1- and 2-star reviews but almost none in the middle. The negative reviews mostly cited stereotypical characters and descriptions, and I can see that. The Saracen is an Arab born in Saudi Arabia, female characters are mostly described as stunning, and so on, and if that sort of thing bothers you, you might want to pass on this, but that's a small part of the book which has a compelling story to tell.
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